Broadband Connection Sharing

With the price of wireless hardware coming down, it's starting to look
like an attractive proposition to share a broadband connection with a
neighbour. Has anybody got any experience of this? Is it reasonably
simple to lock out freeloaders? Is it possible to cap the bandwidth of
his share if he turns out to be a bandwidth hog? What are the
attitudes of the ISPs- they obviously won't like it, but do they try to
sabotage it? Could I land in prison for anything downloaded into his
computer through my phone line? What is a typical range between houses
for bog-standard wireless hardware? Any help appreciated.

From (E-Mail Removed) on 24/Jan/2005 21:39:
> With the price of wireless hardware coming down, it's starting to look
> like an attractive proposition to share a broadband connection with a
> neighbour. Has anybody got any experience of this? Is it reasonably
> simple to lock out freeloaders? Is it possible to cap the bandwidth of
> his share if he turns out to be a bandwidth hog? What are the
> attitudes of the ISPs- they obviously won't like it, but do they try to
> sabotage it? Could I land in prison for anything downloaded into his
> computer through my phone line? What is a typical range between houses
> for bog-standard wireless hardware? Any help appreciated.
>
Most ISPs do not allow this on their basic packages. I don't think there is any
easy way to stop it though as long as your connection allows more than on
computer to be attached. You might only get a single IP address too which limits
any services that can be run.

However, it is easy enough to set up.

You MUST however look up the facts about wireless security and choose a wireless
hub (or built in to the router) that provides reasonable security.

You should use mac address restrictions, 128bit WEP encryption, set a
non-obvious SSID and turn on the option to hide the SSID.

This is about as good as it gets right now and you would be very unlucky indeed
to get this hacked (though it is possible).

You will only be likely to be able to cap their bandwidth if you have a router
that allows you to set up a VLAN with bandwidth capping, such as the Vigor 2600
-- or some suitable software running on a server acting as an intermediate router.

As for the chance of ending up on the wrong side of the law -- this is PERFECTLY
POSSIBLE. Unless your ISP allows you to resell (!! unlikely !!) you will not
have any contract with them and may find it difficult to prove that they did
something rather than you.

The range is not much of an issue really. The basic range would be anything from
10m up to 30m or so, depending a lot on the intervening walls. However, you
can very easily get some cheap direction antennas to extend the range and
expensive antennas would give you as much range as you could use (several km if
you have line of sight).

--
Julian Knight, http://www.knightnet.org.uk/
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Security, Directory, Messaging, Network & PC Consultant
Yahoo! IM=knighjm, Skype Internet Phone: callto://j.knight

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> With the price of wireless hardware coming down, it's starting to look
> like an attractive proposition to share a broadband connection with a
> neighbour. Has anybody got any experience of this? Is it reasonably
> simple to lock out freeloaders? Is it possible to cap the bandwidth of
> his share if he turns out to be a bandwidth hog? What are the
> attitudes of the ISPs- they obviously won't like it, but do they try to
> sabotage it? Could I land in prison for anything downloaded into his
> computer through my phone line? What is a typical range between houses
> for bog-standard wireless hardware? Any help appreciated.
>
www.adslguide.org.uk

fill yer boots

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> With the price of wireless hardware coming down, it's starting to look
> like an attractive proposition to share a broadband connection with a
> neighbour.

Why would you want to?

Ian

Just adding to Julian's answer.
With a good router, like Draytek Vigor 2600G, you can monitor usage of each
computer (requires some free software).
Also ISP's, like PlusNet let, you see (total) usage via their website, which
can be used to establish base usage and see any peaks.

Wifi works well trough windows. My Draytek router is in an attic window 75m
away, two sets of double glazed and leaded windows at an acute angle, works
great, but I had to place an USB adapter 5' high in line of sight of the
attic.

Set you self up a VoIP telephone service from sipgate.co.uk, give up the BT
line, and laugh all the way past the BT exchange to the bank.
Regards,
Martin

For anyone thinking of becoming a no-fixed-line household or workplace, do
think about how you are going to call the fire brigade when your building
catches fire and the mains supply cuts out.

