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Wireless Networking United States Hardware

FCC Goes WiFi 108

Posted by michael from the one-short-ping-for-man-one-giant-leap-for-government dept.
Newer Guy writes "Today, the FCC announced that they will offer their visitors free wireless Internet access. Here's the press release (pdf)."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

FCC Goes WiFi More

FCC Goes WiFi

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  • cool.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by THEbwana ( 42694 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:12AM (#6613714)
    So they're becoming an Isp? - Great! Maybe that will give them some exposure to the legal/privacy problems arising from all those nutty anti-privacy and drm bills pushed through in Washington..

    • Re:cool.. (Score:5, Funny)

      by CausticWindow ( 632215 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:17AM (#6613730)

      Think of the posibilities. Take a trip there, load up Slashdot and click on any link in the comments (goatse) and sue them for broadcasting indecent material.

      • Re:cool.. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by THEbwana ( 42694 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:24AM (#6613743)
        hehe.. or for concealing the identity of logged on people (by providing an anonymous service) - isn't that illegal in some states now ?
        I remember hearing the brouhaha about nat'ing becoming illegal due to this.. Would be fun if the first ISP to be tried in court was the FCC :-) /m
        • Fortunately that won't happen in DC, afterall it's not a state you know. Which means it isn't able to provide it's residents the same rights and privleges that real states can ... like real representation in the House and Senate. 'Course, its not like we had a war over things like taxation without representation.

          Oh wait, we did ...
          • Y'know, there's a real easy way to fix that, if you happen to live in DC.

            Move to a suburb or a different city.

            IMO, _no one_ should be a resident of DC. you can live there, but you should be a "non-resident resident" of some other state. Just like if you're on an overseas base, serving in congress, etc...
            • If you extrapolated that to "if you don't like the US, leave" the locals (Americans) here on Slashdot would have you burned at the stake.

              The situation with DC is patently absurd. There are third world countries that fare better at the hands of Congress than the citizens of DC. As to your "non-resident resident" note, at the very least those who live in DC should be considered part of Maryland or Virginia for the purposes of anything larger than a citywide function and be able to act accordingly (eg. voting
              • As to your "non-resident resident" note, at the very least those who live in DC should be considered part of Maryland or Virginia for the purposes of anything larger than a citywide function and be able to act accordingly (eg. voting). But that isn't an available option. And really neither is your suggestion to move out.

                Bullocks.

                DC's a puny city--and it's got loads of suburbs. Congress SHOULD have extended the Metro out to the suburbs, and banned all long-term residential housing inside the city. If yo
  • they even have wifi in their phone number. wonder what it's good for, as they "don't offer tech support?" maybe just "um, guys, can you hit the reset switch?"

    -Leigh

  • Woohooo (Score:4, Funny)

    by MC68040 ( 462186 ) <henric@dFORTRANi ... m minus language> on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:14AM (#6613719) Homepage
    Now I can read my RFC's via WIFI at the FCC!

  • 802.11g (Score:5, Insightful)

    by error502 ( 694533 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:16AM (#6613726)
    The system uses the 802.11a and 802.11b protocols, commonly refered to as WiFi.

    What about 802.11g? If they're supporting 802.11a, they might as well support 802.11g, too.

    Maybe they figure that the 802.11b users will just slow down the network for everyone, so they won't even bother. Why not have 2 separate APs, then? One for 802.11b and one for 802.11g?

    • Re:802.11g (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bjbrog ( 617956 )
      802.11g is backwards compatible so you would still be able to connect there just not at 52 Mbs. If all they are giving public is the ability to access the internet and not share files between computers then there is no hope of getting speeds faster then the 11Mbs that 802.11b will give you anyway. So as of now there isn't that much of a need for 802.11g.

    • Re:802.11g (Score:4, Insightful)

      by espo812 ( 261758 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @09:54AM (#6615069)
      Why not have 2 separate APs, then? One for 802.11b and one for 802.11g?
      There's this thing called money that is used as a medium of exchange between people in the market place. It is valuable because it is rare and represents the value of work that is done. Incase you haven't heard, the economy is being a bit slow and the government doesn't have gobbs of it anymore (and neither do we). So to implement twice as many APs they would hate to tax me (one way or another) some more to pay for them. No thanks.

