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Online with Wireless Ypsi

Submitted by murph on 10 February 2008 - 3:33pm. |

Eventually, the Wireless Washtenaw project aims to network the entire County, intending to "provide an economic development tool", "attract and retain young professionals", and "reduce the digital divide". Eventually.

In the meantime, Wireless Ypsi is forging ahead, thanks to some of the usual suspects. As stated in the Ann Arbor News,

"Most of the time, when you don't have institutional involvement, things happen much quicker," Robb said. "We didn't need committees, we didn't need an advisory board, we didn't need anything. ... Seriously, in three weeks, we've done what (Wireless Washtenaw has) promised to do for four years."

As of ten minutes ago, I'm the proud host of a Wireless Ypsi node, and trying to coax a few more folks in Riverside to join on - we must prevent the Historic South Side from getting a leg up! (Or at least, reach critical mass of host-participants to make it work before the folks around me currently providing their own wireless signals, attractively named such things as "Hamilton Girlz" and "poopypants69", notice an open node and decide to free-ride my connection into the ground.)

Of, course, now that Ed Vielmetti has picked up the scent, it should be all of five minutes before he's mobilized 1,000 Ann Arborites to do us one better. But, for the moment, Dear Ann Arbor: nyah nyah!

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Naming conventions

Submitted by Ryan on 11 February 2008 - 12:14pm.

I think poopypants is actually a pretty popular name. But poopypants 69, talk about original and creative thought! The UM Hockey chant "If you can't get into High School go to Eastern" comes to mind.

This is, however, very exciting.

Ryan

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Wireless Riverside Association

Submitted by egpenet on 13 February 2008 - 8:22pm.

We did not have a quarom, but it's on our agenda. Talked with Steve Pierce and he has scoped out much of the neighborhood from the River to Hamilton and up to Forest for nodes/repeaters. It's all but a done deal.

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Security for Ypsi Wireless

Submitted by andrtnnr on 16 April 2008 - 6:37pm.

Sure, it sucks to have all of the bloat that Wireless Washtenaw has and I really am impressed that folks are just putting up hardware and internet access for anyone who wants to use it in Ypsi. It is one of the things I have noticed about this town. Things get done here because people are caring and DOING IT (like Ypsi Solar, SAF, Community Gardens, etc). It is where I work and I have adopted it as my second city.

What I am curious about is this. How secure is the Wireless Ypsi project? I mean anyone can put up wireless but what are you going to do when some fool with a virus blows out the network and infects vulnerable hosts connected to it? What about port scanning, looking for ways to penetrate computers, general hacking, etc. Is anyone administrating this network and looking for stuff like this?

Andrea

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Wireless Ypsi security

Submitted by murph on 14 May 2008 - 5:04pm.

As stated on their network page:

We cannot guarantee the privacy of your data and communications while using Wireless Ypsi. We strongly recommend you practice safe Internet usage when using any wireless network.

As with any public wireless signal, you don't know who else is doing what on the network, and you shouldn't do anything risky. (A former classmate used to sit in class with a wireless packet sniffer, e-mailing people's passwords to them after harvesting them from the school's unencrypted wireless network, as a lesson in network security.

I have a Wireless Ypsi access point at home and am providing some bandwidth, but I don't use it for my personal, at-home use - I use the non-broadcasting, encrypted signal that I was using prior to WiYi - for exactly the reason that a wireless signal is only as private/secure as you make. This is the setup I recommend to my neighbors asking about WiYi, as well - it's a public service you provide on top of your personal system, not something you replace your system with.

That said, the folks who are promoting/administering the system may be able to provide more detail on any active monitoring that's happening.

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