[isf-wifidog] fon is having pretty remarkable uptake with their method of deployement

[Joe Bowser]

All this talk is really interesting that I decided to talk about what
I'm working on.

At BC Wireless, we have a lot of different projects.  The main thing
that I've been working on was creating a firmware that has WiFiDog built
in as well as OLSR for Mesh Networking.  The firmware has a modified
WebIF, and right now is a general purpose firmware for BC Wireless.

The firmware can be found at:

http://www.infil00p.org/openwrt/snapshots/

<disclaimer>
Obligitory Disclaimer: This firmware is provided AS IS and has no
guarantee of actual functionality.  You are using it at your own risk,
and you will void your warantee on your router.  I do not take any
responsiblity for you damaging your router, and you acknowledge that you
are installing this at your own risk.
</disclaimer>

It's a modified version of OpenWRT WhiteRussian RC4.  Right now it has
most of our auto-config for BC Wireless added on, as well as most of the
scripting that's required to fix the way that OpenWRT handles breaking
up the bridge to have the WiFi card and the LAN seperate.  I haven't
added any OLSR components onto the UI yet, and I am still fixing the bug
with the Firewall Scrpts.

To Do:
- Add OLSR config scripts
- Update WiFiDog Auto-Configuration Script to also configure OpenVPN for
hotspots
- Add the ability to turn on and off services from a web menu
- Add a FirstBoot wizard for novices that does initial setup

I was interested in setting something up for the WGT634U, however I
heard that the device overheats so much that this would be impractical.
To be honest, we need to find an open alternative to all these
off-the-shelf items so that we can run RoofNet, ADOV and other types of
mesh as well as OLSR.

However, as for the practicality of WiFiDog, there really has to be an
IM system built in so that users who login to a hotspot can talk to one
another.  For example, the test node that I run out of my house using
our Dev server has 14 users.  I've only met two of these users.  While
it's cool that I've only met two of my neighbours, I would like to have
the ability to say hi to them without having to go through the database
and grab their e-mail addresses. :(

That's just my 0.02 cents

-- 
Joe Bowser <bowserj at unbc.ca>