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Wireless Networking Hardware IT

Adelaide Gets a Taste of Free WiFi 132

Posted by timothy from the and-bits-there-flow-up dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "Adelaide's Citilan network is being relaunched. Sometime in the last two weeks they decided to open it up for free use to anyone in Adelaide's CBD, pending full commercial launch. Get in and find a hotspot while its hot!"
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Adelaide Gets a Taste of Free WiFi More

Adelaide Gets a Taste of Free WiFi

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  • uh-huh. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ShaniaTwain ( 197446 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:20AM (#12404954) Homepage
    The first one's free, when you want some more you know where to come.

    Sounds like a pretty sensible promotion.

    Who said crack dealers have nothing to teach service providers?

    • Re:uh-huh. (Score:2, Funny)

      by mattjb0010 ( 724744 )
      Who said crack dealers have nothing to teach service providers?

      Well they 'aint in it for love.

    • Re:uh-huh. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by antic ( 29198 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @06:55AM (#12405547)

      The Adelaide City Council, for all its faults, is desperately trying to lure 18-45s (their own stated demographic, bit broad if you ask me!) into the CBD. They're running a fairly expensive (for a council, anyway) advertising campaign and also have a small subsidised housing project for young employees under a certain threshold.

      Supporting this sort of initiative (Citilan) wouldn't be too stupid in aiding that. At the least, they could offer a free citi-wide intranet with various arts and entertainment projects running.
    • "Who said crack dealers have nothing to teach service providers?"

      So... what, any commercial product that offers a free taste of its services is considered crack dealing now? Or should they just make it free even though it costs them money to run?

      I wonder when it became fashionable around here to be a freeloader.

  • Adelaide (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:22AM (#12404964)
    Adelaide used to host the Australian Grand Prix, but the drivers fell asleep at the wheel when they saw the scenery.

    • You couldn't see it from the track, however, it isn't all that far away from the CBD - about 1/2 hours drive at "normal" person speed.

    • Unlike say, Bahrain, which had wonderful scenery involving a lot of sand. Or Malaysia, where the scenery was wonderful, just obscured by smog. Or Silverstone, which has the ugliest scenery in the world - England, and a whole lot of English people.

      Ok, so I'm being defensive. But Adelaide is actually quite attractive.
    • hahaha, it's funny cos it's true.

      I live there.

      Wait we have the Adelaide hills, hahndorf and... um.. victor harbor.. yeah...

      We've got some good mountain biking trails. Seriously, Adelaide isn't that bad :) Nice place to live, but probably not the nicest tourist spot.

      • Is Adelaide nice to live in? My wife and I are thinking of emigrating to Australia from the USA and we've kind of zeroed in on Adelaide. Just as someplace different than the standard Sydney/Melbourne option. From what I've read it's got a climate very similar to where we live in the USA (the SF Bay Area). Is Adelaide a boring place? Mountain biking trails sound good, we like to do that ....
        • Try Brisbane. I'm in Sydney at the moment but I am looking to move for a better lifestyle for my young family. From what i observe, everyone moves away from Adelaide to either Sydeny or Melbourne for better paying jobs and better careers. Nobody seems to move from Brisbane to Sydney/Melbourne. I t must say something about Brisbane I guess.

          I've personally have had enough of career (eg 8am til 6pm at work etc..) and now want my family to have a better lifestyle.

          Another problem with Sydney is can take upto
          • Thanks very very much for the response. I'm a little confused about your rankings of the cities you mentioned but I think you're saying:

            Pay:

            Sydney/Melbourne > Adelaide/Brisbane

            Liveability:

            Brisbane > Sydney/Melbourne > Adelaide

            Although I'm confused by your comments that everyone moves away from Adelaide to Sydney/Melbourne for higher pay and yet cannot afford a house. Affordability would make Adelaide a more liveable option and yet you say that everyone moves away to the less affordable place
            • yep your ranking are the same as mine.

              Brisbane is north eastern Australia (above sydney) a has tropical weather, Adelaide is down south and colder (in winter).

              Adelaide has a smaller job market and thats probably what drives people away.

