2.the cost is included with local city services

3.wireless hubs with t1-t2 power broadcast on existing lines which will go to unix routers with repeaters placed strategicaly to not only spread that blocks’ signal but also blend it nicely with the neighboring blocks

4.the money for the cheap routers and repeaters would come from “clean money” campaign fees collected from dirty politicians.

5.the routers and repeaters will be assembled by learning high schools students to get them out of gangs and give them cash. having students do it would prevent them from being assembled in a sweatshop in a country we can’t pernounce.

4.the router/repeater work will be done by people who need jobs and work experience

5.the communities will be tied in to the formation of their own city by being more informed and less out of the loop with local and global happenings

6.the evil cable companies make a contract with the city and eventually bocome engulfed in the monopolistic conglomorate that is city politics

7.quit bitchin and proposition your neighbors now. find out which have wireless and offer a third or forth of the bill if they at least tell you the password. that will be a good start.

8.at least get to know you neighbors, so the first time you see them isn’t when you’re pulling their daughter out from underneath the rubble of an earthquake/hurricane/tornado -ridden building.

9. quit bitchen, we’ve got bigger problems to solve…

But when you’re paying for a certain amount of gigs a month, then it is limited. I’m all for sharing, but if I only get xGB a month, I don’t want my neighbours being able to hook in and use it.

And until unlimited downloads are standard on all broadband packages, then people will continue to lock down their wireless networks.

“On that note, how am I (theoretically) using your dime when my presence has no effect on your resource?”

Your presence on my wireless access might not cost me any more money, since my cable bill will be the same if you are there or not. However, if your presence on my wireless access impedes my use of that resource which I am paying for (if your addiction to bittorrent slow me access down or interrupts it) then you are still costing me, only this time the cost is my time, effort, and frustration, rather then straight up $$$.

TANSTAAFL

(There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch)

There. I think that I am done now. :)

On the other hand, not locking down your in-home wireless is like inviting your neighbors to abuse your good nature. I am sure that if my neighbors were willing to give me some money toward my monthly cable bill, I would be happy to allow them to use my wireless network. However, since this is not the case, I am happy to lock down my wireless network so that they cannot do so.

Of course considering that most of my neighbors are either at or near retirement age, this is not an issue that I really have to loose sleep over. (As far as I can tell, mine is the only wireless signal on my street.) Also, my wireless signal is not a terribly strong one, and just barely covers my house. I can sit on my back deck in the summer and be online, but if I move over to the edge of my property line, the signal drops waaay off… and I don’t have what I consider to be a huge yard either.

We will just forget about any security issues and concerns for the time being.

Bottom line is, yes, free wireless is great. However (big however) somewhere down the line, someone is footing the bill for your free access. And someone had to buy all of the hardware. And someone had to set everything up and troubleshoot it. And I would rather that that someone not be me. So sorry you feel differently, we will have to agree to disagree, yadda yadda yadda. I guess that I am not very egalitarian, and that I would make a horrible socialist.

Yeah, no one will ever run out of internet. Bandwidth, however…

At this point I would just like to reiterate what you yourself said in an earlier post concerning bittorrent and bandwidth… “Curse you bittorrent! Curse your deadly allure and telling bandwidth consumption!” If the connection you are using is one that has bandwidth limitations, then you can indeed run out of bandwidth, or slow everyone else’s access way down. I wonder if this was the case with your new neighbor?

About half of my internet usage is high-bandwidth (downloading and uploading huge files and programs when working from home, uploading huge high-res photos, etc, etc) and I can tell when someone else (John) is also uploading/downloading because my upload/download rate either slows way down or stops entirely. It is so infuriating to set up a series of photos to upload, and go off to do something else, only to discover later that the whole upload choked because someone (John) decided to download some music… These days I give him a heads up as to when I am doing a huge download/upload and ask that he hold off on his own downloads/uploads until I am done.

Pardon my very rambling thoughts, discourse, excessively long post… this is a good issue for debating…

While the principle of free access is a noble one, liability doesn’t seem to be a trivial concern.

On that note, how am I (theoretically) using your dime when my presence has no effect on your resource? Dimes are tangible and limited. Bandwidth isn’t. Give me your address and I’ll send you five bucks.