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LINSPOT Frequently Asked Questions

1. INSTALLATION
1.1 CAN ONE LINSPOT SERVE MULTIPLE WIRELESS ROUTERS?
1.2 INSTALLATION ERROR: NEED AN ETHERNET CONNECTION
1.3 CONFIGURING THE CACHE SIZE
1.4 IS IT POSSIBLE TO RUN LINSPOT TOGETHER WITH A WEBSERVER?
1.5 THE WELCOME TO LINSPOT SCREEN IS VISIBLE ON MY OTHER COMPUTERS
1.6 WHAT'S UP WITH THE PENGUIN?
1.7 I GET 'PAGE NOT FOUND' WHEN DOUBLE-CLICKING LINSPOT!


2. SECURITY
2.1 DATA SECURITY
2.2 BILLING SECURITY
2.3 DISABLING WEP ENCRYPTION
2.4 BANDWITH CONCERNS

3. FEATURES
3.1 ROAMING USERS
3.2 AUTOMATIC UPDATING
3.3 FEATURE SUGGESTIONS
3.4 LOGGING

4. WHY
4.1 WHAT WITH THE PRICES?
4.2 WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT GENERATION OF MOBILE PHONES?
4.3 WHY THE NAME LINSPOT?

5. GENERAL QUESTIONS
5.1 WILL THERE BE A WINDOWS OR A LINUX VERSION?
5.2 WHO IS JASPER NUYENS?
5.3 IS IT POSSIBLE TO INVEST IN LINSPOT?

6. BILLING
6.1 TAX OBLIGATIONS AS AN INDIVIDUAL OR COMPANY


7. LEGAL ISSUES
7.1 WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SOMEONE ABUSES MY NETWORK
7.2 CAN I RESELL MY RESIDENTIAL INTERNET CONNECTION?


1. INSTALLATION

1.1 CAN ONE LINSPOT SERVE MULTIPLE WIRELESS ROUTERS?
Als long as the different wireless routers are connected through Ethernet (Wired network link) over a hub or a switch (that can be build in into the Wireless router - such as the LinkSys wrt54g), you can serve multiple wireless routers with one LinSpot Server.
Just make sure they don't give out an IP address (disable the DHCP server).

1.2 INSTALLATION ERROR: NEED AN ETHERNET CONNECTION
LinSpot reports it needs a wired Ethernet connection to the network in the beginning of the installation process. LinSpot can only be installed on machines with a physical connection to your network. This feature will not change over time and is related with how LinSpot works internally and security. When you configure your machine to use it's wired Ethernet card to gain access to your Internet connection, LinSpot will install happily. Make sure the machine stays plugged in as much as possible - else you might loose customers who want to access your network.

1.3 CONFIGURING THE CACHE SIZE
LinSpot makes use of the Squid-Proxy cache server for its capabilities, this means you've just
installed a powerful Web Proxy Server application as well.
Go to the Administration configuration of LinSpot by double-clicking the LinSpot icon in the Applications folder. Click on Change Web Cache Size.
Here you can change the amount of disk space reserved for caching web pages.

1.4 IS IT POSSIBLE TO RUN LINSPOT TOGETHER WITH A WEBSERVER?
LinSpot 1.0 doensn't allow you to run another webserver, proxyserver, dhcp server or nameserver on the same port numbers as those used by LinSpot internally. Future versions will allow you to also configure your own webserver with LinSpot. LinSpot 1.0 for Linux will be the first version to support this.

1.5 THE WELCOME TO LINSPOT SCREEN IS VISIBLE ON MY OTHER COMPUTERS
You don't need to pay to use your own network! Launch the LinSpot application and click on Enable Free Access. Here you will find a list of machines, click on the one matching your other computer to enable Free Access for it.

