[MLB-WIRELESS] Fwd: [mesh] WOAH!

[KevinL]

On Sun, 2002-06-30 at 15:55, Barry Park wrote:
> It won't work.
> 
> Why? Because how is MelbWireless going to control who has access to it and
> who does not? Who pays it and what happens to MelbWireless people who do
> not? Who's responsible if MelbWireless can't make a payment? Is MelbWireless
> going to become a system based on the haves and the have nots?

These questions are answerable - and I suspect if melb-wireless were
interested in dragging bandwidth in and distributing it to it's members,
people would stick their hands up to manage the above issues (hint: 
there's at least one person on this list who already works with traffic
counting and billing systems for wireless networks and has previously
expressed an interest in helping melb-wireless build such for
themselves...)

> 
> FFS if you want broadband Internet, pay for it yourself and sell all your
> wireless gear, cos wireless community intranets ain't broadband Internet.

True enough - but community wireless with Internet added for those who
want to pay for it, could be a very nice add.

Think of it like this:  Someone drags the 'net access in.  They place a
login/traffic counting "barrier machine" on that link - if you want to
use the 'net traffic, you login to that machine, it sets you up with
either tunneled access or NAT or whatever, for a particular length of
time.  At a single point of access, it's trivial to count packets and
bill people either in advance or in arrears - for a community group,
up-front payment (ie. buying your Mb before you use them) probably makes
the most sense.

Then, no matter which node you're in, you can login to the 'net access
point and drag Internet traffic down to your machine.  If you don't want
it, then that's cool too - just don't use it.

Even if it's not a huge bandwidth, it strikes me as a damned cool idea. 
Don't write it off yet ;)

The biggest problem I see is, as always, the legality - there's nothing
changed there yet.

KJL


To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo at wireless.org.au
with "unsubscribe melbwireless" in the body of the message