The service is provided by Tomizone. You connect your device to the tomizone@sydneyferries access point on the upper deck, open your browser and then log into the Tomizone portal. Once past the 30 minutes (just long enough for the trip) or past the 30MB, you can top up with your credit card.

Check out the Sydney Ferries post about their free wifi and top-up pricing, and make sure you read the FAQ on the Tomizone PDF.

Of course, they aren’t the first ones to offer free wifi. The private Manly Fast Ferry has been offering free wifi since mid May, as a three month pilot, provided by CafeScreen.

Any other Australian city ferry services having free wifi?

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Free wifi on Sydney Manly ferry

City of Swan Library Services is pleased to announce the provision of a new wireless network providing free high-speed Internet access for the public.

The Wired2Swan free high-speed wireless Internet allows the City of Swan Libraries to meet the already high and increasing demand for internet access within the City of Swan. Currently, library users wanting to use the fixed Internet workstations have to make a booking and there is a time limit on each session.
We’re very excited about being able to offer this service to the community. Free wireless Internet access can assist business professionals, students, travellers, or anyone else who needs to do research, transfer files, or simply access their email. You can just walk into the library, open up your laptop and connect to the Web. It’s a natural fit with City of Swan Libraries’ mission of providing easy access to information. The wireless network allows anyone with a laptop, iPhone, iPod Touch or mobile device to access the free wireless network without session/use limits.

Libraries provided in the City of Swan include: Altone Park Public Library, Ballajura Public Library, Bullsbrook Community Library, Ellenbrook Community Library, Guildford Public Library and Midland Public Library.

Great to see a new municipal wifi project. Thanks Mark!

City of Swan Libraries provide Wired2Swan, a FREE Wi-Fi service (library membership not required):

ALTONE PARK – “Altone Park Public Library”, 332 Benara Road, Beechboro
BALLAJURA – “Ballajura Public library”, Corner Kingfisher Avenue & Illawarra Crescent, Ballajura
BULLSBROOK – “Bullsbrook Community Library”, Chittering Road, Bullsbrook
ELLENBROOK – “Ellenbrook Community Library”, 90 Main Street (Library Av), Ellenbrook
GUILDFORD – “Guildford Public Library”, 97 James Street, Guildford
MIDLAND – “Midland Public Library”, 45 Helena Street, Midland

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Free wifi at the City of Swan libraries

“more free Sydney wifi – now at the Paddington and Double Bay branches of Woollahra Council Library in eastern Sydney. At Double Bay, the network reaches through most of the surrounding gardens too – it’s a beautiful spot and lots of things to help with concentration and/or procrastination! Our provider is uConnect, so the terms of service are the same as the City of Sydney’s wifi.”

So next time, go procrastinate at:

• Paddington Library – Paddington Town Hall, 247 Oxford St (cnr Oatley Rd)
• Double Bay Library – 536 New South Head Rd, Double Bay (near Redleaf Pool)

Thanks Anna!

If any other councils around Australia are offering free wifi, please let us know!

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Free wifi at eastern Sydney libraries

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…

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Barcamp Sydney 4

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.

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Blocking adult content

The Internet has enabled a way of social interaction and connections which facilitate the kinds of action that “make democracy work” (Robert Putnam). It enables freedom of movement up and down the socio-economic and cultural ladder through social participation and human development. It offers economic opportunities and access to public and social services.

On the Internet, everyone can be anyone, and social division becomes a non-issue (though actually new social divisions are constantly being created, on a different level – are you on MySpace or Facebook?). In fact, “on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” (Peter Steiner’s cartoon). Another joke goes “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Internet and he won’t bother you for weeks.” But that man might rise up to be the next Internet millionaire. Access to the Internet is an instrumental right for the improvement of people’s capability. Missing out restrains personal growth. That’s also why gouvernments provide libraries, and Internet access at libraries. It gives people access to knowledge, but libraries are a less than ideal environment for social interaction. Bringing the Internet closer to the community, closer to home, empowers people to take control of their own social network (online and offline). That’s where Free Australia Wireless fits in. By providing free Internet access, through a shared connection, we try to bridge the social divide in our own community, closest to us. This hardly costs us anything extra, as we already pay for Internet access. This is our small contribution to tackle social poverty.

The growth of social networking and user generated content reflects the deep rooted need of people for self expression, social interaction and peer validation. People sharing without personal financial gain. As they do, others do. Or so we hope anyway.
What are you waiting for, why not get involved?

Reposted from halans.com.

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Tackling Social Poverty – Blog Action Day

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Free Australia Wireless goes to Perth for Edge of the Web

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.

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Post-Web Directions South 2008

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

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Free Australia Wireless at Web Directions South 2008

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.

Post from: Free Australia Wireless

Cars – what do they have to do with free wireless?