Technology on the road has a reputation for being finicky. Some of this difficulty is unavoidable. But other technology challenges are easily remedied through decent design and forethought.
wifi
Does an open WiFi signal reduce your 4th Amendment protections?
A federal trial court in Oregon ruled that a suspect’s rights were not violated when police — tipped by a neighbor — accessed his unprotected WiFi network and saw child pornography shared via his iTunes library.
The Failure of Public WiFi
Image by Getty Images via Daylife SSRN-The Failure of Public WiFi by Eric Fraser: This short piece describes the failure of the widespread plans to provide public wireless internet access. It identifies three interrelated types of causes for the near-universal … Continued
Starbucks ditches T-Mobile for AT&T
Ubiquitous caffeine conglomerate Starbucks has ended its Wi-Fi partnership with T-Mobile in favor of one with AT&T.
Whose bandwidth is being given away?
NetworkWorld.com Community – Whose bandwidth is being given away? : But it’s on the point of ISP terms of service that I believe Schneier’s case falls. First, he expresses no concern whatsoever about others stealing his bandwidth from his open … Continued
Steal This Wi-Fi
Wired Security Matters – Steal This Wi-Fi: Whenever I talk or write about my own security setup, the one thing that surprises people — and attracts the most criticism — is the fact that I run an open wireless network … Continued
Will Starbucks Wi-Fi soon be free?
Computerworld – Prediction: Starbucks Wi-Fi will soon be free: When Starbucks introduced for-pay Wi-Fi in 2002, it seemed like a great deal (especially for business customers who could expense it). But five years later, the model appears old and stale … Continued
Now Part of Meraki's Free the Net SF
I’ve just received my free Meraki Mini, and put it in my window. Now my neighbors should be able to see the “Free the Net” signal, and hopefully we can get some momentum to spread the network to this part … Continued
Earthlink Escapes Contract for Free San Francisco Wifi
EarthLink said late Wednesday that it is bailing out of a contract to build San Francisco’s free Wi-Fi service. Earlier on Wednesday, the city of Houston announced that EarthLink had agreed to pay a $5 million penalty to the city … Continued
Clearwire Wireless Broadband Review
Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) is a broadband Internet Service Provider with a twist: it’s wireless. The sleek Clearwire modems use a licensed 2.5 GHz technology (not line-of-sight) instead of the standard, unlicensed 2.4 GHz frequency of 802.11 WiFi devices, and in … Continued
Why Provide Free WiFi?
Why should hotels, cafes, and other service-oriented establishments offer free WiFi to their customers?
Is it OK to Share my WiFi? (Clearwire)
With the growth of wireless Internet and various sharing services, the question arises: is it OK to intentionally share your connection with other people? For more background, read the first post in this series about sharing WiFi, and covering Comcast. … Continued
Is it OK to Share my WiFi? (Comcast)
So, with the growth of FON and Whisher, not to mention more informal sharing between neighbors, the question arises: is this legally acceptable from the perspective of the broadband subscriber? (Note: please do not rely on this for legal advice. … Continued
Two Approaches to Community WiFi Sharing
Two different, broad-based approaches to community-based WiFi sharing: Whisher You don’t need to leave your WiFi open in order to share it with others. Simply enable encryption on your access point or router (WEP/WPA) and Whisher will do the rest. … Continued
Wifi-based Location Determination
A new method of computer-based tracking has recently emerged: wifi. A company has been sending trucks all over the U.S. and Canada mapping access points, addresses and names, and now claims that they have technology to say where you are … Continued