Wireless APs in Homebrew Coffee Shops? 523
An anonymous reader writes "Having seen lots of complaints about the overpriced T-Mobile Wireless APs in Starbucks ($10/hr) got me thinking about setting up a wireless AP for the small, family-owned coffeeshop in my town under the tip jar model. I'm assuming ~$100 for the router, ~$500 for a PC to use to control quotas (to prevent over-zealous Kazaa users, block spammers and script kiddies and other would-be abusers) - but what software should I be using? Do enough people have 802.11a/g cards that it would be worth it to invest in that rather than an 802.11b router?" Has anyone considered making a Linux distribution for use by cybercafes, to handle wireless access and anything else such an outfit might need?
"Since this is a medium (50,000-ish) size town, and pretty much everyone in the coffee shop is a regular, would a tip jar model work? I'm figuring suggest a donation - what should I set that at?
Finally, keep in mind that the owner is not a geek - I'd be doing this when not studying (I'm a college student), so this would be set up over the summer, and most of the maintenance would be done on the weekends and/or via SSH.
Any other thoughts would be appreciated."
Check out Austin wireless (Score:5, Informative)
Best ones are free (Score:5, Insightful)
Overall, I think that your idea is great. I think you are making a bit more complex than it needs to be. If you want to have quotas that is fine, but why not just put up a 802.11g router (they are cheap) and allow open access. If you want to make sure that people buy stuff to get access - they do what another post says - WEP key on reciept, changed daily (sure, not hard to get around, but more of an honor system). And sure - put up a tip jar - clearly labeled with something like "FOR THE SUPPORT OF OPEN INTERNET ACCESS" or something like that. Heck, with this setup, you could be ready to go tomorrow (not next summer).
I say just go simple. If you make access easy and pretty much open - people will come in just for that. Especially in a college campus area - simple and pretty much unlimited will probably draw a solid crowd.
RonB
Re:Best ones are free (Score:3, Interesting)
Heck, I would just provide the access via a solid wireless router. I would make it free and open to all. Block ports of known things you don't want running (KaZaa etc). That is all I would do. I would also do the tip jar just to get some extra cash to help pay for the access (but don't expect too much). And finally I would put up a clearly visible, but not obtrusive, sign that says "Free inte
Re:Best ones are free (Score:4, Insightful)
The security bit is probably not so much of an issue for a cafe, but monitoring access (and if you do decided to charge a small fee, that'll be essential) is really useful.
Re:Best ones are free (Score:4, Insightful)
They just have a DSL modem and an Apple Airport. No computer etc. This works just fine. People are not there long enough for major file sharing. I did download Open Office once while I was there.
watch for lawsuits! (Score:3, Interesting)
I laughed, but they were completely serious. Apparently libraries have been sued before [crosswalk.com] because of the content of the internet! But if the library installs filters, they violate first admendment rights. [findarticles.com]
I know this doesn't help with your decision, but you might want to have some sort of disclaimer up stating the cafe is not responsible for
Yep - you're making it WAY too complicated (Score:3, Informative)
The owners are NOT techies, and installed Wi-Fi in their forst location basically
Re:Best ones are free (Score:4, Insightful)
Friendliness vs. Paranoia - the More Coffee Model (Score:5, Interesting)
WEP isn't necessary for your customers - the main reason coffee-shops use it is to restrict access to paying customers, and you're not doing that - you're selling them friendliness and coffee and chair space and pastries that aren't too sticky to eat next to a computer. If you've got an issue with one of your neighbors sucking down bandwidth, that's different, of course, but setting WEP is an obstacle for users, especially if they've got their own WEP settings for their home or office.
Security and quotas are less necessary than you'd expect, as long as your DSL ISP is good. Start open, and maybe monitor usage and see what problems you get, rather than starting locked down tight, i.e. use your router's security features rather than buying a PC to start with, unless you also want to have the PC for customers who don't bring laptops. (And if your ISP is the uptight, policy-heavy types, running free or especially paid wireless in your store probably violates their policies, plus they're probably already restricting SMTP.) For consumer DSL ISPs, I'm quite happy with sonic.net, Speakeasy's also good and has nationwide coverage, and ever Earthlink's not too bad. Business DSL providers will charge a bit more, and tend to have flexible policies. Cable Modems are a much better match technically, but are run by terminally clueless paranoids who don't understand their business models, so you can't use them except maybe with a higher-priced business-class service.
