Diary of a Network Geek

The trials and tribulations of a Certified Novell Engineer who's been stranded in Houston, Texas.

8/19/2005

DIY Wireless ISP

Filed under: Fun,Fun Work,Geek Work,Linux,The Network Geek at Home,Things to Read — Posted by the Network Geek during the Hour of the Tiger which is terribly early in the morning or 5:43 am for you boring, normal people.
The moon is a Full Moon

Hmm, this could be fun…
Lately, IBM has been really supportive of Linux. In fact, they have a whole section on their site dedicated to cool things you can accomplish with Linux. The latest of these is an article about how to use Linux to set up a wireless ISP. They suggest setting this up for a neighborhood or office, but I’m sure there are applications far beyond that. They take you through the basics, but, after skimming the article, I sure wouldn’t reccomend this for the Linux neophyte. The article does cover, in brief, all the aspects of this project, including hardware choices, but it focuses on a series of bash scripts written by the author to help you manage your WISP. That’s all well and good, but, of course, limited in scope.
So, why not add all that functionality to a backpack and make yourself a walking “hotspot”. Yeah, that’s not a joke. A guy actually took a backpack with solar panels built into it, added some wireless hardware, and made himself into a roving hotspot.

Now, that’s entertainment! And perfect for a fun, freaky Friday link.

4 Comments

  1. I haven’t heard much about Linux lately. For a while it was all the rage. Guess it’s still there.

    Comment by Mark — 8/19/2005 @ 6:16 am

  2. A lot of Linux has moved to chips and devices, so if you look closely at your cell phone or the cheap router your DSL or Cable ISP gave you, you’ll find Linux. Also, I doubt that Linux will ever do well on the desktop for the average user. For a while it was the “Great White Hope” of operating systems, but, now, it’s mainly on servers or in the houses of geeks, like me, where it belongs.
    Sometime after I get all my wife’s junk out of the house, I’m going to replace my sad, failing Novell servers with Linux servers. That will mean building a Linux firewall, probably from scratch. I’ll blog about that as I do it, so you’ll be able to get your Linux fix that way.

    Comment by the Network Geek — 8/19/2005 @ 6:25 am

  3. Yes, that’s my second favorite fix. 😉

    Comment by Mark — 8/19/2005 @ 11:25 am

  4. “Okay, I’ll bite”, he wrote, already regretting it. “What’s your first favorite fix?”

    Comment by the Network Geek — 8/19/2005 @ 11:32 am

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