1.6 WHAT'S UP WITH THE PENGUIN?
First of all, we LOVE penguins! Secondly, it is the logo of the GNU/Linux operating system. The 'Tux' penguin logo is originally created by Larry Ewing using The GIMP as a drawing tool. With it, we want to honour the OpenSource projects that are bundled with LinSpot: the Apache Web Server, the ISC DHCP server, the ISC BIND Nameserver, the SQUID Web Proxy Cache and lots of other software created by motivated programmers across the globe under various OpenSource licenses.
With LinSpot, we increase the capabilities of a non-GNU/Linux system with the power of OpenSource. This is a heavily debated issue. Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU General Public License (for whom we have much respect), claims that increasing the capabilities of non-GNU/Linux systems can have adverse consequences for the adoption of the GNU/Linux operating system. His reasoning is that when you bring the advantages of GNU/Linux to other operating systems, people will have less reasons to prefer GNU/Linux. He has a point, he is after all a smart guy.
Yet, we think differently: If you see the current success of PHP+MySQL on Windows, you notice that the adoption of these development tools by Windows users leads to an easier migration to GNU/Linux and a decrease of interest in the Microsoft vendor-locking development tools.
When you put top-expert Windows sysadmins behind a Linux box, they feel themselves completely and utterly stupid because they don't know how to control the system. In a certain way, they need to start all over.
Resistance to Linux then grows to emotional job-protection-like proportions.
This is probably the biggest hinder to large desktop Linux adoption - the human factor.
We shouldn't alienate those people so much! There are very bright people between them (some even manage to get IIS on Apache stability-levels ;-) We should facilitate their entrance to our community!
The migration from Windows to Linux should be easy. Some people understand that it has to be easy for the end users. But this especially needs to be so for the Admins involved! They are the ones trused by the users to give them good advise!
We believe LinSpot is a good opportunity for Windows SysAdmins to learn to know more about OpenSource while keeping it easy to use for all users.

1.7 I GET 'PAGE NOT FOUND' WHEN DOUBLE-CLICKING LINSPOT!
We recommend the following steps:

  • Make sure your Internet connection works: if this is not the case, you might have put some wrong static information in your network settings. As it's not an AirPort or Linksys router, we don't know about this behavior. But theoretically it should do configured to do NAT (network address translation: translate the internet IP address into something like 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x) but not to do DHCP (hand out IP addresses). For LinSpot to work, you have to try to get an Internet connection up and running with your mac having a static IP address (typically in the 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x private IP spaces).
  • When your Internet connection works with a static IP address, restart your Macintosh. LinSpot only re-reads the IP address information at restart (sorry for that).
Then, double-clicking the LinSpot icon should work.

If you don't have Internet access, you probably didn't change your Network Preferences to Manually before disabling the handout of IP adresses on your AirPort or LinkSys base station. If you know these settings, you can enter them, but else you will have to enable the handout of IP addresse on your base station again to be able to write the correct settings down. Here's how it goes:
Reconfigure your base station to hand out IP adresses (DHCP server), go to the Network Preferences and put it back on Using DHCP, click on Apply Now. Write down the IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router and DNS Server and change it back to Manually. Now you have to fill in the IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router and DNS Servers fields as they were before. Also, put the automatic hand-out of IP adresses (DHCP server) back off in the configuration of your base station. Make sure that your base station still uses a DHCP client if it needs to use that to get an IP address from your ISP! Now restart your computer: LinSpot will detect your network settings automatically when you restart your computer.

2. Security

2.1 DATA SECURITY
By setting up a WiFi access point you give access to your (home) network to other people.
This means that if you share files without a password (as is often done when someone sets up a
Windows share quickly), you will share these files as well to other computers connecting wireless
to your network. If this is not your intention, put passwords on these shares as needed.

Securing Windows Shares
Sharing on MacOS and Linux tends to be more secure and better preconfigured.
Windows, and also other operating systems, have vulnurabilities that can be exploited automatically
by worms or other virusses or malicious intruders. To prevent this, always install all security
updates as they become available. Most operating systems provide this as an automatic feature,
use this. Additionally, setting up individual firewall software on all of your computers
is advised.

Have a look at this site for Free Firewall software: www.free-firewall.org
The connection to the Internet which you buy from your Internet Service Provider(s) will be used by your customers. Are you then liable for the Internet behaviour by your customers? You are delivering the same kind of service as your Internet Service Provider, and have the same form of liability as the ISPs in your country. Typically, this means that you can not be held liable for the possible misbehaviour of other people (your customers). This might be different in other juristrictions, however.
As we generate a monthly activity report for you, this information can be a possible source of identifying possible abusers.


