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If have a question that is unanswered by this list, simply use the contact form to ask! Someone will be happy to answer your query and update this list of appropriate. top FreeNet is a concept proposed by ViewBank Rise Networks, loosely based on the WA FreeNet project but with some additional interesting and unusual features, such as advanced flexible routing to support multiple gateways to user defined services, as well as provision of selected 'free' web resources. top The idea of a FreeNet is to provide a network infrastructure capable of delivering traffic from any participating node to any other node at no cost to the user. This is acheived by each participant buying their own access equipment and connecting to the greater wireless network. There is no intent or requirement for profit or revenue of any kind - each participant covers their own setup costs, with no obligation to pay for any ongoing service maintenance. top I look forward to a day when everyone in Geelong has access to a high speed wireless network capable of delivering a range of services and information at no cost! I'd like to see that happen, and with 15 years data networking and IT background, I reckon I have a solution that can acheive just that! :-) If you're like me and would like to see such a thing happen, then come along and participate! :) top Hey - it's a FreeNet. The 'free' part means that access is free. No charge, no cost! ;-) BUT, yes, there is a catch (of sorts) - to access the FreeNet, some equipment is needed. See Set-up costs below. top What do you want to do with it? Sorry to answer a question with another question, but in this case it's probably the most appropriate response. Essentially a FreeNet can provide whatever the participants want it to provide. Some folks play online games, some use it for chat and file sharing. The possibilities are endless. top Difficult question, and a long answer deserved. But I'll try a short answer anyway. Technically, yes - it is possible. But there are several legal and general problems that prevent internet access being supplied over the FreeNet infrastructure. If you find someone willing to share their internet connection, then that is entirely an arrangement between those parties. So the short answer: "Yes and No". top That's a bit of a piece of string question. Generally, the answer depends on whether you want to participate as a user or as a node. Participating as an ordinary user can be a simple as building yourself a home-made sardine can antenna, point it to a FreeNet access point and hook it up to your laptop wireless adapter - if you have any of that stuff! To become a node for other folks to connect to the FreeNet via your network, then you will need some additional equipment and suitable antennas. This web site has some compatible equipment that can be used to build your own access point or freenet client. top Currently there is only one FreeNet Access Point (AP), covering Corio, Bell Post Hill, and parts of Lara. The AP is transmitting from the roof of my house in Lovely Banks. See my NodeDB entry for details. To date I have been able to receive successful connections from as far a 8Km away with good transfer speeds of up to 230Kbyte/s. top To participate, simply get your gear together and connect to the nearest Access Point! top If there is no node nearby (and it's early days so that is more likley than not right now) then you are almost out of luck. The best thing to do is to talk to some friends or relatives that you may know who are within range of an Access Point, and encourage them to set up as a node. Do this with as many contacts as you need until there is an Access Point node near you! ;-) top There is a list of currently accessible web resources here. top There are a couple of ways to make this happen: a) you could publish it to the freenet yourself by setting up a web server at your node and making that web server avaibale to the freenet. Talk to us about setting up the right DNS records to make your web site serve up on FreeNet for FreeNet clients. b) the other way is for us to add your website to our FreeNet list, but doing that does cause some tangible costs since every access to that web site causes download costs from my internet connection. If you still want to do it that way, just send me a request to do so with the url of your web site and the reasons that you think it should be made available. If the costs are likley to be negligible, then I'll be happy to consider it. If you want to reimburse the download costs, then maybe that's another way we can make it happen. top
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