Searching for Open Wifi
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I move a lot. And it's futile to look up outdated directories with free wifi. Those are just junk sites pushing google maps and google ads.
So I need to be able to do that myself. And going around with a large backpack and an open laptop will make me look crazier than those looking for gold with two sticks/rods.
What do you use? How do you use it? Are there devices for that? As long as it is not expensive, I want to hear about it.
I am a member!
I actually just posted on this. I believe this is a near complete list of the 802.11n wireless chipsets that are free software friendly:
RTL8187L/RTL8187B/RTL8187 - USB G wireless Adapters
AR9271/AR9170/AR7010+AR9280 - USB N Wireless Adapters
AR9280/AR9281/AR9285/AR9287 - PCI/PCI Express Wireless N Cards (desktop and laptop cards)
* There is one Broadcom chipset left off the list that is also free software friendly technically although from my understanding/recollection its not a good choice. It's a PCI/PCIe chipset. One of the developers advised me against using it. This was a developer who actually worked at and did the work on behalf of Broadcom (from what I recall/understand). That said there is at least one user here whose been using it without issue. A user of one though isn't really a good evaluation to go off. Given the combined info I have on it from various sources/people/etc I'd advise not using it and going with one of the other chipsets. I'd also advise against the AR9170 chipset at this time even though it is a good free software friendly chipset. It's based on an older draft N spec and may/does not work as well with some routers.
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/
You can find the wifi adapters amongst other free software friendly hardware with the above chipsets at the above site. You can order from a US or UK warehouse with shipment almost anywhere. If you do order 25% of the profits will go to the Trisquel project too.
* Disclaimer: I'm the CEO of the company above.
Huh? I run on Gluglug X60, which, unlike think penguin, is fully Free. The issue was about NOT running around with the laptop hanged to my neck. But I admire your audacity. Happy selling.
El mar 22 jul 2014 04:33:22 ECT,
name at domain escribió:
> Huh? I run on Gluglug X60, which, unlike think penguin, is fully Free.
> The issue was about NOT running around with the laptop hanged to my
> neck. But I admire your audacity. Happy selling.
Yes. I hope Chris sells a lot because he has supported freedom and
sustainability of free software for a long time. Of course he does
support some nonfree distros. But it is a gradual migration process. I
understand he does not ship with nonfree software.
--
Saludos libres,
Quiliro Ordóñez
600 8579
I am a member!
I think your post was lost in translation on me. Were you not asking about free software friendly wifi chipsets/adapters? Your title is "searching for open wifi". I didn't think you were talking about searching for an unencrypted wireless access point. 'open' was probably not the best choice of words here.
The Gluglug X60 is a refurbished Lenovo laptop which has digital restrictions removed (via an alternative free BIOS), but I didn't say anything about that in this thread so I'm not sure what your getting at or why your putting ThinkPenguin down.
In the other thread I did comment on Lenovo laptops being a bad choice of laptop to get for a variety of reasons. I was not specific to Lenovo although did point them out as leading the way in taking away our freedoms. This is no different than what I've stated in many many threads (long before Gluglug was even imagined). HP, Lenovo, Apple, Sony, Dell, and Toshiba are poor choices for running GNU/Linux due to these companies support for digital restrictions and/or other proprietary components.
I think the situation the community has been put in is repulsive and intolerable. People are being forced to choose between two terrible situations. Gluglug didn't have the resources or a choice in the matter and I've refrained from saying anything negative. The reason we're in this situation where laptops from companies that are hostile to freedom are being utilized is that the people who are doing the non-trivial task of porting don't care-or are otherwise being paid by people who don't care. The work Gluglug is doing is more at the end of all this. I'm not sure if Gluglug is helping move things forward or not. What I do know is porting coreboot is a non-trivial task and its the work others have done which is why Lenovo laptops were chosen to be freed by Gluglug. Like ThinkPenguin Gluglug's made a choice (for better or worse) on certain aspects of the projects they're working on and unfortunately there were no good choices in this case.