2.2 BILLING SECURITY
All billing information (such as credit card information) is passed directly from the end-users Wireless station to PayPal using the industry-standard SSL encryption layer. The information doesn't pass our servers at all. By using the PayPal system, we use the most recognised and proven online electronic payment system to deliver the highest level of security. More information about PayPal can be found at their website. This however, doens't mean that credit card fraud is impossible. That's the reason why PayPal works with 'verified accounts'. Paypal charges $1.5 USD to your credit card to become verified. This generates a number on your credit card statement. After entering this number into the PayPal system, your account becomes 'verified' and the $1.5 USD is refunded to your PayPal account. Credit Card fraud can remain undetected for 3 months with the PayPal system. That's why there is a 3 month quarentine period before we can transfer money generated by 'unverified' credit cards. Money generated from 'verified' accounts is immediately transferred to your PayPal account after the paid-for period has expired.
Also, each month, an overview statement is generated. At that time, you can verify the payment with the traffic log on your LinSpot server.

2.3 DISABLING WEP ENCRYPTION
WEP encryption is a broken encryption that can easily be broken with the use of easy to use tools downloadable over the Internet. They work by collecting some amount of traffic, and can extract quickly the WEP key out of this. Some home users use this password also for other authentications, posing a bigger treath to bank accounts and data security.
Some people claim that insecure encryption is better than no encryption at all. However, all WiFi sniffing tools include automated WEP cracking tools these days, making no practical difference between the two.
Also, a performance loss is experienced over WEP encryption.
Installing firewall software on all individual (and especially all Windows) machines on your network, is a much better approach.
That's why the current version of LinSpot only works with disabled WEP encryption. A future encryption standard: WPA is gaining acceptability, and a future version of LinSpot will support this.
However, you are still giving Internet Access to people you don't know. These people need to be physically close, and can't attack you from a far away country such as Slovania such as on the Internet, but still a good individual system protection is advised. Take a look at the Firewall section of this FAQ or do some web searches.
No offence intended to LinSpot users from Slovania.

2.4 BANDWITH CONCERNS
Some cable or xDSL Internet providers limit bandwith usage for theis customers to a certain amount of gigabytes per month. It is highly unlikely that temporary visitors will consume high amounts of bandwith. Typically high bandwith usage is being generated by end-users downloading large files such as movies and software. It's unlikely that people passing by near your location will use the Internet connection for such usage. Typically they will be very happy being able to access their mail and some web pages. However, neighbours who use the line on a constant basis might do so. You can put into the extra information part of the LinSpot administration page a notice with respect to this.
Additionally you might use bandwith meter software to keep an eye on this.


3. FEATURES

3.1 ROAMING USERS
One user can visit multiple LinSpot access points during the period paid for, the amount assigned to your LinSpot is a direct calculation from the percentage of the period that user is connected to your LinSpot.
For example: the user connects to your LinSpot and signs up for 1 week. After 3 days, he connects to another LinSpot and remains there for the rest of the week. In that case, 3/7th of the fee will be transferred to your PayPal account, and the other part will go to the other LinSpot user.

3.2 AUTOMATIC UPDATING
Automatic updating means that we are able to respond quickly to possible future found security vulnurabilities and deliver a better platform for you while you sleep.

We provide an automated updating functionality. This is a user definable preference, and it is enabled as a default. You can change the setting on the main administration page.


3.3 FEATURE SUGGESTIONS
You can send them to features@linspot.com, we're always looking to improve our product :-)
p> 3.4 LOGGING
Our logging system keeps records of all paid accesses to any LinSpot.
We have to do this as we allow roaming across the different LinSpots. If a users paid for 1 month flat fee access and accessed half of th month your LinSpot, you will be allocated half of access time. Take a look at the billing section of this FAQ for more information about this process.
This also means that if abuse problems would arise, the abuser can be traced. If such an event would occur, you can contact us at abuse@linspot.com

