p2pnet news view | P2P:- Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG, the Big 4 music labels, are finding decentralisation — being thrown up against much smarter, tech-savvy entrepreneurs they can’t control — a terrifying, and unmanageable, experience.

It’s also known as P2P, peer-to-peer, sharing, and it’s something they’re fighting bitterly against by trying to re-shackle their once-compliant users through specious lawsuits which accuse customers of being criminals and thieves.

It’s a truly bizarre marketing scheme, but it’s theirs as they use the (to them) horrible spectre of File Sharing (shudder) as their principal excuse.

Canada’s largest ISPs, with Bell Canada well to the fore, are up to the same tricks, also using File Sharers as their excuse to try to regain control of their customers by shackling their accounts, using File Sharing as the reason.

But both groups are facing new and aggressive clients who ignore the corporate BS machines, supplying each other with unspun data and information via the Net: they’re also having to deal with the fact they’re no longer The Ones.

Bell Canada, the other telecom giants and the Big 4 labels are grotesque, lumbering dinosaurs with a tiny brains whose very size prevents them from effectively reacting to changing market forces.

But as they die, exciting new concepts are leading to equally exciting new technologies designed specifically to further the enablement and empowerment of what used to be called the Great Unwashed.

Yesterday, “Just as the CRTC announces it’s effectively giving the green light to Bell Canada to continue shackling the accounts of its customers, Tim Wu, a Canadian who’s now a Columbia Law School professor, and Google policy analyst Derek Slater, suggest home owners might one day buy their own fiber connections which would not only have universal applications, but would also be faster,” said p2pnet.

Much faster.

Users would be able to, “connect to a variety of service providers, including today’s Internet, television, and telephone services, as well as ultra-bandwidth intensive services of the future,” they say in their paper, Homes with Tails (1st image).

They’d also, “benefit from greater competition and lower prices in the retail service market”.

It looks almost like  science fiction, but it’s happening.

As Wu and Slater point out, trunk fiber and splice points for the distribution of strands down individual streets have already been deployed in Canada.

“The experiment is spearheaded by Bill St. Arnaud, Chief Research Officer at CANARIE, which is a nonprofit group devoted to advanced network research in Canada,” they say.

“He has been promoting the customer-owned network model for over a decade and is now attempting to demonstrate the general business case for it.”

And p2pnet reader Kevin C cites Toronto’s Beanfield MetroConnect access network built (bottom left image),  “using a unique ‘2 POP’ design” with two metro Points of Presence (POPs) on opposite sides of the city.

“Each of these POPs can operate independently, and are fully capable of running the entire city by themselves,”" says the company, going on:

“There are a minimum of 2 high-count fibre-optic cable routes between these two POPs. These cable routes wind their way through the city, never crossing each other, and provide connectivity to buildings along their route.

“Each building is connected to both of these POPs, with active equipment in each building maintaining a relationship with both at all times. If a connection goes down, or an entire POP is lost, the traffic is automatically re-routed to the other POP where it is processed and sent on to its final destination. This all happens without the customer noticing that anything happened.”

Not only but also, “mesh wifi is good for alternate networks if main ISP’s go down or for privacy, great for filesharing, says free in a Reader’s Write, continuing »»»

community based wifi is already up and sharing some very good info and social networks as well … check with your neighbors if they have one up. if not then build one, great way to add security to your hood by keeping in touch, sharing video and pics

here is an example of more recent advancements:
http://thenextweb.com/2008/11/27/internet-without-electricity-connectivity-or-phone-services-no-matter-where-you-are/

make sure you visit the links in article for detailed diagrams and explanations if you want to DIY

Free’s link points to a Zee M Kane post which states »»»

SolarNetOne is a collaborative effort spanning several continents, organizations, and technical disciplines. The goal of the effort is to develop a feasible, sustainable solution to bring the internet to places that have no connectivity, no phone service and no electricity.

Developed by Florida based GNUveau, the system is a solar-powered Internet “hub” (running Ubuntu GNU/Linux). The terminals includes access to web browsing, email, voip, office, multimedia, software development and web development tools as well as 15,000 other applications. Wifi coverage spans a 2-mile radius, with no fuel costs, no polluting emissions and a long lifespan of up to 20 years with proper maintenance. The entire system, in fact, operates on about the same amount of power as a 100-watt light bulb, GNUveau says.

“On the wiki,” it goes on, “you can see the system running in Katsina State University in Nigeria right now, providing wireless connectivity and ‘Internet Cafe’ like services to hundreds of people.

Says the caption to the pic: “2nd from right, KTSU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abudullahi Mustapha; 3rd from right Director ICT, Bashir Sani; last from the right KTSU’s network engineer, Nura Garba.”

Who needs Bell Canada? Or Comcast?

