Sell Your Wireless Bandwidth 57
BilSabab writes "Yahoo! News is reporting on the release of LinSpot 1.0 for Mac OS X. Linspot enables users to sell access to their wireless network to anyone who enters the hot zone." The software is free, but LinSpot takes a cut of the action.
Even better (Score:2, Interesting)
wireless [hrp.com]
Mistaken identity? (Score:5, Interesting)
From the LinSpot FAQ:
The other information in the FAQ is very telling, including the telltale "Investment Opportunity" section that is present in the websites of so many dubious businesses.
I would caution any user against attempting to use this application. There are several good alternatives that are not difficult to set up including using NoCatAuth with a micropayment system. Since LinSpot happily handles the billing of the users for you and then sends you your 'share' later, you'll really have to decide whether or not you trust them to do the right thing, since they do not seem to be forthright in their other business practices.\
At any rate, this software hardly deserves a "1.0" release or attention on slashdot. It could likely be a scam, though I have no evidence to beleive that it is anything more than a really dubious, hacky, misguided implementation of someone else's good idea.
I'd consider it, except... (Score:4, Interesting)
- My ISP wants my bandwidth usage to stay within "reasonable" limits (under, say, 40 gigs one direction or the other) each month.
- There are good odds my ISP's policies don't allow me to re-sell my bandwidth.
- The local kine working-poor, little old Japanese ladies and feral chickens that make up most of the population of the neighborhood probably wouldn't take advantage of it anyway.
Maybe if I lived on a big street near a center of commerce or something... but I don't think folks are gonna sit around with their laptops at the fishing tackle store a few doors down and surf the web.Hmm (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Interesting read on I, Cringely (Score:1, Interesting)
Hotspots that die out when the 'owner' is using the bandwidth, $hundreds of millions in free hardware with $0 guaranteed return for the people who pony up.....who have to provide additional bandwidth just in case....
He always solves one problem (screw the record companies, we don't need them) and creates a bigger one (artists get $1 per album they release). Dumbest tech writer, EVER.
Re:A quick note (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand, a lawyer might argue that I'd have to resell the entire service and not use it ever after...
Some remarks after testing (Score:2, Interesting)
Some remarks that needed comments after I tested this:
- Auto-updating is a feature that Mac people like, but you can turn it off...
- Inside the LinSpot application directory is a directory structure which looks like a mini *nix distro, this contains Apache and the other mentioned applications, but also others such as wget...
It differs from NoCatAuth in the following way: ;-)
- roaming between all LinSpots (I guess that's also the reason why they have to fix the prices - but as they state, they want the prices to go down and charge $2.5 for 2 hours till $25 for one month). Didn't test it between different countries though... yet
- users gaining access on the network get immediately the registration page when the browser tries to access their homepage (I guess that's why they use the DNS and proxy). After the first page selection, there's immediately the PayPal screen - a quick process!
And they paid my tests within a day (only bought 2 hours).
Great idea... (Score:1, Interesting)
If you don't believe there's anything shady going on look at this (granted, I've only just started, but...):
forwarders {
195.162.196.2;
195.162.197.2;
};
What do you want to bet most people don't even check his BIND config? Further what do you want to bet that those two servers (look at their PTR records and follow the WHOIS trail too) aren't logging all queries?
Also, before you start let me say that _I_ *am* qualified to make judgements regarding this software. He isn't doing anything original at all. Combining DHCP and separate DNS space is extremely common for dividing people into "paid" and "unpaid" classes of service and controlling their access. Insight (US Cable provider) does exactly this for their cable modem subscribers. That makes this comment from his linspot.bogus root hint file all the more funnier:
; What did you expect?
; And still I'm pround of how linspot is desinged
I'd say I saw exactly what I expected, and so would anyone else skilled in the art (and I don't mean any random geek who's hosting their vanity domain at home either, I mean someone with real clue).. I've been using wildcards in root hints files for exactly this type of separation for years. Hell, you don't even need BIND9's view support, just two legacy BIND servers each bound to different aliased IPs.