You're unlikely to have much problem with spammers - geeks hate them, and have fun imagining scenarios like drive-by spammers, but in a small town, it's more of a know-your-customer thing. If you're in a college town, or get lots of high-school kids, you may need to worry more about crackers using your system. On the other hand, you need to leave things open for gamers, and the problem there is making sure the high-school kids keep buying enough drinks to make up for chair space. KaZaa's not really much of a problem, as long as your ISP doesn't ban it, because users are transient enough that they won't be doing much uploading, just leeching.
yes they are (Score:3, Insightful)
wep key on receipt! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:2, Insightful)
Tech support would eat up too much time.
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:3, Interesting)
Horsecrap (Score:5, Insightful)
College Students (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:College Students (Score:5, Funny)
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:4, Informative)
Your mom. (Score:3, Interesting)
At least, mine does. So does anyone else who has a recent Mac. She might well wind up in such a place, if she was travelling with her laptop, which of course she does -- and in that case, she would surely be able to handle a simple web proxy form, but not a WEP password.
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a linksys system in my home that is working fine in that capacity, plus by putting the router in a location low only about 4-5 feet off the ground, you pretty much limit the working range to just inside your establishment. If you use 2 routers one wireless one not, you can block access to the companies computers to the wireless users again it can be done on the routers themselves, no extra PC needed.
Re: block IP ports (Score:5, Informative)
This is exactly the approach I took when setting up a similar hotspot. I published some of the technical details here [lakeanne.net]. We use mostly Netgear wireless routers, and a FreeBSD box for the core firewall/gateway.
Re: Why block IRC (Score:3, Interesting)
We thought about this one. In my experience, IRC is used as a conduit for zombies, viruses, and the like far more than it is used for people chatting. To be specific, I have noted blocked IRC traffic (ingress and egress) in the firewall logs, yet never once had anyone complain that something was not working. This includes several office environments where I have set up the network, including the firewall. I figured the one or two people who need (or even want) it would shout about it and I would let their m
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
OP: Here is a fun tip - (Score:5, Informative)
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:5, Informative)
Great, so you can browse the web and transfer files to insecure sites. But then you can't send or receive mail, make secure file transfer (scp) or shell (ssh) connections, or use any kind of instant messaging client. In other words, if your idea of internet access is limited to passively absorbing web pages, you're covered, but if you were thinking of actually doing anything, it's useless.
If you want to avoid abuse of a tiny wireless network, what you're mostly going to be concerned about is bandwidth consumption. There are quite a few [freshmeat.net] tools for controlling bandwidth consumption under Linux; check them out. If you aren't providing all available bandwidth to the first user who tries to hog it, neither Kazaa abusers or coffee-swilling part-time spammers are going to cause you much grief.
If you want to get a bit more fine-grained than that, there are a buttload [freshmeat.net] of tools to help you monitor what your users are doing, and many of them are scriptable and can set off some kind of alarm if someone is behaving badly.
In any event, you'll offer a much better service if you block only those things which you want to always avoid from the outset, and install tools to help you detect and interrupt the occasional abuse of otherwise innocuous services.
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:5, Interesting)
Users are much more familiar with this approach and it is no more complex (less actually) than the revolving WEP.
Re:wep key on receipt! (Score:3, Interesting)
Assuming you have your router/firewall nicely blocking abusable ports, you could just write the WEP key on a card by the tip jar. Smaller than the "Support Community Internet" sign of course
A lot of routers support ASCII keys, so the staff can think up funny ones to use and the customers won't have to sit by the tip jar while entering the key.
As for "no
I think your estimates are way too high (Score:5, Insightful)
Further, it probably doesn't even require $500 for a PC capable enough to do the job...if you have any computer shows in your area, you could probably just pick up an old (but reasonably loaded) PIII box for ~$100-$150.