4. WHY
The inventor of this software was Jasper Nuyens, he first experimented with WiFi in it's early days. In 1996 he would love to see WiFi
everywhere. The current hype of WiFi hotspots seems very interesting, but the business models of the
companies implementing it seems to build on the same concept of that what we saw in the Dot Com
bubble: too few people want to pay the outrageous prices providers put on it.
And the money being invested on a per-consumer level seems unrealistic (up to 2000 USD per customer with only a maximum yearly revenue expectation of 200 USD seems unrealistic).
In June 2003 the LinSpot business strategy was defined and the software planning created, at that time the development work on LinSpot was initiated.
LinSpot wants to give the initiative back to the users with the same spirit enabled the creation
of the Internet in the first place: the individual entrepreneurism and eagerness to bring communication in unseen places!
Commercial hotspots seem to focus at airport lounges and exclusive hotels. The infrastructure they provide is often unstable and minimal (with the largest commercial hotspot provider having only 3000 hotspots). With a fair margin of 15%, we want to give the 85% back to the very users who are building hopefully
the largest hotspot network worldwide.
For some users it's a way of paying their broadband connection (partially) back or just a nice thing to give a test.
For others it's an opportunity to enable small businesses with paid-for WiFi access to gain more customer attractivity without any form of investment. Others build their businesses on selling installation services of LinSpot-enabled WiFi networks to hotels.
Freedom of choice and being an organic network is everything what LinSpot is about.
Finally, You are the Network!
We also hope this is a mechanism to bring down the prices of the commercial hotspots, making the world an
even more pleasant pile of dirt with Internet waves to even the most remote areas :-)

4.1 WHAT WITH THE PRICES?
We have currently set the prices of the connection to less than half that of the cheapest big
commercial provider we could find. If prices go down, we will follow that trend.
Currently our prices are virtually the same worldwide.
Further localisation will occur as we proceed. We're open for any suggestions.
4.2 WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT GENERATION OF MOBILE PHONES?
The next generation of mobile phones (or the generation thereafter depending on where you live :)
will probably be equipped with WiFi for high speed network connectivity.
If we reach a large enough install base, potentially software could be developped to allow IP-phone~
using the following-generation of mobile phones. Interesting Japanese parties can contact us for
joint development opportunities. This part will be updated if we reach a following phase here.

4.3 WHY THE NAME LINSPOT?
Inside LinSpot there's a lot of OpenSource software: the following OpenSource projects are packaged with LinSpot: Apache Web Server, ISC DHCP server, ISC Bind Nameserver, Squid Proxy server and several other smaller ones. With the first 3 letters we want to bring tribute to Linux and the OpenSource community, as they form the basis of the current Internet and it's popularity. Linux is the best known icon reflecting this FLOSS community!
For more info, have a look above in the 'WHAT'S UP WITH THE PENGUIN?' section. Also, LinSpot is free and wants to spread rapidly, just like Linux.

5. GENERAL QUESTIONS

5.1 WILL THERE BE A WINDOWS OR A LINUX VERSION?
Of course! After the initial MacOS X launch we will launch the Windows version and next a Linux version. Our resources are too limited to launch them all at once, but it will happen soon. The reason for this sequence is the following: LinSpot 1.0 for Mac and Windows require you to disable any web, dhcp, name or proxy server you might run on the standard ports. We feel that for these platforms, it's an acceptable requirement, but for the Linux version it isn't. The LinSpot 1.0 for Linux version will be the first version to drop this requirement. LinSpot for Linux will be available for Debian GNU/Linux as a .deb package and for RPM-based systems as an RPM. If you want to be notified when we release LinSpot 1.0 for Windows or Linux, send an email to winrelease@linspot.com or linrelease@linspot.com.

5.2 WHO IS JASPER NUYENS?
Jasper Nuyens grew up with Apple Macintosh computers since 1985. He founded computerclubs as a kid and wrote for magazines and books about the Mac, Internet and Linux while being a student. He founded a Linux user group at the university and set up a 2km WiFi-link to the studenthomes in 1996, which he had financed by the European Community. In 1998, he founded the Linux Services company LIFE, which he sold in 2001 to the Californian Nasdaq noted Linux leader VA Linux Systems, Inc.. He then founded the Linux outsourcer and promoter LinuxBe.com.
Mr. Nuyens is an entrepreneur with a vision to change the world with technology for the better.
As CEO of LinSpot, he wants to change the current WiFi business model and drastically lower the investment required for the creation of a HotSpot. Bringing WiFi to any neighbourhood.

