I live in a fairly high-density area: lots of apartment buildings. Looking out my window I can probably see a hundred other apartments facing me from several buildings on other streets. A perfect place for a community WiFi network? Apparently not:
I don’t know how you find other WiFi/computer enthusiasts when they’re all locked in other buildings with restricted access. With a street full of houses you could at least put some paper in the mailboxes to get the word out.
Maybe I’ll buy a couple hundred LED Xmas lights and punch them through a big square of cardboard to spell “802.11g” and put it up in my window for all to see.
Christmas spirit and all that.
Ho ho ho!
Truly, a great idea.
Don’t be dispirited Mike. Teresa just “had internet” at home when the school she’s working for finally gave her the school laptop they give to all teachers.
Her not being a techie, she didn’t even know where she was getting internet from!!! I spent 10 minutes one day on the phone trying to get her to tell me “her provider” or who she got internet through, and finally gave up. Till I got there and discovered that sure enough her new laptop had integrated wifi and automatically looked for a connection on boot.
So she had internet because of a thoughtful (or thoughtless) neighbour. No worries about sharing her apartment-mate’s net (no way to run cables, very hard to tell her over the phone how to set up their own sharing, etc etc).
BOY oh BOY was she ever unhappy when “her internet disappeared”. (Someone finally secured their AP). So don’t worry, I betcha what little activity has ever occurred, was appreciated (knowingly or unknowingly), and maybe someday someone who might really really appreciate a regular connection might end up using it night after night just for a little browsing and e-mail.
-Craig