With those kinds of prices, the coffee shop should go for it!
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:3, Informative)
The parent was right - try going to a nearby computer show, you'll probably find something fairly cheap that will do the trick.
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:3, Informative)
I've been using one of their older models, the Net4501, for over a year now as an OpenBSD firewall. It's nice to have a configurable fir
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:5, Informative)
Unless you want to put in 2 radios, but this is tip jar.
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:5, Informative)
Modern 802.11g equipment, i.e. everything made or flashed after the standard was finalized, will support CTS. In a mixed b/g environment, this ensures that any device being cleared to send will be able to do so at its full speed.
What's more detrimental to speed is if someone talks on a 2.4GHz cordless phone or nukes something in the microwave.
Regards,
--
*Art
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:5, Informative)
Further, it probably doesn't even require $500 for a PC capable enough to do the job...if you have any computer shows in your area, you could probably just pick up an old (but reasonably loaded) PIII box for ~$100-$150.
One caveat, however, which has bitten me on the ass before. Some wireless cards (esp. ones made by D-Link) are designed for use with PCI 2 compliant motherboards. Unfortunately, most Pentium III motherboards are based on PCI 1, and won't even "see" a PCI 2 card. Accordingly, before you shell out on a 802.11b PCI card, check that it will work in your "legacy" machine.
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:2)
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree completely! Remember the ComputerWorld article about wireless access at Panera Bread restaurants [computerworld.com]?
Perhaps just amend the note on the tip jar: "For excellent service AND wireless access!"
Re:I think your estimates are way too high (Score:5, Informative)
802.11b is the absolute maximum you should go. it's silly to go higher when your Internet access is slower than 802.11b with 10 users on that same access point.
next you need a firewall, a P-1 166 will do it perfecly and handle twice the load that you will ever see
now go to here [nocat.net] and get their system that works great and will solve most all your worries.
Oh and be sure to survey your entire area to be sure there is good access in every sitting location but not much available outside your desired coverage area.
basically, if you already have a commercial T-1 or other business level internet access in your building you can get it installed and running for less than $200.00 in hardware and a couple of weekends of time.
router (Score:3, Informative)
Re:router (Score:5, Insightful)
No PC (Score:2)
Re:No PC (Score:5, Insightful)
Except when the hog is a neighbor who has discovered the free access and is running a Kazaa file sharing client or doing some other high-bandwidth use activity. Remember, this is wireless - the person using the bandwidth might not always be visible to you.
Re:No PC (Score:4, Funny)
Just put it between you and the neigbor where it won't block your customers.
Re:No PC (Score:5, Interesting)
It should be pretty easy to spot this kind of thing...keep an eye out for out-of-hours connections to the wireless access point and block their MAC address.
Re:No PC (Score:4, Insightful)
Or, better yet, unplug* the WAP at night--100% hackproof!
* even easier to maintain: put it in an outlet that's connected to a wall-mounted lightswitch-style switch. At night, turn it off with the lights.
cafe software (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.baspe.com/baspecafe.html
Re:cafe software (Score:2, Interesting)
Try Sputnik... (Score:2, Informative)
802.11b for compatability (Score:3, Insightful)
Just my $0.02
But what would you call it? (Score:3, Funny)
I've done something similar... (Score:4, Informative)
I currently use the SG-20's for a managed firewall solution for small businesses which I run Gentoo on. (You can substitute your Distribution of choice of course)
Some thoughts here (Score:2)
Get a decent dual-mode A/G or tri-mode A/B/G access point, and skimp a bit on the computer hardware.
I would be surprised if you couldn't bring the price down to around $300 in total.
You can set up a NAT/firewall easily enough using iptables on any 2.4 kernel'd linux, but I'm not sure how you could handle quotas and I've never ever figured out traffic-shaping in linux--and I doubt many have.
Re: Popularity (Score:2, Informative)
20 people sharing a single dsl/cable line would not be very practical, so you would have to factor in the cost of a faster internet connection.