      In fact, seeing the defecit we're running - why are they buying APs at all? Is this going to save me money? Is it going to increase my benefits? I'll wager no on both counts.
      • yes, yes it is. The more people who have to come into their waiting room with laptops and wireless NICs, the fewer people who complain about the wait. Mission accomplished.

    • Re:802.11g (Score:2, Insightful)

      by O_Chaos ( 695327 )
      Yeah, I thought that when reading the article. Seriously, who uses 802.11a??

      I have had nothing but bad luck with it!

      • To quote an AT&T ad from a few years ago, "You will."
      • Your right about 11a.
        A few months ago, my trusty 802.11b nic died on me. I was out looking for a replacement when I found one for $50 after rebate.

        I figured it wouldn't be too bad. After all, I would have compatability with 11a, 11b and 11g.

        Unfortunately, I have yet to find someone that uses 11a.

        In short, I could of saved about 35 dollars if I went for a straight 11b nic.

        -Grumpy Consumer, Forest Grump

  • Spammers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:16AM (#6613727)
    It seems pretty ironic that the FCC, while on the one hand leading a battle against spam, would choose to offer Wi-Fi, potentially catering to wannabe spammers. But of course this won't be a problem, since in true US gov't fashion they'll obviously protect the network against this type of misuse.

    Not.

    • Re:Spammers (Score:4, Interesting)

      by RevMike ( 632002 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {ekiMver}> on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:42AM (#6613784) Journal
      It seems pretty ironic that the FCC, while on the one hand leading a battle against spam, would choose to offer Wi-Fi, potentially catering to wannabe spammers.

      I'm not sure that I understand this comment? I'm sure the FCC will not be connecting the access points directly to their internal network. A spammer sitting in their courtyard won't be able to access the FCC mail relay as if they were in the FCC. They'll only get "plain" access to the internet.

      The spammers could run a sendmail process directly on their laptop that would route to the destination mail relay directly, but they could do this from any connection with any ISP. Does anyone filter outgoing SMTP packets? That would would be almost as bad as filter packets destined for port 80!

      • Re:Spammers (Score:4, Interesting)

        by 87C751 ( 205250 ) <sdotNO@SPAMrant-central.com> on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:58AM (#6613819) Homepage
        Does anyone filter outgoing SMTP packets? That would would be almost as bad as filter packets destined for port 80!
        Lots of ISPs restrict port 25 connections to their own mail servers (vis. Earthlink), ostensibly to "prevent spam". And while it does raise the bar, it does not prevent spamming. It just coerces the spammer into using the ISP's mail servers from throwaway accounts.

        Some ISPs are more draconian. Basic-level AT&T Prepaid Internet appears to permit only ports 80 and 443 to connect out. Their website (unavailable to outside connections, hence no link) hints at an "Enhanced Service" that permits FTP, VPN and some other goodies in return for "providing some information", but they don't tell you how to obtain it. I just put a virtual SSH server on port 80 and added a little port and X forwarding to turn the prepaid access into a usable service.

      • Re:Spammers (Score:3, Insightful)

        by commodoresloat ( 172735 )
        The spammers could run a sendmail process directly on their laptop that would route to the destination mail relay directly, but they could do this from any connection with any ISP.

        But not anonymously from an IP within the fcc.gov domain.

  • Pr0n (Score:2, Funny)

    by Zemran ( 3101 )
    So now I can park in their car park and dl all the pr0n and MP3s I want ?

  • Gotta love the FCC (Score:5, Insightful)

    by commodoresloat ( 172735 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:24AM (#6613744)
    At present, the FCC will not request personal identifying information prior to allowing access to the wireless network.An open network. At the FCC. They want as few people as possible on the public airwaves but they'll let anyone on their private network.
  • It's nice that they provide wireless internet access so you can download the software required to read their documents.

    • Re:pdf press release (Score:4, Insightful)

      by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @06:04AM (#6613844)
      Why do you care, the software is free, heck there are even Free alternatives. You can publish pdf's with Free and free software too since Adobe made the standard open. I don't know why anyone would have a problem with pdf. It's a perfect way to do device independant publishing.
    • I couldn't surf the web back in the day until I had downloaded a web browser. At least the format's open and you have a few readers with your favourite distro if you use Linux. In fact, there are quite a few open source programs that can generate PDFs (I hear that KOffice is working on a feature that allows you to open PDFs in KWord [koffice.org]).

