[1] https://github.com/seattlemeshnet/meshbox
[2] https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns/tree/master/tunnel
[3] Desktop/Server Linuxes, Android, OpenWRT, OSX, FreeBSD. Even Windows support is being worked on.
cjdns will never be a workable solution for the general public, and I wish people would stop recommending it.
I disagree...I believe in its current state it is not catering to the general public, but it's basically alpha software with a small bootstrapped network. Long-term, the idea is to make things more user friendly and appeal to a wider audience, but it's inaccurate to say it will "never be workable". Recommending it to a highly-technical targeted audience like HN seems entirely appropriate.
* I run 4 cjdns nodes
"Someone's been committing crimes from your network."
"It must be someone using my open wireless point."
"Sorry to bother you sir, have a nice day."
I agree with you that the authorities aren't likely to treat individuals as well as they do businesses (at least in most countries). But the fact that they're already not gonna put a Starbucks manager in jail because someone did something illegal from Starbucks wifi -- suggests to me that there is an opening to agitate for individuals being treated with similar respect. The Open Wireless project clearly aims to make open wireless a normal and expected thing, so that legal norms will have to follow, and there will be political pressure for them to do so.
But yeah, I think it's as much of a social project as a technological one, which they seem to acknowledge in their self-description.
Do you or I have the legal representation of Starbucks corporate?
But I wonder whether it'd be possible to route all guests to Tor.
Edit: Comcast is planning to open all home routers in Houston, unless users opt out. The justice system might just have to get used to this.
http://slashdot.org/story/14/06/10/1751255/comcast-convertin...
In Germany this defense wouldn't really help you much. You're (partially) responsible for the crimes that are committed over your unsecured network. It's called "Mitstörerhaftung".
That kind of changes the math a bit. I don't want a dozen people torrenting off my network, not because I'm afraid of getting in trouble, but because it degrades my ability to use my network.
Is that legally enforceable? They have a search warrant, not a warrant for your arrest. How are they in a position to demand you leave the premises?
That's some scary stuff either way, thanks for sharing.
Under the status quo, if I'm desperate for Internet I make a gut decision on how trustworthy I think the nearest random open network is based on the context of my present situation. If openwireless becomes the default, I might decide that in this random small town coffee shop, openwireless is probably trustworthy and associate with it. I do my business and leave. Then, I could be walking through an airport and pass someone who's set up a malicious base station using the openwireless SSID. My device could associate with it and put me at risk without me even knowing.
Don't rely on SSID for security. Rely on SSL/TLS and certificate pinning.
How about WiMax?
How about asking the ISPs to implement the free WiFi and flat subscription rates with no tiers?
How about asking the mobile companies that already cover urban areas to make HSDPA/UMTS/LTE free?
Plenty of more efficient ways to do this than this open network movement. And yet you're asking the individual who has like the smallest bandwidth fraction of all these players and the one one who pays the most per MB of bandwidth to make it free? Not. gonna. happen.
The only use that I see for a standard-password approach is that it would circumvent some ISPs' terms of service that say you can't run an open network. But even then, a court may find that a closed network with a password like `openwireless` (i.e. as part of OpenWireless.org) is an "open network" anyway.
That's why they say:
> We're working with a coalition of volunteer engineers to build technologies that will let users open their wireless networks without compromising their security or sacrificing bandwidth.
There are a variety of technological solutions possible, many of which could be implemented in firmware (see OpenWRT). I'd guess if we dig deeper on their website, we might get to their tech plans; I am not familiar with them specifically.
Although, honestly, if you're counting on nobody being able to sniff your traffic in transit for security, you don't have enough security anyway. But still, yeah, I wouldn't want to make it that easy.
After that, the best would be to push the whole traffic throug tor (Or even to run a tor exit node, if nobody can say from which side of the network the requezst comes from ...).