Do enough people have 802.11a/g
If you go with 802.11g router it will support both b/g and if you go for a 802.11b router, almost all 802.11g cards will support it.
Although, 802.11g built in cards, (most new notebooks) from my experiance have a hard time connecting to 802.11b. As for 802.11a, forget it, because no one wi
Re: Popularity (Score:2)
I have a Centrino notebook and it has no problem connecting to my LinkSys WAP11b at home or the Cisco (don't know model off hand) b at work. I was under the impression that almost all g/b can connect to each other...
Building Wireless Community Networks (Score:5, Informative)
I have not read the book, but I have looked at the table of contents and the index. The book looks to be a designed to answer many of the questions that you have asked. Hopefully someone on Slashdot has read the book and can tell you if it will help you in your effort to set up a wireless network at your local coffee shop.
use a FreeBSD Access Point (Score:5, Informative)
Configuring a FreeBSD Access Point for Your Wireless Network [samag.com]
CB
NoCatAuth is all you need (Score:5, Informative)
Re:NoCatAuth is all you need (Score:5, Interesting)
The first time you connect to any website you are redirected to a local webserver that prompts you for your name/pass. you key it in, and now your mac or ip is "authorized," and the rest of your connection is completely unrestricted. You cant do anything else until you login to their web server, and once you log in your ID is "used up."
pretty slick, since it requires zero geekness for whoever is at the register, they just sell cards like any other product. I'm pretty sure their backend is based on nocatauth
OpenBSD is your friend (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OpenBSD is your friend (Score:3, Insightful)
The "tip jar business model" (Score:3, Funny)
Start small (Score:3, Insightful)
Gear (Score:2)
I also don't think you'll have a big problem with Kazaa users and the like. It's a small coffee shop, right? Think someone is going to sit for hours and hours just to do that?
Re:Gear (Score:2)
You will have plenty of trouble using VPN if you're behind NAT on a router without passthrough anyway.
Survey (Score:2)
If there are lots of people interested, you will need to figure a price that will be able to maintain it over time, a bandwidth price/#of customers.
Also in the survey find out what these customers think is a reasonable amount to pay for the service.
If it is in demand and not a financial burden, I would look into getting a Wireless B AP...we don't want the 'creative' customers going cr
Re:Survey (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm one who can't sit at home and get any work done, I need background noise. Still, in all those years, I very rarely needed to connect to the internet. If I did, I'd use my cell phone, just to check some facts but it wasn't a necessity.
Thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
Giving it away free also simplifies administration, and can be seen as an easy and cheap promotion to attract customers.
Secondly, with 802.11g routers costing $79, cost isn't much of an issue. This is a business expense, go ahead and pony up the $30 extra bucks for a decent piece of equipment.
Port blocking? (Score:3, Insightful)
Overzealous Kazaa users? There is some amount of Kazaa usage you'd allow in your coffeee shop? You don't really need a PC to do sophisticated packet filtering... why not just block the ports that Kazaa uses? I also don't know how you could "filter" vaguely defined script kiddie activity.
My wireless-basestation-included broadband router cost $55 with a $20 rebate, and you can block ports and ban MAC addresses with it (you have to assign the MAC address to a certain ip range, and then block that ip range), btw.
Re:Port blocking? (Score:2)
Personal Telco Project of Portland Oregon (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.personaltelco.net
We use NoCat on linux based boxes and it covers most of what your looking to do. You can set up Auth or simply a Splash, you can do throttling, shaping and the like, you can set up local content areas for biz and community use.
Its amazing what older PCs and low cost APs can do. Most of the stuff is easy to install, the few rough spots, like NoCat, have been feild tested and methodologies have been crafted to make it easier to set and and maintain.
Come on over to the url posted above for more information or head to #ptp on irc.freenode.net and ask for more info.
Re:Personal Telco Project of Portland Oregon (Score:4, Insightful)
Old 133cpu computers + Linksys wrt54g + 12dbOmni = Low Cost Wireless Networking
Old 133 Computer with a nic 1gigHD,soundcard, etc=about 40$ from freegeek.org
WRT54g = about 80$
12dbOmni= about 40$
parts(mount, cable,etc)= about 40$
Linux = about $0
Total Cost = about 200$
This gets you a set up that can server some web pages, act as an Auth or Splash gateway, get some great coverage and even play up some mp3s.
