EFF gets into the CPE router software business..

Thu Jul 24 17:24:02 UTC 2014

On 2014-07-24 12:04, Valdis Kletnieks wrote:
> So the EFF is pushing development of an open CPU router
> 
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/building-open-wireless-router
> https://openwireless.org/
> 
> It's currently targeting WNDR3800's and based on the CeroWRT software
> (which works pretty well in my own experience).
> 
> What will possibly be interesting in this forum is that it's explicitly
> targeting having open guest wireless access (unlike the stuff being 
> pushed
> by some ISPs, where you can roam but only to other customers of the 
> same
> ISP).
> 
> !DSPAM:53d13dc965333732154236!

The Free Network Foundation (which I co founded and am CTO of) has been 
helping several groups in the USA do this for ~1 year now. EFF is simply 
rebranding/respinning community networking, but they are pretty new to 
the USA Free Networks party overall. They just have a bigger 
budget/brand recognition (though FreedomTower has become a pretty 
resilient brand based on the e-mails we get on a daily basis). Also I'm 
not sure of the level of support/hand holding/documentation etc EFF will 
provide for folks wanting to build a network off this setup (I'm 
guessing not much).  Also most incumbent carriers prevent sharing (where 
FNF supported/assisted/collaborative/affiliated US based efforts back 
haul (over high capacity wifi or VPN over incumbent circuits) to 
wholesale colocation facilities POP and do things like monitor [email protected] 
contacts etc. (Ya know, actually responsibly run an ISP).

I'd rather of seen them partner with FNF, (or actually much more 
preferable would be upstream wrt projects like QMP) and not spin YET 
ANOTHER FIRMWARE.

I'm glad they picked CeroWRT though.