Reply #25: Some of us have Open AP's for a reason. [View All]

[Xithras]

My home network is segmented. A private wLAN (protected with WPA-TKIP) connected directly to my broadband, and an open wLan (port limited and throttled on a completely seperate bridged B AP) wide open for anyone who wants to use it.

It's called the Free Wireless Movement, and some of us have been doing this for a decade. I opened up my first 802.11 AP (just 802.11...no A or B at that time) in 1999. I've had one running, in some form or another and with varying bandwidth availability, almost continuously since then.

I'm a firm believer that the Internet should be free, open, and anonymous. Because I have it throttled, it also uses a lot less bandwidth than you'd think.

The FWM has lost a lot of its momentum over the past half decade or so, especially as many taxpayer funded urban "free wireless" projects have closed up shop, but there are still hundreds of thousands of us who believe in the ideal, and do our bit to share some of our bandwidth with others.