The best one to go (or have gone) with is probably the Leemote from a few years back. It's not exactly a full fledged laptop though mind you. It's a netbook. Unlike the Gluglug though nobody is going to recognize it as a Lenovo and thus it is not going to be promoting a company which is taking away our freedoms. Plus the company making the Leemotes wasn't implementing digital restrictions. Even if they weren't shipping with 100% free software (I think they shipped with Debian which was/is a non-free promoter to some extent, but then had a 100% free distribution, gNewSense, and maybe Parabola which worked with it). In any event the hardware with the older Leemote could be semi-easily freed.
I think we need to move away from x86 to get a totally free laptop and even then certain parts would probably be non-free. The parts I'm thinking of I'm pretty confident are still non-free in the Gluglug. If they are not it is due to the age of these models- but am pretty confident that there aren't any 100% free parts for some components despite the age and thus they must be running some non-free software. There are other components (besides the BIOS) which have code. Keyboard controllers, hard drives, and other bits of non-free micro code abound all over the place we do not normally think about.
One example is a component that (in at least some, probably all Lenovos) apparently spys on the user and reports back to a server somewhere. I do not have the full set of information on it. I've only briefly talked to one of the hackers which examined it. This over the weekend (I was attending HOPE in NYC) and I'm not perusing more info. If/when that information is published you can read about it then. I'm sure people will be talking about it here as it is exactly the kind of thing the community is concerned about. It sounded to me exactly like what was discovered by the Replicant project in Android, but in this case was in a BIOS-like component on these systems.
ISTR the coreboot notes on the X60 saying something about a security
processor. Probably it'll have it's own ROM and thus qualify for the
auxillary processor exception in RYF. Possibly that's the culprit.
I'd expect something like that to have difficulty phoning home over
the freedom friendly WiFi card Gluglug replace the Lenovo provided
one with because it'd have to drive the hardware directly.
Looking on the bright side, once we know where it is sending the info
to you should have a ready market for these libre routers you've
mentioned are upcoming. All Gluglug owners will be wanting a router
to which they can add an IPtables rule to block the outbound
traffic... :-).
It's all my fault.
I am looking for somebody I do not know who MIGHT have a Internet connected router that also has the hardware ability to furnish Wifi radio signal according to the current standards. I want somebody who has that Wifi radio signal in the b/g/n ranges. And I hope for that router to have the Wifi functionality enabled. In order to avoid generating any trouble for the owner I will select only one router which has no password enabled for the Wifi functionality. Although I do not care to have access to the webserver that controls or sets up the whole router device.
Open Wifi on my side of the world means what MacDonalds offers. I was left with the impression that in English for what you have been so willingly to provide I have to say at least one extra word: device, card, whatever.
If I have written I don't want to walk around with a laptop hanged to my neck, maybe your PCI cards, put in my pocket won't give me much help at the end of a long walk.
> I think we need to move away from x86 to get a totally free laptop and even then certain parts would probably be non-free.
I forgot to comment on this one.
Fist I was hooked up. Quick reading is a bitch. You are right. Only that crap free devices usually don't have enough power to generate well random numbers. Which brings us into the ideal and romantic world of the Flitstones, with no relation with the historic age. Back when the Internet was young and everything was plain text. Meaning no GnuPG, no SSL/TLS, OTR and so on. I use Tor for almost anything. Tor does not work on ARM. Tough luck, but people say there are devices that can read my screen through the wall, so bring yourself to the conclusion.
Than I have realised: the above line is crap.
You say
1. we have to move from x86.
Than you say even with that we might not... why in the world ever bother to move if the whole effort is for nothing? Just to cater to some whim? Just to say "damn it! We've tried!"
Sorry Chris. I have nothing against you. And if it wasn't for the customs tax I might already have had one of your devices. But the whole free software crowd is becoming just another new age group. The dream was nice back in the 80s when Stallman dreamt it. It was getting stronger with the Linux kernel. Today it is blown in a million pieces. A million sects caring to integrate fuzzy dreams.
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