If you have reliable mobile service (and always have a live battery and can
always find the mobile in a emergency) then you are fine.

If not, then Vonage is now offering a 999 service
(http://www.vonage.co.uk/features.php?feature=911) - so you could use them
with a UPS unit powering your VOIP adapter, if you find their price
structure OK.

Otherwise, you have a problem. I read a suggestion that dialling 112 from
Sipgate would get you the emergency services in Dusseldorf. Most VOIP
operators do not support 999/112 at all at the moment.

The obvious need is for the VOIP user without 999/112 access to identify a
geographic number for the local "Which Service do you require" 999 control
room. That could then be programmed in to a LCR dialler box and anyone on
the premises could dial 999 and get the emergency services (as long as the
VOIP box was powered via a UPS, the broadband network was working, the SIP
provider had no problems and the user had enough credit for the call).

When looking into using VOIP for our village hall (we have broadband by
radio from a local ISP), I spoke to the local Fire Service, and was told
that there were no geographic numbers that would allow access into the local
all-services 999 control room. Does anyone else know differently?

They do have ex-directory geographic numbers into their emergency Fire
Service control rooms (and one might presume the same for Police and
Ambulance) - issued on a case-by-case basis. But that is not a viable mass
solution - they are not going to be happy taking Ambulance calls at the Fire
call centre and then pass them on.

As more people go for VOIP as a replacement for a fixed line, it can't be
long before we read of the first tragedy where a life is lost because the
customer either didn't think to ask about 999 VOIP service, or had decided
that it was worth the risk doing without a 999 services in return for the
much-reduced annual running cost.

Ofcom have clearly thought about the issue. Their site notes "Ofcom [also]
proposes to consult on whether it is desirable for providers of non-PATS VoB
services to offer 'best efforts' 999 access rather than none at all." They
rather obscurely state their interim position thus: "... services that
match the PATS definition (i.e. those which offer any access to emergency
organisations), would be PATS and hence be regulated as such. " Not sure I'm
much the wiser, but it does suggest that for the moment, regulation is
lagging behind the need!

John Geddes
Derbyshire

John Geddes wrote:

> When looking into using VOIP for our village hall (we have broadband by
> radio from a local ISP), I spoke to the local Fire Service, and was told
> that there were no geographic numbers that would allow access into the local
> all-services 999 control room. Does anyone else know differently?

Recently I called 112 from my Orange handset. The call was answered by
the Operator (presumably Orange's) and then they tried to pass the call
to the Hampshire Police control room. This took nearly two minutes to
complete.

Last week I had to call Hampshire Police twice - using their
non-emergency 0845 number - these calls were answered immediately - and
they had direct access to the emergency control room.

I would consider putting the 0845 number for the local plod on your VOIP
handset.

> Set you self up a VoIP telephone service from sipgate.co.uk, give up the BT
> line, and laugh all the way past the BT exchange to the bank.

Looks interesting - what sort of charges do they hit you for for non-
geographic numbers (0845 / 0870 etc) ?

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---

Colin Wilson wrote:

> Looks interesting - what sort of charges do they hit you for for non-
> geographic numbers (0845 / 0870 etc) ?

I think it's worse than "what charge" some non-geographical numbers are
not reachable at all (I did see someone say they managed it by phoning
an 01/02 access number for a prefix carrier and then dialing from there)

John Geddes wrote:
> For anyone thinking of becoming a no-fixed-line household or
> workplace, do think about how you are going to call the fire brigade
> when your building catches fire and the mains supply cuts out.
>
> If you have reliable mobile service (and always have a live battery
> and can always find the mobile in a emergency) then you are fine.

How are you being supplied broadband without a fixed telephone line????

You have no problem as long as you leave an 'el cheapo' handset plugged in.
You don't have to use but it will be there for such emergencies as you
suggest. Another plus point is that many times the DSL engineer will only
have the DSL line number as a contact number (great fun when it's the fax
line, I'm getting quite effecient at speaking faxese)...

No need for extra services, no need for extra services, the line is there so
use it...

Now if it's a cable/sat connection the above does not hold true....