              Brisbane, while small, seems to be growing and is more diverse

              Adelaide IT jobs are mainly defense related.
              I've included a link to a IT job page which I subscribe to, and i guess influences my opinions.

              Adelaide and Brisbane are very afforadble for housing. 4/5 bedroom and
              • Having lived in Adelaide all my life I would highly recommend it! But of course I can't speak for Brisbane, Sydney or the other cities, and as such am biased towards Adelaide.
                I have been to San Fran and have experienced the weather over there first hand and must say that Adelaide is probably very similar in climate. Hot in Summer, cold in Winter. Probably hotter in summer then SF and colder in winter too, although we left in early November, so didn't experience too much of winter.

                Adelaide is probably a mor

        • Having lived in Adelaide and Perth I would recomened both ahead of Sydney or Melbourne. Brisbane I have only visited and seems ok if you like tropical (Humid) weather. A friend of a friend moved to Sydney cos he could earn double the Adelaide pay but he is renting at twice the cost of my home loan traveling 2Hrs each day hoping to save enough to build a house further out on land that cost more than my 4 bed house 1/2 hr from city. The climate is too warm in summer for me but most people enjoy it as for wint
        • Adelaide is wonderful, but I doubt if its climate is much like San Fransisco. We don't get much fog, for a start. The climate is apparently Mediterranean - ie, hot, dry summers and mild, dampish winters. The only place I'd even consider moving to is Darwin, but that's only because I liked the lifestyle - the climate sucks, at least during our southern hemisphere summers (it's ok in winter, because it's dryish).

          There's an excellent mountain bike trail, not in Adelaide but a day or so's drive away - the Maws
        • The only major cities in Australia I've been to are Darwin, Adelaide, and Brisbane (going to melbourne for the first time in 3 weeks).

          Now I live in Adelaide, so I'm quite biased I guess. But I've asked some people about why they settled on Adelaide (I considered it a boring place). Generally the feeling is that Adelaide has all the facilities of a big city, but is much smaller and easier to get around. The CBD is very compact and surrounded by park lands. There are lots of cycling tracks suitable for famil

  • How will they migrate to commercial (Score:5, Insightful)

    by moz25 ( 262020 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:23AM (#12404969) Homepage
    What kind of fee will they be charging once it's commercial? Also, wouldn't it make sense to require people to register a free account so that the migration will be more structured?
    • I remember there being access availible to Internode customers in some way. It was rather good on the old systems, during Linux.conf.au in 2004, there was free access for confrence attendees. I remember me and some friends sitting down in a café in Rundle Mall having a nice overpriced lunch. Took us some time to find a place where we could eat that had coverage, though.

      Now I have a laptop with a working battery, I might go and use it next time I'm in the city.
    • I believe bandwidth used by internode customers would count towards their ADSL/dialup plans. So far though they haven't charged for usage at all.

  • What is the difference (Score:5, Interesting)

    by thegrassyknowl ( 762218 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:24AM (#12404977)
    Hasn't Citilan always been open for free (at least for members of a long list of ISPs including Internode, Adam, Esc.Net, and others)?

    I have used it on several occasions to grab files from the Node mirror instead of having to use dialup. It's even faster than my DSL if you can find a hotspot that isn't heavily used (sitting outside the State Library at 3am helps until you get arrested).

    They are going to close it off soon AFIK - there are too many leechers. There's always a bunch of (no offence, but they are always) asians around some of the more public indoor hotspots (library, museum, etc) that bring desktop PCs, fold out tables and chairs, etc just to leech free Internet for the day. There was even one there that brought his 5.1 surround speakers and the stands for the rear ones were set up behind him - in the middle of they foyer.

    I'm amazed that Citilan is still open to the public, actually - the ISPs are footing the bill and it's free, although I did hear talk that if you use a Node login on it you chew up your Node download quota for the month; but that was just a rumour, I've never heard proof of it.
    • Off topic - What were you actually doing to get yourself arrested at 3am outside of the State Library? Or do they actually enforce the no loitering laws in Adelaide?

      "Your honour, I wasn't loitering, I was surfing."

    • Even if they switch on authenticated Internet access, are they going to have problems with people just using the wireless layer 2 link for trading files between laptops etc.