Coffee house cool meets DIY down home goodness.
www.personaltelco.net
Plug Plug Plug (Score:3, Informative)
OpenBSD, pf, ALTQ (Score:5, Informative)
There's provision for requiring authentication on wireless connections. Even with a tip jar model you may want that.
Keep WEP turned off (yes, you just heard that from a security consultant!). WEP doesn't match your security model 'cause it assumes everyone using the same key trusts each other. Since it doesn't do what you need, it's not worth the cost in inconveniencing the customers.
Turn the power down on the access point. No need to provide service to people across the street or down the block.
Why PC? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems to me that the PC is just another expensive thing to break. Look for a high-end wireless router that will supply whatever functionality you need in a self-contained box, and leave the PC out of it, at least until some need actually presents itself. You can probably find a decent router for under $100 at current prices; still much cheaper and simpler than $20 router + $200 PC.
Go for cheap/reliable before speed... (Score:5, Informative)
Go with 802.11b. Your internet connection isn't nearly fast enough to saturate 11Mb/s. Use an access point that goes to an ethernet card on the computer, which has another card that goes to the internet. If you want to run a wired or private network as well, hang a third card off the computer and make sure no one can go from the public network to the private one, only to the internet.
Then go wild with the linux. Be aware that the more programs you run, the more vulnerable you are to attacks. You'll be ssh'ing in every month to update the software if you use any new software that hasn't undergone the rigors of years of public internet testing.
Alternately, use an AP/Router combination. Make sure you don't skimp. Many have ability to block ports, limit usage, etc. You won't be able to prevent spammers as easily, but your ISP will tell you if that' becoming an issue. If so, put in a box later.
-Adam
Semi-honor system.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I would suggest changing the password daily, and giving it away free to people who spend $5+ (?) when they come in. Anyone else can pay 50 cents extra for it. It would be sort of an honor thing for people to not pick up a slip laying around and surf free.
I think anything that requires you to give out individual passwords would require you to raise your price on access by $1 just to cover the administration. If you don't change passwords regularly, people in neighboring businesses are likely to start using your connection.
Keep in mind that you will be providing a connection that could be popular with people trading kiddie porn if you are not careful. I would recommend putting a bandwidth cap of 128/16kbps or 256/16kbps to keep the roaches off you net.
Hopefully you already realize that you will be violating the TOS for any household internet account. Buying a business account will likely double the ISP cost.
Keep the administrative costs down (Score:2, Informative)
The solution you want to look at... (Score:3, Informative)
The end result of this is a small integrated PC with no moving parts, and mounts it's file-system read-only so no worries about corruption, with a built-in access point. These work great, and are a bit larger than the size of a VHS casette.
I've deployed a number of these, and they are rock solid. Plus, they have advanced routing capabilities thanks to Linux, and the ability to block infected or abusive users from re-associating with the AP.
As far as going with 802.11 a or g... You must be pulling in some pretty mighty bandwidth to need to use something faster than 802.11g. Pebble includes "MadWiFi", a driver for some a/g cards, but I haven't used it.
Sean
Wireless router (Score:2)
that way you don't have to have any operating system or anything that will just confuse "mom and pop". if they've got this box that just plugs into their ADSL line and if things go wrong they turn it off and on again?
something like this [netgear.com] should do the trick nicely.
My advice based on limited experience (Score:2)
I just did a similar setup (Score:3, Informative)
we basically set it up as a free spot, as the owner didn't want to take any time away from the bartenders [quenchers.com] serving beer.
it's just a 1.5/384 adsl line from covad with a zyxel prestige 645 and a linksys wap54g- g is easy because it's fully compatble with b and only a slight price increase, I wouldn't mess with a.
zyxel makes a great 'hotspot in a box' [eweek.com] that features the reciept printer and seems to do a great job overall. I think it was about $600 at that time.
funny, I submitted a very similar 'ask slashdot' in july and it was rejected- I don't even attept to submit stories anymore, I know someone else will eventually and it will be accepted.