      I am very puzzled by the anti-pdf crowd on slashdot. At least it is an open format.
    • More like provide free internet access so they can secretly spy on *you* :)

  • Loss Leader (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RevMike ( 632002 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {ekiMver}> on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:26AM (#6613749) Journal
    I've always subscribed to the theory that WiFi won't be profitable as a service itself, but will be provided for free as a "loss leader".

    I always assumed however that it would be coffee shops and bookstores that used it to their competative advantage.

    Next time I'm in DC, however, I'm going to patronize the FCC instead of any of the other federal agencies!

    Seriously, Mike Powell seems to be on the forward edge, especially for a government official. It is good to have people in powerful places that understand technology and its transforming role, who can think independantly of lobbyists or position papers generated by their staff.

    • Re:Loss Leader (Score:5, Informative)

      by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:36AM (#6613764)
      It doesn't have to be free. McDonalds for instance has a WiFi system where you can order 15 minutes of access for a small fee with your meal. The register just prints a unique number that you put into the web frontend for the NAT system and it gives you a new DHCP lease which is good for 15 minutes. Works well for simply grabbing email from the office or checking out slashdot on your meal break. My friend used it for a couple weeks when he moved into his new place and the DSL transfer took forever.
      • it gives you a new DHCP lease which is good for 15 minutes.

        That can't be correct. What's to stop anyone from manually configuring the appropriate IP address into his laptop?

        • Re:Loss Leader (Score:3, Insightful)

          by afidel ( 530433 )
          Nothing but the fact that the transparant proxy uses the MAC from the DHCP pool. In fact it is only port 80 traffic which needs a code to work, my friend found this out when one day he decided to RDP into one of his servers, he got in then realized he had never authenticated the session that day!
          • In fact it is only port 80 traffic which needs a code to work, my friend found this out when one day he decided to RDP into one of his servers, he got in then realized he had never authenticated the session that day!

            Good to know. Just set up your own proxy somewhere on the internet, and use that one to surf! And be careful not to spill your coffee over your laptop! (... and not to use your laptop on your ... uhmm... lap)

      • t doesn't have to be free. McDonalds for instance has a WiFi system where you can order 15 minutes of access for a small fee with your meal. The register just prints a unique number that you put into the web frontend for the NAT system and it gives you a new DHCP lease which is good for 15 minutes.

        Right, but it costs McD's more to sell you 15 minutes of access then to give it away. Since they sell it they need to find out if you bought it before they let you use it. So they need to somehow associate

        • But if they have an established provider such as Wayport handle it, it doesn't cost them as much to collect the fee.

          Wayport had to develop the software to support wired connections in Hotel rooms a long time ago.

          And the DHCP lease and DNS are let through. It will intercept the first web connection and send you to a sign in page.

          I haven't used the service at McDonalds (not lucky enough to be in an area with the pilot service), but I have used pay for access service at public places such as airports.

          When

    • Re:Loss Leader (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ubrgeek ( 679399 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @06:40AM (#6613926)
      "Seriously, Mike Powell seems to be on the forward edge ... It is good to have people ... who can think independantly of lobbyists or position papers generated by their staff."
      Are you kidding? This guy has nothing right since starting at the FCC. This is a press-release, grip-and-grin victory. This guy is in the lobbyists pockets with all of the media consolidation. Jesus, it took _CONGRESS_ to set him straight and overturn his decision.
    • Yeah, and it works too. When I visit my parents in rural Southern Oregon, there's six mechanical switches (according to the phone repair guy) between their house and the CO. Dialup speed is about 26k on a really good day.

      On the other hand, there's a great little coffee place that has wireless service in town. No cost, no login, just good coffee and a wireless access. My parents have anice coffee maker, but I still drop $5 in the coffee shop every few days when I'm there.

      Of course, if it was bad coffee, I'

  • now if only (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mmu_man ( 107529 )
    they would remove/change their stupid regulation that manufacturers claim forbid them to make opensource WiFi drivers...
    Well some do claim to have OSS drivers, even under GPL:
    http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS548876786 9.html , however their "driver" is only a stub to load a closedsource module, and I even wonder if they don't break the GPL by releasing a closed source driver under it.