      Are they using something like 802.1X/LEAP for layer 2 authentication, which would also prevent unauthorised use of the wireless, layer 2 bandwidth itself ?

      • I think they were using an open network, with a login page the first time you try to use the connection. With Kismet or something similar, you could probably get the login details from another customer, if the page isn't encrypted at all.
        • It is, with HTTPS. I use it when I'm in for a long bus wait in the middle of the day sometimes.

        • I think they were using an open network, with a login page the first time you try to use the connection.

          That's probably only the case if you enable DHCP, and then aquire an IP address from the Citylan network.

          My question is more about the idea of running your own IP subnet over the same wireless LAN, by statically configuring IP addresses on the interfaces of the devices that you want to communicate. In this sense, you aren't stealing Internet bandwidth, you're stealing wireless bandwidth. If it is an

          • Ah, I understand what you're getting at now, and it's rather selfish of those people.

            What's wrong with setting up your own Ad-Hoc network or using a small USB powered AP? Honestly...

            • Ah, I understand what you're getting at now, and it's rather selfish of those people.

              I certainly agree it's selfish, obviously that doesn't mean people won't try to do it :-). That being said, if people, such as Agile, make a useful and convenient resource freely and easily available, I think it's fairly likely that people will try use it. It's a bit like a having a tap available in a public park. Even if it is obviously not a drinking fountain, most people will probably have no problems with taking a d

              • IIRC, Agile/Citilan APs only use one channel. In the city, there's a bunch of other APs including a competing Telstra Bigpond service, and other buisnesses in Adelaide that either use wireless internally or for their customers (like at internet cafés). Sitting near the west end of Rundle Mall, which is the main shopping and café street in Adelaide, I picked up about five or six different networks. The only problem I can see is if you get a serious amount of traffic happening, in which case the
    • a question: Is it only the CBD? From what I remember, the adelaide CBD isn't very big at all, only ten or twenty blocks big, and is a bit isolated from the rest of the city.

    • Re:What is the difference (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Hasn't Citilan always been open for free (at least for members of a long list of ISPs including Internode, Adam, Esc.Net, and others)?
      Yes, yes it has. The difference is currently it is open for anybody, not just account holders of a few ISPs.

      There's always a bunch of (no offence, but they are always) asians around some of the more public indoor hotspots
      Wow, how positively racist, and +4 interesting too.

      I see people all over the place using it, and no more than the usual quota of asian people around

      • Wow, how positively racist

        Not meant to be racist (and apologies to anyone who took offence) - I see people all over the place using Citilan as well. It just seems the only ones that I have seen make out camp (with their desktop PCs and fold out tables) in the foyer of the library and around that area happen to be asian :)

        Seems you've noticed a couple of extreme cases and applied your labels

        Not so much a label as an observation. Everyone uses Citilan, but yes I have noticed the extreme cases. T

  • At the risk of being a total dick... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by august sun ( 799030 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:25AM (#12404985)
    do we really need a story everytime a new city gets free wifi? It was cool and progressive the first dozen times it happened but now it's just about as exciting as reporting on SBC running fiber optic lines in a new area (which is to say, not very)
    • Although it is great, every time that WiFi spreads, I must agree with you. Maybe every rollout might be interesting in some WiFi-oriented journal, but I think that the topic in general is fading as 'news.' Now if Adelaide had city-wide 802.16, then that would be news.
    • Sorry it seems you are not a citizen of Australia, if you were you would understand that the story isn't about free wifi in Adelaide. The story is actually about the fact that something has actually happened in Adelaide. You see saying nothing much happens in Adelaide is like saying the hollocast was "pretty bad".

  • Doh! (Score:1)

    by Fookin ( 652988 )
    I was so excited, but then I realized there probably wasn't a hotspot in good 'ol Freeport, ME.

    I really hate this town sometimes.

  • Security? (Score:3, Funny)

    by jtbauki ( 838979 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:31AM (#12405009)
    Won't identity theft be easier than ever? Now hackers can take down your information 5 miles away. They can just sit near the transmission towers. How can anyone secure their line without using a land line. Any attempt to establish a certain protocol or identity involves transmission of data, which will be intercepted and decrypted. Sure, we can just surf the web. But how about checking our email and posting on slashdot? We need to protect our DATA!

