EFF And Others Push For Open Wifi APs Everywhere

netbuzz writes "Forging ahead with an initiative that proved controversial when introduced last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and nine other groups today are advancing the Open Wireless Movement to encourage ubiquitous sharing of Internet access. 'We envision a world where sharing one's Internet connection is the norm,' said EFF Activist Adi Kamdar, in a press release. 'A world of open wireless would encourage privacy, promote innovation, and benefit the public good, giving us network access whenever we need it. And everyone — users, businesses, developers, and Internet service providers — can get involved to help make it happen.'"

Re:First...

[ls671]

Forget about QoS, qdisc with htb for example work fine for that use case. You need to use queues, QoS typically only works on your LAN if your devices honor it. Most providers do not care about the QoS flags you set. Sometimes, setting QoS flags have the opposite effect than one might expect once the packet on your provider side. I do not bother setting QoS flags.

I started to use queues to enhance VOIP calls and it works perfectly. I then extended it for all kind of use cases, sharing a connection being one of them. Understanding how IP works helps a lot in managing this. /sbin/tc qdisc add dev $DEV root handle 1: htb default 0x10
etc...

see: man tc (traffic control)

Re:They're forgetting existing law.

[Anonymous Coward]

The man in Florida was arrested for unauthorized access to a network or computer, a felony. When you deliberately open up your network for others to use their access is authorized and the law doesn't apply.

Re:No.

[sjames]

It'll never happen though, what's to stop all the neighborhood leeches from freeloading off my cable modem and save themselves $50 a month?

Your ability to throttle or ban them at any time for any reason at all including amusement.

HADOPI

[manu0601]

The MPAA/RIAA will fight that like hell. They probably already have a law for that just waiting to be lobbied through congress. In France, they managed Sarkozy's governement to pass HADOPI [wikipedia.org], which include a 1500 euros fine for unsecured WiFi access. Of course this is just unaplicable, and nobody has been convicted yet despite country-wide law violations, but still, they have a weapon.