    • Re:now if only (Score:4, Informative)

      by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:41AM (#6613780)
      Cisco has full GPL drivers for their .11b cards. In fact there are two drivers, the Cisco official driver and an independant driver written by a college student who was given some tech data by Aironet before they were bought by Cisco. I believe they are working towards one for their .11a cards as well.
      • right, it's there:
        http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.p l/airone t-utils-linux
        (and a mirror to avoid giving personal infos to cisco: http://www.pg.infn.it/servizi/calcolo/howto/wirele ss/Linux-ACU-Driver-v2.0.tar.gz )
        actually it seems to be under MPL, though there is a MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") (as many pcmcia drivers derived from Linux Card Services, which is under double license (GPL/MPL)).

    • Re:now if only (Score:3, Informative)

      by Chanc_Gorkon ( 94133 )
      What reg? The only thing holding back GPL'd drivers for WiFi may be the manufacturers. The FCC won't care about device drivers. They casre about the design of the device. It would be pretty hard with software to make a WiFi card be anything but a WiFi card. Not saying it ain't possible, but highly unlikely.
      • it's not about turning a WiFi card into a microwave hoven, it's about certification and user-allowed frequency/power mods.

        In the regs, it is said that the product can only be certified if it (along with the software (driver)), can't let a user setup a power/freq combination that isn't allowed.
        They usually claim that leaving the drivers OSS would show how to setup illegal emitting power on some freqs... Quite a poor excuse though.
        • And with exception of the different channels availale for WiFi, why would the hardware need to be changed in such a way by software to transmit somewhere else? Why complicate your driver? Just hardware lock the WiFi card and the driver just has to select a channel. There's no reason for the software to directly change he frequency beyond picking one of the channels. Also, again, where is the reg from thr FCC stating this? This is just an excuse the company uses for not providing info on their card so o
          • http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/ Orders/2001/fcc01264.pdf

            They put the freq and power setup logic in the driver because it's simpler, and more flexible, and easier to change (like, in France they only recently freed some channels for WiFi that was used by the army) or adapt to other countries.
            The problem being that accessing the hw directly the user can setup illegal configurations.

            I agree that's quite much of a false excuse, but that's their point.
            • AND that has nothing to do with the FCC. That's a budgetary thing within the company who made the device. Just like it's possible to make modems that are not hardware based, it's possible to have a software based WiFi card (from what you're saying, most of these are software based). Ok, a NON software based WiFI card with everything hardwired is possible to make a illegal configuration? Not as likely as a hacked software driver. I got news for you....everything under the sun that has a RF circuit in it

  • check it out (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Can't a DC based Slashdotter pay a visit to the FCC and check it out? Is outbound port 25 blocked? I would assume it was, but they don't say in the release.

  • Lousy PDF. here's the text. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:51AM (#6613802)
    NEWS

    News media Information 202 / 418-0500

    Fax-On-Demand 202 / 418-2830

    TTY 202/418-2555

    Internet: http://www.fcc.gov

    ftp.fcc.gov

    Federal Communications Commission

    445 12th Street, S.W.

    Washington, D. C. 20554 This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order

    constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE News Media Contact:

    August 4, 2003 David Fiske (202) 418-0513

    Richard Diamond (202) 418-0506

    FCC Goes WiFi

    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced today that it would provide free wireless Internet access to visitors at its Washington, D.C. office. "When you come to the FCC, leave the cords at home," said FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell. "We're embracing the power of WiFi and the freedom and convenience of wireless Internet access it gives to consumers."

    Last year, Powell directed his staff to take the steps needed to make the FCC one of the first federal agencies to provide public WiFi access. Visitors bringing their own hardware and software can use the service on the Twelfth Street, Courtyard, and Eighth Floor levels of the headquarters located at 445 12th Street, SW in Washington, D.C.

    The system uses the 802.11a and 802.11b protocols, commonly referred to as WiFi. The Commission will be unable to provide technical support, and all transactions using this service are the responsibility of the visitor. At present, the FCC will not request personal identifying information prior to allowing access to the wireless network. If requested by outside authorities, however, the FCC will provide data from system audit logs to support external investigations of improper Internet use.

    If there appears to be a system outage, please call (202) 418-WIFI.