    • Re:Security? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dnixon112 ( 663069 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:42AM (#12405037)
      NEWS FLASH:

      Hackers can already get your information from anywhere in the world!

      • Re:Security? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by OlivierB ( 709839 )
        Well you are right, but I think the gp has a point as well; we should be taking reasonable measures not to expose ourselves to the "bad" guys.
        Making there life a little harder isn't forbidden.

        I have setup a VPN server on my home computer so that when I am travelling or when I connect via an unsecure connection (i.e Starbucks) I can always VPN my way home and not matter about security as much.

  • where? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02, 2005 @03:36AM (#12405022)
    It makes very poor manners to name a city without naming the country you're talking about.

    Background on Adelaide in Australia - the one mentioned in the article:
    http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/council/about/c ouncil-history.htm [adelaidecitycouncil.com]
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide [wikipedia.org]

    • Re:where? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by strider44 ( 650833 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @04:31AM (#12405190)
      Why? People do it with American and British cities all the time and it's not considered poor manners. Also, this is a story that will only actually matter to anyone who lives in Adelaide or is going to Adelaide in the near future, so if this is the case it is likely that they would at least know which country Adelaide is in.

      Personally I don't mind at all if they say just the city name if it's in the biggest four or five cities of a major country. I do however mind if there is several cities of the same name, it is a small or obscure city, or they are using abbreviations that noone outside the area knows. (American states anyone?)
      • yes, surely all Slashdot readers are educated enough to recognise the biggest cities in the countries around the world? :)

        • Re:where? (Score:2, Insightful)

          by aybiss ( 876862 )
          Only if it's followed by a two letter abbreviation.

          If you said 'Adelaide, NJ', or 'Adelaide, AZ' they'd all think they knew what you were on about even if they didn't.
          • How about Adelaide, SA? Does that help?
            • heh I hate those abbreviated state names. They're good for postage nothing else. On a chat forum with I was talking with some Englishmen and a bit of a variety of Europeans, and some guy came in. We asked him were he was from and he said "WA". Someone asked "Where's that?" and about four people (including me, I was the only Australian who said it though) said "oh it's Western Australia".

              The guy actually had the hide to call us idiots for his ignorance when he actually meant "Washington". Of course w
              • Agreed. I was actually being facetious. In order for it to have any context it would have to be Adelaide, SA, Australia. Heck, i wouldn't have known that Adelaide was in SA if I hadn't just visited Australia and been enjoying Bill Bryson's Down Under [amazon.com]. I would have assumed that they were talking about Australia though.
          • can't remember the 2 letter abbreviation for either Moldova or Turks & Caicos for the life of me!
        • Apparently not. Geography is just not as important as it used to be. Half of America doesn't even know what the capital of the country is! It is a sad state of affairs, I expected more from the /. ers.
      • why is it, that whenever i go to make a comment, this strider fellow makes exactly the same comment just earlier, and it gets modded 4 or 5? i mean, it's not fair! i have to work! btw, these days i go around saying i'm from nsw just to piss people off ;)
    • Who the fuck doesn't know that Adelaide isn't in Australia? Oh that's right, you're American, now it all makes sense. Mind you, I suppose you don't even know where Australia is.
  • As the acronym CBD claims, not many residential houses can be find within the wifi coverage. The most would be if they set up in some of the suburbs as well, Glenelg for example. Then you could check your mail at the beach ;)

  • Agile? Doing citywide wireless? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Talez ( 468021 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @04:07AM (#12405109)
    From the people who brought you "extreme ADSL2+" while only enabling 4 actual exchanges.

    This oughtta be a laugh.
    • From the people who brought you "extreme ADSL2+" while only enabling 4 actual exchanges. This oughtta be a laugh

      Firstly, there are another ~40 planned for 2005, and these are being held up by the evil oligopolistic Telstra [whirlpool.net.au].

      Secondly, the wireless points connect via standard ethernet into Agile's backbone network, I believe.
      • Thanks for the link. It's a little disappointing to read, but not at all surprising given Telstra's record. Still, I eagerly hang on to the hope that my exchange will indeed be activated by the end of the month! :-D
      • Firstly, there are another ~40 planned for 2005, and these are being held up by the evil oligopolistic Telstra.

