We were once again present at Barcamp Sydney on November 15, at UNSW’s Roundhouse. Liam brought in his Meraki with a booster antena, so we promptly recruited him to keep an eye out for things on the network. We started out unthrotled, using the university’s network, but it turned out some people were abusing it, so we had to throttle it down to 512down/92up, which is unfortunate for everyone else.
I have to remind myself to prepare something next time, some folders or posters maybe, to get people to play nice. If they need a connection to stream video or live podcasts, then they can talk to us, so we know, and even maybe set up a separate network. Else, if we see any p2p traffic happening, we block access for those devices. If people then see that they are being blocked, and they don’t know why, they can talk to us. It might then very well be that they’ve got a trojan, and are part of a botnet…
And I blame myself too for not being prepared enough, and having Free Australia Wireless promo material ready. I was pre-occupied with my own presentation earlier in the week. We do need to convert more new souls…
Also posted in Events | Tagged BarCamp |
While over in Perth setting up the Meraki wireless mesh network for Edge of the Web (which, running through a 100MB VPN which was going over dual fibre through the University of Western Australia was amazingly fast and touted as “the best free wireless provided by any web conference yet”) I noticed a new feature in the Meraki Dashboard.
On the Configure > Advanced page there is now an option to block adult content. It’s a beta feature and uses OpenDNS – but until the Great Australian Firewall is introduced next year it’s a better-than-nothing measure to ensure legal use of your Internet connection by other people using your free wireless gateway, so it’s probably a good idea to turn it on.
Not that I’ve ever heard reports of people illegally using Meraki or other free wireless networks for illegal purposes or people getting in trouble with the law, but it’s sensible to minimise the risk.
Posted in Free Australia Wireless | Tagged adult, blocking, censorship, content, EOTW, filtering, illegal, Perth, porn, privacy, security |
Next month in November I’ll be travelling across to Perth for the Edge of the Web conference – both to see some great speakers and presentations but also to be providing the wireless mesh network hardware and support to provide conference attendees with free Internet access throughout the conference.
So how did the free Internet access mesh network hosted by Free Australia Wireless and iBurst cope during Web Directions South 2008?
During the 3 days of the workshops, the conference and WebJam 8 we had around 450 unique users and handled 7.2 GB of traffic. One user managed 540 MB traffic on their own … which is a bit unfortunate as we did ask people to go easy on the network and even browse with images turned off, but I’m happy that even with usage like that the network still kept running. 500 unique users on any wireless or free network is already a big load – but even with that high-traffic use the network coped just fine. I used it most of the time with no worries.
We had Meraki nodes scattered throughout the venue … a couple in the foyer, three in the main auditorium (down to two on Friday as one went “missing” on Thursday) and one in 101A.
Also congratulations to @holodigm and @jodiem for winning the two Meraki Minis we gave away to whoever tweeted in the best responses to the question “Why should you win a Meraki and what would you use it for?”. Both pledged to start up free wireless mesh networks. Both of the Merakis we gave away were donated to Free Australia Wireless by Justin Kerr-Stevens.
And another big thanks to Lachlan Hardy and WebJam 8 for sponsoring Free Australia Wireless and paying for the printing of the fliers JJ designed that we gave out at the Web Directions South conference, and thanks to Nick Hodge, Peter Asquith and Gary Barber for helping me put fliers on everyone’s seats during afternoon tea on Friday before Mark Pesce’s presentation.
Posted in Free Australia Wireless | Tagged "Web Directions South", competition, conference, Free Australia Wireless, Gary Barber, iburst, Justin Kerr-Stevens, Nick Hodge, Peter Asquith, prize, sydney, Technology, wds08, Web Directions South conference |
In just over a week Web Directions South, the major Australian Web development conference, kicks of with 2-day workshops and a 2-day conference at the Sydney Expo in Darling Harbour. Free Australia Wireless will be meshing the conference area, so meet us there!
The traditional Port80 pre-Web Directions South (night before the conference) drinks are on again on September 24th, 6.30pm at the Harlequin Inn, with a sponsored bar-tab (thanks Clever Starfish, Radharc and Free Australia Wireless):
Harlequin Inn
Cnr Harris & Union Streets
Pyrmont NSW 2009
After a 12 month hiatus, Webjam v8 is back for a splendid night of quick-fire presentations of new, innovative web projects, September 25th, the first evening of the WDS conference. If you haven’t registered yet, do it now, ’cause places are limited and sure to fill up quickly! And while you’re at it, why not register to pimp your project! Upstairs at Bar Broadway at 7:30pm.
Bar Broadway
Cnr Broadway & Regent Streets
Ultimo NSW 2007
Also posted in Events, Social |
Robin Chase, founder of Zipcar, the world’s biggest car-sharing business , gave a 13 minute talk on TED last year. She recommends that we leverage the growing communication needs of cars and turn congested streets into a wireless hotspot paradise.
Cars already use wireless technology to communicate with toll roads, etc, but currently this is done via a “black box” that is designed for only one purpose. In stead, she suggests that this kind of communication is done via the Internet. To that end, every car should be equipped with a (dirt cheap) wireless mesh device that extends the Internet into the car and to any other cars nearby.
An additional advantage is that because the resulting network is completely decentralized and powered by car batteries, it is extremely robust: the only network still functioning in New Orleans after Katrina was… guess what: a mesh network.
You can view her talk over at TED: Robin Chase: Getting cars off the road and data into the skies.
Next Sydney Mobile Monday is about WiMAX and 3G/4G, euh, next Monday. There is a WiMAX demo and a panel discussion between Mobile and WiMAX operators.
There will also be an introduction to a UTS post-grad project: iWiFi:
Course director Linda Leung : “The goal of the iWiFi project is to create a business model and technical framework for a free wireless hotspot at Bondi Beach. In conjunction with the hotspot, the group has also developed a portal for information about Bondi Beach that is accessible via laptop and mobile devices.
“The group – Caroline Chung (Australia), Winnie Yang (China), Joy Huang (Taiwan), Urs Kemmann (Germany), Dave Kaplan (USA) and Ranjeet Elkunchwar (India) – believes that WIFI technology will soon become an integral part of our daily lives enabling systems based on internet-on-the-go to make spontaneous decisions.”
Come check it out if you can! See you there.
ACMA takes notice as it publishes its Top 5 Trends (pdf) in new communications services, applications and emerging technologies to keep an eye out on for the next five years, including Mesh Networks. There’s even an honourable mention of SydneyFreeNet.
BarCamp Sydney v3 has passed again. We set up a wireless network for attendees to use. With the Internet connection handled by UNSW, so plenty of bandwidth, we set up two gateway nodes and one repeater (one Outdoor and two Mini’s). Of course, we could easily manage the splashpage with a BarCamp welcome, as well as have BarCamp and Free Australia Wireless text banners.
The Meraki’s handled traffic pretty good, with people playing WoW, watching youTube, surfing, demoing,… with the Meraki’s handling about 50 users and transferring 1.8 Gb over each day.
You can clearly see when lunch was on…
We talked to lots of people, mostly in the hallway, and in our presentation on Saturday we focused on the Meraki Dashboard and its settings. We also had a group discussion on developing meshing software for mobile devices or laptops. And then there was even a presentation on how, with the help of a couple of Merakis, a student circumvented his school’s net censorship… Some people signed up for a group buy (we’ll get back to you soon!).
Sunday afternoon, we had a Meraki Mini to give away to the attendees.
