Free Muni or other hotspot access from a sailboat??

> But I have to believe there's a plug-and-play which will do the job. I
just
> haven't found it yet...

Me neither. I'm going the route of using an old laptop as a router on the
boat. I'll let it act as an access point to my laptop (and my wife's) or
anyone else nearby and have it grab a land-based access point. That way the
laptops won't have to reconfigure themselves for anything. I may use a
Linksys WRT54G for the task but haven't spent the time wrestling with the
various firmware upgrades that are available for it (a prev v5 unit can run
linux).

-Bill Kearney

"Bill Kearney" <wkearney99 RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in news:2-
WdnWnPvPylSQ7ZnZ2dnUVZ_sadnZ2d RemoveThis @speakeasy.net:

> But I have to believe there's a plug-and-play which will do the job.
I
> just
>> haven't found it yet...
>
>

At the home marina, a group of boaters simply got together and bought
cable internet from the local cable company. The modem and wireless
router are in a waterproof box on a post about in the middle of the group
paying for the cable internet. On top of the box is two 2400 Mhz high
gain verticals cabled into the space diversity jacks on the wireless to
get them up as high as possible. SSID is BOAT and the router is left
unsecured so anyone in range can use it. Range is about 400', amazingly
enough, and other local boaters who wanted it have voluntarily joined the
"wifi club", reducing everyone's monthly outlay below $10 for serious
wifi bandwidth with no commercial funny business tryin to bleed them for
bandwidth.

I just gave my local Denny's a wireless router to replaced their wired
one because I wanted bandwidth with breakfast so I could peruse the
news/weather without having to wade through the local paper spammer for
75c/day. Sit in non-smoking where the signal is better because it's
closer to the office where the little Netgear sit atop a cabinet against
no-smoking section's back wall. It's plugged into Denny's broadband and
works great! Help yourself. Add some tip to the waitresses' meager
incomes to help lower your guilt feelings using it for free...(c; SSID
is (default) so's noone knows who it belongs to. It's not an advertised
hotspot.

Now I can't complain that breakfast has risen to over $8, any more.