        Oh noes! Not Telstra!

        So if Telstra is so evil why are iiNet so far along in their ADSL deployment?

        I'd wager a fifty that its because they get on with the job rather than spouting hot air and bitching about Telstra.
        • iiNet are a public company with lots of capital behind them, therefore lots of money to roll out new equipment across Australia. I believe they are the largest telco/ISP in AUstralia behind Telstra and Optus. Secondly, Internode/Agile were the first to roll out ADSL2+ at all - and I don't think any other ISP has yet enabled ADSL2+ on an exchange. So, while iiNet has made a wide deployment and are offering ADSL2 with 8mbps connection speeds, Internode/Agile are expanding at the pace they can and have ADSL2+

  • Great (Score:3, Funny)

    by ta bu shi da yu ( 687699 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @04:21AM (#12405155) Homepage
    The retirement capital of Australia, where most people don't have laptops and they temporarily roll out free Wireless networking. Wonderful.

    • Re:Great (Score:2, Funny)

      by cranos ( 592602 )
      Sorry thats the gold coast. Adelaide is the "Really weird murder" capital of the country.

      • Hahaha, yeah for some reason here in Adelaide people know us for the weird murders that go on (Bodies in the Barrels - inside a bank ). Ohh well. I'm surprised that this post was actually on Slashdot, I was AMAZED when I saw Adelaide in a slashdot post. Most friends I know in the city go to Adelaide Uni and use their wireless, or they hang out at the state library :P Still, this is probably good advertising for Agile and Internode, hahaha. I love both companies, they've managed to give Adelaide faster ADS
      • when you are the City of Churches, it is about 100% guaranteed to have more weird serial killers et. al. isn't it?

  • My Home Town!! (Score:5, Informative)

    by CypherOz ( 570528 ) on Monday May 02, 2005 @06:09AM (#12405424) Journal
    Adelaide [sa.gov.au] is a fantastic city! Surrounded by park lands - great place to work and live. Great weather, wine beaches, food, dining entertainment, and free wireless!

    Also: Wikipedia on Adelaide [wikipedia.org]
    • And even better, it's the next major city down the road from Perth... my home town!

      (For overseas readers unfamiliar with Australia... Quote from Pacific Island Travel [pacificislandtravel.com]: Curving around the Great Australian Bight, the route across the Nullarbor is legendary and one of Australia's great road journeys. It is more than 2700km from Perth to Adelaide, about the same as the distance from London to Moscow.)

      Just remember to pack some interesting reading material.
    • "Adelaide is a fantastic city! Surrounded by park lands - great place to work and live."

      Great place to visit, too. I spent a couple of weeks there. It was my first trip outside of the States, and I really enjoyed myself. Nice place, friendly people, even got to hold a Koala at a nearby zoo! (Kangaroos are bastards, though!)

      One of the best trips I ever took. :)
    • And the Central markets are the bets in Australia, if not the biggest. And hey - you can get Citilan reception in the T-Bar and Lucias (great Italian cafe) in the markets. Fantastic!
  • This has to be the saddest attempt at whipping up tourist enthusiasm...apart from Ben Fold's song...
    • My favourite is when Ben Folds, having endured the oft-asked question by other Australians "Don't you get sick of how boring Adelaide is?" replied "Australia is the Adelaide of the world".
  • I'm just about to leave and meet my wife, who's working at the Glass Arts Society international conference there.

    I had debated bringing my laptop, but now I know I can get wireless it's a cinch. I can spend all my time on Slashdot!
  • Maybe this municipal initiative will jumpstart the competition that will get telecomcos to offer a commercial service without public subsidy. Before the telecomcos outlaw such competition altogether, so they can concentrate on only the easiset, most profitable market segments, and leave the rest of us behind.

  • Excellent, I'll be in Adelaide for work shortly with my PowerBook and WoW in tow, I can save the hotel dial up bills and just use free wireless :)

    having been to Adelaide before, there's not a whole heap to do after hours... I've been present for drinking the Colonel Light dry once already, and casinos aren't really that entertaining any more.

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