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Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

So charge the freeloaders $30 or $40 a month for unfettered wifi access. Everyone wins. I don't get it...

Seriously, I can't imagine it would be a ton of work to set up a RADIUS-type server that would limit a given MAC address to an hour of access per day (I'm sure some products like Meraki's already have this or something similar). If the user wants to squeeze more time out of the wifi, they have to pony up.

I'm totally one of the people described in this article, except that I'm doing it in Seattle. If the cafe I went to every day wanted to charge me for taking up a seat for hours at a time, I'd happily pay them a monthly fee. It's cheaper than getting an office or joining a coworking space, after all.

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You are correct. Why aren't coffee shop owners programming their own servers and setting up firewalls, can't be that different to making a coffee, or serving a cake?

Sure, your idea might work, but the cafe owners aren't aware of that, or don't want to outlay more money. Much easier to go back to the old way of doing things. Hey, maybe this could be a business for someone, go around offering your service to help these guys out.

I see a startup in the making. Providing the simple hardware/software for anyone who wants to set up wifi access.

Can someone pretty please provide outlet for my computer? I'll be willing to pay for the electricity.

Just buy two extra battery packs or a portable power supply that you can fit in your backpack.

You're not up to speed on the whole WiMax thing, are you?

Not so much. How common are they?

Getting more common every day. Clearwire is covering 1/3 of the population now and offers a small hotspot device.

http://jkontherun.com/2010/08/04/clear-ispot-4g-hotspot-for-... http://gizmodo.com/5192430/review-clear-spot-portable-wimax-...

I think there are established players in this space. Pronto Networks being one, but Boingo is the 800-lb gorilla.

Like I said, http://meraki.com/

Perhaps we might even need a new business model, a variation on Internet cafes which charge a more reasonable rate for Internet access. Coffee shops may not be ideal because they already profit from focusing on coffee -- and the atmosphere that goes with it -- but maybe a new business model which doesn't spend a lot on fancy decor or smiling employees might work. With the economic hit to real estate, including commercial, it should be possible to find a decent amount of space and just shove a load of desks, outlets, and wifi in there.

Most coffee drinks are at least a dollar of profit, many are two bucks or more. They'd have to crunch the numbers themselves but chances are 30-40 is no where near the lost revenue/profit from having some one take an entire table everyday.

That only works if the cafe is at maximum occupancy every moment of every day.

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