    - FCC -

  • Why issue the press release as a PDF? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by webword ( 82711 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:57AM (#6613817) Homepage
    Is this press release meant for screen reading or printing? If it really meant for printing, I guess that's fine, but if it is meant for online reading it is stupid to use the PDF format. Jakob has some comments on this topic [useit.com], if you care. Then again, some people think he's full of crap [planetpdf.com].
    • Why release the document in PDF if it is meant for the internet? How about because the PDF ensures true to original formatting and text? Just because something is electronic doesn't mean that it can't be a document, and thats where PDF comes in; PDF bridges the gap between the printed and electronic document worlds, because it renders irrelent where, when or by whom the electronic doc is printed, or if it is printed at all. It doesn't matter whether you want to read the document on your *nix/OSX/Win/Palm/JV
    • Because PDF is a "secure" way of distributing a document.
    • Just from skimming that web page:

      PDF was designed to specify printable pages.

      No it wasn't. PDF is designed to be a resolution and output device independent format that maintains presentation layout despite the medium used for display.

      PDF pages lack navigation bars...

      This is not a function of the format, but of the author of the document. I've used MANY PDF files that have a table of contents, an index, bookmarks and hyperlinks.

      ...PDF documents can be very big, the inability to easily navigate...

      It'

  • Does a warm cup of censorship come with it?

  • excellent (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @06:17AM (#6613877)
    Now I know where to go when I want to download mp3s. I bet the RIAA will have fun when they figure out who's IP address they tracked down.

  • Nice.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by headqtrs ( 467875 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @06:23AM (#6613891)
    YOUR tax dollars at work....

    • Re:Nice.... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Chanc_Gorkon ( 94133 )
      Yep. And for once I am happy about it. WiFi is cheap in the grand scheme of things. What they bought like 3 AP's for the DC office? That's not alot of our Tax Dollars being wasted. And for once, the FCC may have a clue!
  • Michael is turning us all into terrorists, suggesting we participate in a distributed denial of service attack on a us government agency. Thank God I'm not in the US...

  • Never ending copyright loop (Score:3, Interesting)

    by heyyojay ( 695081 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @06:35AM (#6613917) Homepage Journal
    They have just opend a can of worms. Now they are offering a service that can almost not be tracked, free for people to download music and illegal movies. If i were the guy in charge at the FCC (no offence) I would rethink this idea and change it quick because the free wifi can, and WILL be abused.
    • They have just opend a can of worms
      Cool, now I can just poke a hole in that Worm Can about 1-1/4" from the bottom, and sit across the street from the FCC using my WormCanTenna!
      Bwwwwaaahahahahaha!

      --
    • How anonymous are you really? Like, computers like to chatter, especially windows. Is your netbios name somehow descriptive of who you are? If there is an imaps connection into some other site so you can get your mail, you've created a trail that, with the other site's help, can identify who you are.

      Or sites you browse. Like slashdot. "This page was generated by.*for (.*) \(" or something like that will lift your slashdot username. From there you can browse the person's comment history, learn little tidbi

  • Hmmm... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stu_coates ( 156061 ) * on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @06:57AM (#6613971)
    Honeypot?
    • Yes, it's actually a GIANT honeypot emulating the entire internet. They are going to track you and see what you would do if you were really allowed to access the internet.
  • I think the FCC is just using this as a ploy to draw in illegal Spammers, and Mp3 downloaders.

    Don't use their network! You'll be pegged as a terrorist by those McCarthian bastards
    • The FCC doesn't care about anything but who the highest bidder is. They barely enforce any laws. Their concern is making sure all the huge corporations get all the spectrum and the little guy is shut out!

      Being a Ham Radio operator, I used to have respect for the FCC, but Michael Powell is nothing more than a corporate shill.
      • I Agree The FCC is to weak to enforce there own rules and is to focused on corporations and not the people maybe its time for the FCC to become a democratly installed power

  • Won't last long... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by st0rmshad0w ( 412661 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @08:38AM (#6614495)
    This will last about as long as it takes for someone to trace an attack back to their wifi access.
  • Its nice that they are enabling WIFI for visitors. However, like many public policy decisions, there may be fine print buried in some other regulation, such as banning all computers and wireless devices from the FCC.
  • ...but I think we just slashdotted the FCC.

    Is this something we should be concerned about?
  • I can see this becoming a trend with many different companies and hotels. No doubt to offer their customers some satisfactory service, and just plain customer approval. I know I would choose one company/hotel over another if they gave me free access to the internet!

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