Griggi: A Wi-Fi sharing ecosystem for affordable Internet everywhere
griggi.com
griggi.com
Similar technology (OpenWRT based firmware), easier to use, less privacy issues as it's not necessary to track your network usage. And completely free.
Is there some international equivalent?
1) order an Ubiquiti Nanostation LOCO M2 (amazing reach and super sensitive antenna),
2) sign-up with them for a VPN key. This will keep your visitors traffic tunneled through their VPN. IF there is any problem with content infringement, it ends up on their network.
3) Flash the box with their OpenWRT port and install the VPN key.
I setup my box last week and and it's been running well (http://monitor.berlin.freifunk.net/host.php?h=imaginator). Nice to see users dropping on and off. The firmware also includes support for the Freifunk mesh network. I'm looking forward to adding more nodes to the neighbourhood and growing the wifi coverage.
Action shots: http://imgur.com/a/q7nOk (Decided that martini bottle is a better solution than the tripod)
Get started at http://config.berlin.freifunk.net/wizard/routers (disclaimer: not clear if you should/must/can be in Berlin for this to work)
What I'd really like to see is a service like this that pipes guests through a VPN instead of just setting them loose on the internet directly from my connection.
Now think of going abroad, telco has their roaming partners now they can have their wifi-roaming partners.
-Banna
Side-note: If you're sharing a new product/service, only having a landing page is a big negative in my view. Show me something that works. You should not have a "Get Started" button if you won't actually let me start using it...
* probably.
EDIT: welp, saw OP saying 'we'. Nevermind.
1. There are no telco partners. We directly sell to consumers.
2. Data sharing & usage is metered. You accumulate then you use it elsewhere. Its called Karma GB.
3. We are also thinking of putting up a feature that lets you enable 'free wifi' if you are a cafe/restaurant owner and you need a DIY solution for your customers. Thinking of keeping it as paid feature.
We are also going to put a feature which would let people manage their free WiFi hotspot with Griggi as well.
The vision is to be the default WiFi sharing platform across the world. As a user, you just have your Griggi username, password & you use it to connect to every other WiFi hotspot.
I live in a small residential street where every neighbour who wants Internet has cable or fiber, so the chances of gaining significant Karma are very low. Let's also suppose I'm not a geek.
So, why would I pay $20 (+shipping?) for a new router, ask a friend to come by my house to install it, pay the electricity costs, etc, when in the end I'll still have to pay more to actually use it?
The Karma system eliminates the incentive for almost anyone except those living in busy streets to purchase and run their own router.
And this is helped by the fact that metered connections have all but disappeared around here, so a person with high Karma isn't actually "paying" anything for it, it's merely a rent that she can extract from the location of her property.
So I predict you'll mostly get users in city centers, which is where they are the less useful, since it's also where you can usually already get free or cheap Wifi.
What we are trying to do is similar to what Uber did to cars. Not everybody need to own a car. Similarly, not every household need a dedicated wifi connection when you can borrow some from neighbours.
Apart from city center, big apartments are another good case for Griggi. Big apartments in cities have a good number of migratory population.
Free WiFi hotspots that works is still a rarity in city centers of developing nations. Griggi is also an attempt to organize the unorganized free WiFi hotspots. A couple of guys are trying to solve this problem by building a mobile app that does the job of remembering username password of free wifi hotspots. Griggi is an attempt to solve the problem at the root. But I agree that it also makes things more challenging for us.
I can use any Fon router despite not being a client of a partner ISP.
I am talking about a contract that you agree to when you purchase service.
There is a significant difference between freely using something you own. vs changing how you use a service that you do not own, and have signed contracts specifying terms of use.
Even if they do, legally speaking, will you sharing the internet connection on your name with your flatmate / family members would amount to breach of contract ? In all likelihood, your flatmate shares the cost of the internet with you. Isnt this case is exactly the same, somebody else using your internet & helping you offset some of your cost. Am I missing something here ?
Most of the linux based OS will support the above packages. For others, we are yet to test.