My Advice: Keep it Simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's what I think you should do:
1) Get the cheapest DSL connection you can find in your area.
2) Buy as few low-end 802.11b AP's as it takes to provide coverage to your shop and store front (assuming you have tables out front or something).
3) Configure the AP's for public access, and use your shop's name for your SSID.
This will provide a decent level of Internet service for your customers with the minimum of maintenance and effort on your part. Most importantly, it will let you focus on your core business, which is coffee and sundries. Think of the Internet service purely as an amenity, like piped-in music or a TV in the corner, and treat it as a cost of doing business, not a profit center. Don't worry about how good the Internet service is, just concentrate on the coffee. Most people won't complain (loudly, anyway) about the quality of an amenity they are getting for free. Just set the appropriate expectations. The key phrase is... "best effort".
This will accomplish the real objective: bringing people into your store to buy your product, and keeping them there as long as possible (because hopefully, the longer they stay, the more product they buy), while at the same time minimizing your cost and overhead of providing the amenity.
NoCatAuth article in Linux Journal (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6887 [linuxjournal.com]
The skinny on b vs g (Score:4, Insightful)
A warning, though. Don't go into this assuming that it'll be maintenance free. I run one of these for the local neighbors, and they're regularly calling me up to find out what's wrong with the connection. Run it for a month or so without charging people. This will both hook your customers on the idea of having it available, and give you the time to figure out the best location of your router, how much regular maintenance your system will take, and if it's worth your effort.
some ideas (Score:5, Insightful)
i'd stay away from deploying your own linux-pc-based solution for as long as you can. a hardware box that includes all functionality would clearly be best, even if slightly more expensive. eg. a wireless router with bandwidth management. something that, once set up, remains easy to use. unfortunately i don't know of any specific models that would do exactly what you want. you could always talk to the manager of some starbucks, or borders bookstore, and ask them what they use.
second, i like the idea of not going with the subscription model. my local coffeehouse just deployed wifi (using facefive [facefive.com]), and when they did a test run for free, it caused quite a stir - a lot of people were coming in for the internet, and i think buying more. then they switched to the subscription model (only barely cheaper than starbucks), and it stopped.
and while anecdotal evidence proves nothing, i just mean to say that a tip-jar model, even if it doesn't bring explicit income to cover wifi costs, should cause increased traffic, especially from students. this should translate to higher sales, and most likely also longer table occupancy. you should do a test run for three months, and see whether it pays off.
and when you do that, please post the results!
Mudhouse in Springfield, MO (Score:4, Insightful)
So how does this work? How come they haven't been hacked or had tons of b/w leeches? I think all this works because the coffee house was a pretty decent community to start with. It serves the local college kids, is part of the monthly art walk (they act as a gallery for a local artist), and you'll usually see/hear a group of teenage/college-age church groups, and lots of people who just want to sit and chat and have coffee. There's an honor system, and it seems to work. (Case in point would be my accessing the admin functions, but not changing anything, just taking a peek to see what kind of setup they were running.)
I'd estimate the coffeeshop seats maybe 60 people, and you'll see maybe 3 or 4 laptops on a Friday or Saturday night. The model probably works cause the kind of atmosphere the coffee shop has - they have board games you can borrow, and there's almost always a group playing Scrabble, and usually a group playing Skip-Bo or some other card game. They also have two large bookshelves filled with books (it seems to be a popular site for people to release books from bookcrossing.com).
I'd imagine in a town of 50k, just plugging in a WAP would work fine. All these people suggesting traffic shaping, changing WEP keys daily, etc etc might want to consider that a social solution might work just as well as a technical one in this case.
dirt cheap and easy... just like i like my girls (Score:3, Interesting)
PC (FOR CONTROL) - the owner probably already has one. spreadsheets for payroll etc. Many ap's can be controlled with just a browser.