In September, “Who needs the internet as provided by the likes of greedy, rip-off companies such as Bell Canada or Comcast across the border in the US?” – asked a p2pnet post, continuing »»»

“After reading William Keeley’s article on setting up a FreeWAN cell, I was intrigued by the possibilities of communicating over a network of FreeWAN cells. Would it be possile to connect to one outpost cell and use it to “hop” to another? Could a network of FreeWAN cells become searchable? Could this type of network be shut down in an instant by some nasty government authority?

“After a little bit of digging and it seems the answers come in at: Yes, Yes and Not Really.”

So said Alex H in a p2pnet post. He was at the time operations manager for an ATM (automatic teller machine) supplier in Sydney, Australia.

That was back in 2005 and today, Île sans Fil translates roughly to “wireless island” and it’s the name of a group of enthusiasts have given to the 150 hotspots they’ve carefully set up in central Montreal, Quebec, neighbourhoods with WiFi.

And, says The Montreal Gazette, “city hall seems poised to help them achieve that goal.”

“What’s FreeWan?” – asked William Keeley in 2005, going on »»»

FreeWan is a network of many home-built ad-hoc networks called cells which can be on a specific FreeWan network, on the Net or both.

Each cell is like a small community where people share data and information such as video and music in an environment of privacy, unrestricted by bandwidth caps or being forced to pay too much for broadband service. The bare minimum that’s required to set up a FreeWan cell is a router (preferably wireless) and one computer to act as the main server. The main server doesn’t necessarily need to be a very powerful because its main function is to provide a starting point for the exploration of the FreeWan Cell.

In June last year, “Is a three-tiered Net on the way?” – p2pnet wondered, continuing »»»

ISPs may start charging some sites for faster access to customers, says the BBC, quoting Jupiter Research.

This could, “create a ‘two-tiered internet’ which, while making money for providers would risk alienating consumers,” says the report.

“One way of creating a new revenue stream would be to supply faster, prioritised access to a select group of websites willing to pay.”

Meanwhile, innovative Net users around the world, sadly watching what used to be an exciting and unrestricted means of communication being driven inexorably down the drain by steadily increasing advertising pollution and censorship, are developing their own third-tier underground alternative(s).

Like what? Like FreeWans being developed by the Cyber Maquis.

A FreeWan is a network of many home-built ad-hoc networks called cells which can be on a specific FreeWan network, on the Net, or on both, explains William Keeley in a p2pnet post.

“Each cell is like a small community where people share data and information such as video and music in an environment of privacy, unrestricted by bandwidth caps or being forced to pay too much for broadband service.”

Oh, the Horror!

Now, over on the Île sans Fil in Quebec,  “The idea is that anyone who wanders into any of these hotspots with a laptop or handheld computer (a BlackBerry, for example) can get free Internet access as long as they have a Wi-Fi card,” says the Gazette.

Île sans Fil is what’s known as a community wireless networking group. Its members are students and professionals of varying ages who are interested in Wi-Fi’s potential “to empower individuals and to foster a sense of community,” according to the group’s website.

“At the core of this group are just some pretty nerdy people, early adopters of technology I guess we are called,” said Daniel Drouet, president of Île sans Fil.

“We all had Wi-Fi cards a long time ago, but we saw that people running the cafés and places we wanted to go hadn’t heard of Wi-Fi and had no idea how to install it,”the story has president Daniel Drouet saying, going on, “A lot of business owners seemed to want to offer it, but they were in the business of selling coffee, or whatever, and didn’t know where to start.”

Offering wireless access for free was a good way to attract customers, figured some of them, which led to Île sans Fil WiFi access, “at dozens of cafés and restaurants, some sports facilities, a couple of parks (Jarry Park, for example), a few doctors’ waiting rooms and at least one laundromat, says the story, adding:

“The group is impatiently awaiting the city of Montreal’s approval of their proposal to create about 250 more wireless hotspots, including many outdoor areas, such as city parks and public gathering spots like the Place des Arts.”

It’s hoping the city will contribute $200,000 a year for five years to the group, “to support the installation of 150 more wireless service points in outdoor locations, and at least another 100 points in local businesses”.

But why leave it there?

The Île sans Fil it is a fantastic idea and with with rapacious ISPs such as Bell Canada and Comcast sticking it to their own customers at every opportunity, it’d make equal sense to build non-commercial FreeWans purely to open People to People communications.

Maybe it’s time to turn William Keeley’s ideas into reality (perhaps incorporating Alex’s theories) not only in Quebec, but everywhere in Canada, we added.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

Did you enjoy this story, or find it interesting/useful? Help keep the posts coming by donating. No amount is too small. Cheers! And thanks.

---

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

---

Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm and is filed under P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 3516 times