5.3 IS IT POSSIBLE TO INVEST IN LINSPOT?
LinSpot is currently a trademark owned by BIONTRIX B.V.B.A., a privately held company in Belgium. LinSpot will be incorporated in the near future. It will then be possible to invest in LinSpot.
All current developement is privately funded, but as our products are launched, our optimal business growth exceeds our current capabilities. For that, LinSpot seeks outside investment.
If you're interested in investing in LinSpot, mail us at investment@linspot.com and we will send you a detailled investment brochure.

6. BILLING

6.1 TAX OBLIGATIONS AS AN INDIVIDUAL
You are obligated to pay taxes on the income you gain. This is so in most countries across the world. The service you are providing trough your wireless router(s) is a very real and physical one. Tax obligations differ from country to country, but in most cases you have to declare your income at the end of the year to your government.

To be in compiance, you also have to declare the income generated through LinSpot. We keep a track record of the income you generate. Our record database can sustain reasonable amounts of failures (backed up to a remote system), so can provide you an overview on a yearly basis upon request.

A systematic abuse of local tax regulations can be possible treath to our service in a certain region. So play it fair!

6.2 TAX OBLIGATIONS AS A COMPANY
Please register as a corporate user by sending your full company adress, country and VAT number to corpusers@linspot.com, we will provide you with pro-forma invoices which you can modify to bill us for the usage of your infrastructure.

You can monitor locally your users activity, the end customers are billed to LinSpot, and you bill LinSpot for the useage. We will send you electronically pro-forma invoices, which you can modify to reflect your local situation (invoice number, local administrative requirements,...)

Billing periods can be monthly, 3-monthly, 6-monthly or yearly.

7. LEGAL ISSUES

7.1 WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SOMEONE ABUSES MY NETWORK?
Internet abuse takes place, and anyone who provides access to other individuals should be aware of the risks involved. A lot of wireless Internet networks are set up in a completely open manner. In that case, a potential abuser can easy enter your network and abuse your Internet connection. We currently have no knowledge about cases in which end users have been held responsible for Internet abuse performed by on fully opened Wireless networks, but it could occur.
With LinSpot, access granted to paid customers is logged by us, and you get overview reports about when your network was accessed for how long (as part of our payment procedure). If abuse would take place, we will fully cooperate with you and/or law enforcement agencies to identify the possible abuser.

7.2 CAN I RESELL MY INTERNET CONNECTION?
Selling goods and services from consumer to consumer (C2C) is perfectly legal in most parts of the world. Online auctioning site eBay is a perfect example of a service like ours: LinSpot facilitates the sale of Wireless Connectivity in the same way as eBay facilitates the sales of second hand cars, CDs, books and electronics.
In the countries covered by LinSpot, we are only aware of problems with certain regions in China. Commercial activities there are only allowed in special trade zones. LinSpot in China should only be used in these special zones.
However, some Broadband Internet Service providers have clauses in their 'residential' terms of service that can be problematic:

  • Some Internet Service Providers prohibit the resale of the Internet connection. In some countries such clauses are overruled by commercial legislation which forbids the limitation of consumer rights in this way. Typically, such consumer protection laws state that consumers always have the right to resell their purchased goods or services.
    In that case you still might want to consider not putting your location information online to avoid potential problems. LinSpot is available in 38 countries, so you might want to verify your ISP contract and local consumer protection laws.
  • Some Internet Service providers prohibit the usage of more than 1 computer on the Internet connection in their 'residential' contracts. Typically, these providers offer the possibility to upgrade your connection where more than one computer is allowed. The issues most important to the Internet Service providers are 'bandwith usage' (the amount downloaded through your connection) and 'abuse'. These are high risks when you leave your network completely open. With LinSpot you avoid being abused because of the access control and logging it performs (open networks are much more interesting for users with bad intentions), so problems with ISPs in which you might run into are less likely. However, this doesn't mean that we want to promote the violation of your Internet Service Provider terms of service.
We suggest that you upgrade any 'residential' connection to a better 'commercial'-grade connection when your LinSpot turns into a success.


Copyright LinSpot, 2003, All rights reserved. LinSpot is a trademark owned by Linux Belgium b.v.b.a.