Wireless Nomad Slashdotted

We've always wanted to be slashdotted, but feared the consequences for the Gentoo servers at Peer1... if WiFi login is a bit slow today, this is probably why!

"Canadian ISP Co-Op Shows Upside of Line Sharing"

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday October 12, @10:38PM
from the grass-roots-muni-wifi dept.

Golden Gael writes "The FCC got rid of mandatory line sharing in the US a few years ago, but it's alive and kicking in Canada, and an interesting article at Ars Technica looks at what can happen when there's vibrant broadband competition. 'Wireless Nomad does things a little differently. The company is subscriber-owned, volunteer-run, and open-source friendly. It offers a neutral Internet connection with no bandwidth caps or throttling, and it makes a point of creating wireless access points at the end of each DSL connection that can be used, for free, by the public. Bell Canada this is not.' The ISP has some ambitious plans for the future, including getting involved in WiMAX."


LINK to Slashdot story

Everyone's Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship

From BoingBoing:

"The Citizen Lab has a new anti-censorware guide, "Everyone's Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide." The 31-page PDF covers a lot of ground, with material for anti-censorware activists and users, and is very handsomely put together."


LINK

Wireless Nomad in ArsTechnica

Nate Anderson at ArsTechnica has done a great piece on our efforts to "Stick it to l'homme"... Access to incumbent carrier's lines is a real hot-button issue in the US, mainly because they don't have it, like we do here in Canada, and the American part of the internet is suffering for it.

The only thing I would add to Mr. Anderson's work is that we're at Linux Caffe by choice, because it's a cool place... OLPCs, Penguins, WRTs, and grilled cheese all in one. And in this case, Wireless Nomad is my father's ISP-- he was subscriber #3, even though he didn't know it at the time!

"Sticking it to l'homme: Canadian co-op forms own ISP"
By Nate Anderson | Published: October 10, 2007 - 11:58PM CT

Not your father's ISP

Some ISPs simply discourage end users from offering WiFi connections to neighbors; most explicitly rule it out in their terms of service. But a small Canadian ISP called Wireless Nomad actually requires it.

Nomad does things a little differently. The company is subscriber-owned, volunteer-run, and open-source friendly. It offers a neutral Internet connection with no bandwidth caps or throttling, and it makes a point of creating wireless access points at the end of each DSL connection that can be used, for free, by the public. Bell Canada this is not."

Check out the full story at:


LINK to ArsTechinica

Mutiny on the Meraki: Google-backed Firm Ups Prices, Changes Features, Requires Ads

It looks like open-source, user-driven mesh networking and WiFi LANs are more relevant than ever. If Meraki (backed by Google) has given in to temptation, there's not much hope for other companies to resist dictating terms to their user base, either.

Glenn Fleishman writes:

"Meraki has changed its pricing and feature model for its mesh networking system, angering early users: Exiting its beta, Meraki has changed its pricing and service model, while requiring the display of advertising and a piece of the action for handling billing. This abrupt change, announced quietly last week, has resulted in a nascent networker revolt. It may be that early infrastructure builders abandon Meraki because to continue expanding networks, their cost structure has gone way up while control has gone way down."



LINK

Monthly Meeting this Wednesday!

Monthly Meeting this Wednesday!

Monthly Meeting Wednesday 10 October 2007

What: Wireless Nomad Monthly Meeting!


When: Wednesday 10 October 2007 at 7:00PM-9:00PM
Where: Linux Caffe
326 Harbord Street
Toronto ON M6G 3A4
416-534-2116