Open 802.11b wireless access points and remailers

Several years ago, there was discussion on the list about creating headless or throwaway remailers (likely hidden in some institution where they could get power and net access for a long time until they were discovered)- I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about that, because I thought that the necessary Ethernet (or other network) connection which would be made between the hidden machine and the host network would make it easy enough to detect and disable that it wasn't a productive direction for exploration. (There are also any number of legal issues related to trespass, unauthorized network use, etc., which may apply.) However, that limitation may be withering away, with the spread of 802.11b (or similar) wireless networks - the attached email describes a Seattle-area system apparently set up by Microsoft in a shopping mall providing free network access to people within the reach of its radio units. An old laptop, a solar panel, some auxiliary batteries, and an 802.11 network card might be able to stay online for a long, long time in that sort of environment. This also sounds like a good way to get casual, anonymous network access to upload or download email - once upon a time, bad people who wanted to send forbidden emails or browse hidden sites did that by going to public terminals in libraries or web cafes or [...] - now perhaps they'll do that at Starbucks or the mall, either for free or having paid cash for short-term access via 802.11b wireless. And, if you're the sort that's worried about permission, etc., the nice thing is that these networks are explicitly intended for the use of guests on the premises, so at least the first level of concerns about trespass or unauthorized use are addressed. These days, remailers aren't as exciting as they once were - perhaps the next important tools are going to be Freenet or Mojo Nation nodes - but the combination of wireless access plus anonymous access provides an interesting opportunity for network participants which are physically within a jurisdiction yet unavailable for punishment.

To: seasigi-list@eskimo.com Cc: decentralization@yahoogroups.com From: Todd Boyle Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 15:24:14 +0200 Subject: [decentralization] Free wireless access at Crossroads

Somehow I view this with the same sense of foreboding as the spread of two different species of africanized honeybees.

In business school we were taught that the incumbent in a market generally wants to wait for upstarts to expend their capital to deploy in specific places then, go to those places and compete. Drawing on billions of reserves from product X, the larger vendor can give away product Y for free.

Todd

From: "Michael Codanti" To: , Subject: Crossroads Mall in Bellevue Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 11:36:13 -0700 Organization: CIVIS Consulting

I just thought I would drop a note to the lists about the Crossroads mall in Bellevue, WA. This is the one that Micro$oft has installed their test MSChoice network. We were on our way back from a trip to Canada and stopped in at the mall. Within seconds we were on the ChoiceNet network and according to my tests we had a full T1 to ourselves. (1132k down/1250k up) They have 4 Cisco APs and coverage appeard to be very good. Their site says you have to use the PANS client on Windows 2000, but I was using Windows XP RC1 and it ever even asked me to authentidicate... The most interesting thing is that the StarBucks in the mall has their MobileStar AP up, but signal strength sucked. (I was fairly close to StarBucks) And considering that ChoiceNet is free, and MobileStar wants $12/hour I don't know how much business they will get...

Michael