apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have an issue with "free" wi-fi.

Nothing is free. It's paid for with tax money. Ideally taxes are a fixed base (not rising on every whim of the politicians).

So to spend tax money on "free" wi-fi, that means that something else has to be unfunded.

Where I live, in the greater Portland (OR) area, the city spends money on everything *but* essential services. They're in the process of rolling out "free" taxpayer funded wi-fi to the whole city.

It takes a lot more than just access points - which in a city have to be on almost every street lamp to provide good coverage. It takes a full time IT staff to maintain the network.

Meantime, the schools are in a funding crisis (deliberately through criminal mis-management), they can't afford to keep jails open, and they want to raise taxes and add new taxes to do things like pothole repairs that they have been criminally ignoring for years.

So I don't know how well NYC is run financially, but in some cities, like Portland, "free" city provided wi-fi amounts to a crime. In my opinion.

From an economic theory point of view, it's also illegal in the sense that it removes the incentive for free enterprise (as in free market, not free beer) to compete, bexause how can a for-profit business compete with something a gullible public thinks is "free".

In NYC's case, Nokia and other companies are donating the Wi-Fi - for their own understandable economic reasons - so I'm not sure that there's a causal effect on other city prirorities going unfunded...

Awesome. You're very lucky.

Portland taxes businesses out of existence and then spends millions to form special think tanks to figure out why nobody wants to shop downtown (after letting anarchists run wild and failing to do even minimal pothole repair). And their lotto is "The City That Works". You have to wonder what they're smoking in Portland city hall.

as I was scrolling down reading the first post, I knew without any doubt who I would see after the "posted by." lol

boomer -- are you a member of freerepublic by any chance?

never heard of it

you would love it there.

I was very interested to find out that this existed. It is a service that you never would know is there unless you really searched for it. I have not yet seen any signs in the park to mark the hotspots (has anyone else?).

Boomer has a good point about questioning anything that is 'free', but I think that in this case it is more about using wireless without knowing more about it. As campari pointed out Parks access is provided by Nokia and WiFiSalon, and NYCwireless is run by volunteers.

As far as getting people out to enjoy the parks I am all for it. Reading over the NYCwireless site, however, provides a lot of information on wireless in general. One point that I brought away was the fact that wireless is not necessarily secure.

It is fantastic to read the NY Times or browse the internet, and for students doing research for their classes, but would not be the best choice to do your internet shopping or reading your personal/business e-mails. There are services that NYCwireless mentions that will encrypt your data, but then you are talking about a monthly service charge.


Also one interesting note from WiFiSalon's press release says:

“Wi-Fi can be more than about Web surfing and checking e-mail,” noted Marshall Brown, founder and CEO of
WiFi Salon. “What if a hot spot was not just a gateway, but a destination? What if it offered rich multimedia
experiences based on the neighborhood where you are located? As prime neighborhood meeting grounds, parks are
ideal places for people to experience this new approach to public Wi-Fi.”

It could be that individual WiFi access becomes one small part of a much larger picture. It also shows how, as campari alluded to, it is in Nokia's best interest to provide this service.

Good? Bad?

Matt,

Wi-Fi is not secure. Even WEP encryption can be hacked easily now. If someone wants to hack in, they will. The tools available let anyone do it. Attackers only have to know how to point and click.

Here's a good primer with links :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_security

This one's not as comprehensive but it's not bad.

http://news.com.com/Worried about Wi-Fi security/2100-7347_3-5540969.html

boomer -- WEP encryption has been obsolete since 2003. And we're talking about a local network here, no need to do that in the first place since everyone would be sharing a mac address at a free wifi spot anyway.

Sure, if someone set's his or her mind to it, they could probably crack a target, whether it be your home network or your laptop on a shared public network.

But seriously, if you're smart about it and turn off file and printer sharing, use a vpn or login to your isp's https webmail instead of using a pop client for email, and save the online shopping spree for later when you get home, you should be ok. If someone's out there in a park or cafe looking to compromise a machine, chances are they'll be looking for easier pickings than a person who's done the above.