TECH SUPPORT (FOR CUSTOMERS) - don't do it. free internet access, but customers must set themselves up. Besides, if someone is lost, they could always ask someone else with a laptop to give a hand.
SECURITY - two options. As many have pointed out, WEP Key on receipt. Or, just have open access (sounds crazy, but so is anybody who submits sensitive information to a non SSL page). Either way, have a disclaimer posted.
QUOTAS (referencing the Kazaa statemnt) - port blocking would be easier. Still, I would wait and see if this is really an issue.
MONTHLY COST OF INTERNET ACCESS - That's the real cost that matters to the owner. That and whatever you charge him to support the thing.
-t
Provide 802.11 but no AC outlets (Score:5, Interesting)
College Perk in College Park (Score:3, Interesting)
Another place in the area told me "we don't have wireless because I don't want people coming in and just using the Net and not buying anything."
OK, well, guess where I buy my coffee now?
Also at College Perk, I organized a Chat [thesync.com] with the Baghdad Internet Cafe [iraqbaghdad.net] that brought in many customers.
Donation Jar for upgrade (Score:3, Insightful)
As I recently discovered when I counted the change that had accumulated in the coin compartment in my car, bouncing back loose change can add up pretty quick.
802.11a vs. 802.11b/g (Score:3, Informative)
So, the next question is, should you go 802.11g (~54mbit), which is backward compatible with 802.11b?
How fast is your internet access going to be? Is it even going to be faster than 802.11b will provide (11mbit)? If users want to do laptop to laptop transfers, they should just use a crossover ethernet cable (100mbit). Hint: Most ADSL is 384kbit and will let you grab ~1mbit when things aren't busy at the ISP. 1mbit is "fast" for most folks.
IHMO, the owner should just see is as a way to increase his customer base for his existing revenue model, and have a cool thing to do when things are slow (but need to keep the other employees in check if things aren't getting done and he's not there all the time).
Futher, I'd suggest a caching engine like Squid [squid-cache.org], which can help with content filtering as well (say for employees, make them login before they can surf so you can track their time, etc.). Squidguard [squidguard.org] is my filter preference for filtering and there are many free content DBs online.
I'd be filtering porn sites, probably gambling, probably hate sites, etc., as I'd not want one customer offending another with graphic images. Of course, you could say MYOB and tell the guy to sit where no one can see his laptop, whatever...
NoCat [nocat.net] is a good authentication model as well just so you can track folks in case something illegal is taking place.
m0n0wall (Score:3, Informative)
You can setup a Soekris [soekris.com] box running m0n0wall [m0n0.ch] and do everything in a single small box with no moving parts. Alternately you can save some cash using an old PC and either a CD-R or some sort of bootable flash drive.
It's embedded FreeBSD and will do all of the basic AP functions plus firewalling, traffic-shaping to keep P2P hogs from becoming nuisances, local DNS registration, etc.
Finances (Score:3, Insightful)
Moral of the story: Get money first. Make sure the owner is really going to follow through with the idea. If they aren't comfortable giving you money first, make sure you have some kind of written agreement showing they know how much it will cost and agree to pay you that amount.
Re:Coffee shop distro (Score:2)
CB
Re:Possible suggestion (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to mention you'll probably want all sorts of disclaimers for people to outright accept if they're willing to risk using your network. Someone could possibly find their account had been hacked and assume it was your "mom-and-pop operation" that mishandled the data floating through the air, or that the server you setup got hacked, allowing all data to be sniffed -- with WEP, the data through the air is encrypted, but unless the user is using SSL or some other encryption, the data from the server to the internet is not encrypted.
Read this first (Score:3, Informative)
Go cheap (Score:3, Informative)
Go with 802.11b. Your internet connection isn't nearly fast enough to saturate 11Mb/s. Use an access point that goes to an ethernet card on the computer, which has another card that goes to the internet. If you want to run a wired or private network as well, hang a third card off the computer and make sure no one can go from the public network to t
Misleading write-up (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why is every "Ask Slashdot" completely stupid? (Score:3, Insightful)
By posting on the Slashdot front page and collecting a few hundred comments, the story poster gets