Open 802.11b wireless access points and remailers

[gbroiles at speakeasy.org]

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 at eskimo.com
>Cc: decentralization at yahoogroups.com
>From: Todd Boyle <tboyle at rosehill.net>
>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" <michael at civis.com>
>To: <dev at seattlewireless.net>, <ptp at lists.spack.org>
>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