WiFi in Australia

Hi guys,

It has been a while since there has been a WiFi in Australia (WiAU) update, making the project seem rather quiet. To the contrary, there has been heaps happening behind the scenes and I’m stoked to be able to finally release what has been happening over the last couple on months in WiAU!

The pilot site using Google Maps to display WiFi maps for Australian cities has been an amazing success - We’ve had people jumping on board and extending WiAU’s pitiful collection of a single Brisbane hotspot map to having maps for most capital cities in Australia. With the great amount of community support for WiAU from both individuals donating time to create maps and hotspots as well as other organisation such as Free Sydney Wireless giving the site a great wrap, I thought it was only fair that I give back my time and attention and improve the system.

A lot has changed in the new setup and I hate reading through streams of text as much as the next guy, so here is a list of things that are now present!

A completely custom engine

The new engine is run (mostly) on our own servers. In fact, WiAU is now done completely without the use of Google Maps. The pilot system was, in essence, a site for listing a bunch of Google Maps that had locations marked for hotspots. We had defined a bunch of conventions to follow, such as particular coloured markers for the type of hotspot on offer. This method was cumbersome however and required people to have a Google account to edit and add maps.

Open maps, open access, OpenSource

The maps have a Wiki-esque access style. Absolutely anyone can view maps and any registered user can add, edit, delete or otherwise change maps and markers - there are no access level restrictions, no moderators and no user caste-systems.

The maps on WiFi in Australia are completely open - and we believe the underlying technology should also be. All maps on WiFi in Australia are based on two fantastic open source mapping technologies:

• The OpenLayers mapping interface,
• using OpenStreetMap as its geographical layer.

Rich formatting using standardised markup

Descriptions for markers and maps are entered using WikiCreole, a standardised wiki markup language. By using a simple -to-learn markup it is easy to include rich formatting, links, tables and even images in your marker descriptions.

Beta and the old maps

Now for the other side. The new system is currently in beta - WiAU has grown into a complicated beast and as such it is inevitable that there might still be a few little bugs hanging around. Also, the new maps are currently unpopulated with the markers that users have added to the old maps - this is due to technical and licensing issues with accessing the old data. Also, hotspots that are added give credit to the contributor - I don’t want to take any credit for the work and contributions of others!

If you want to access the old maps, they are still able to be reached by visiting http://<mapname>.wifi-in-australia.com/ (replacing <mapname> with the city or region of the map).

Oh, and for comparison, the new URL structure for maps is http://www.wifi-in-australia.com/map/<mapname>.

Finally, thanks again to everybody who has taken part in the project so far - I look forward to your continued support, contributions and (hopefully less of this last one) bug reports!

Q: What do all these items have in common?
A: They are all wireless internet hotspots

I wrote earlier about how trains in Brisbane are poised to have free wireless internet by 2010. Now it seems as though Brisbane City Council (BCC) buses may be receiving the same treatment.

MX Brisbane reported yesterday (sorry, no online link at the moment) that BCC and CISCO, the networking giant that is responsible for the WiFi available on the CityCat network, are keen to implement a wireless network and real-time bus scheduling service for the bus system using wireless technology and GPS tracking.

This is a move that will be great for all the users of iPhones and other WiFi-enabled mobile devices and laptop users with a great core stability. While you can easily use a laptop on the CityCat or Train, using a laptop on the bus is kinda like trying to perform brain surgery whilst spinning around blindfolded in a tumble-dryer.

At any rate, if this move goes ahead in tandem with the QR train wireless plan, Brisbanites could be looking at having the first fully wireless public transport system in Australia!

Brisbane's next wireless hotspot?

I regularly catch the train between Brisbane and the Gold Coast for work, which is a trip that takes a little over an hour one way. Needless to say, I tend to get a lot of my work done on my laptop between towns. I have a wireless broadband account, but I often don’t get coverage through the Gold Coast half of the trip. This is not surprising considering the train is passing through what is basically farm and swampland – hardly priority areas for a 3G network tower.

Reading the Sunday Mail this weekend however (which is kinda like the Sun-Herald but with less news and more opinions) it looks like the Queensland Government is proposing a solution: free wireless internet access on trains in South-East Queensland.

Here is a link to the online version of the article (The Courier Mail)

For the long and short of it, It seems that Queensland Rail (QR) are installing a comprehensive new wireless system to upgrade the security system for the CityTrain network. This system will be ‘piggybacked’ by commuters (that is a fancy word for us, the plebes), providing wireless internet access at stations and on the trains.

And it will be available in early 2010! I might be biased a little being a guy that runs a wireless hotspot website, but I think this is pretty cool.

A few things to think about though.

How ‘fast’ will the ‘high-speed’ internet access actually be during peak travel times? Most routes a starting to have a distinctive London Tube feel about them during rush-hour. In the event I can actually pull my elbow from my neighbours armpit and reach my laptop – will the network be overly congested?

Also, they mention the network will be ‘firewalled’ against non-commuters outside the stations and lines from accessing the internet. I’ve seen a few comments on the above news story sledging the Minister’s usage of the term. I think they just confused an IT term (not everyone is a network engineer after all). I would say they were talking about authentication and confusing terminology.

They will need some sort of authentication granted, and I believe the most likely solution is using the GO Card system. Every GO Card has a unique ID number. I envision an authentication page will query you for your GO Card ID and, if your GO Card shows you as currently travelling on a train (i.e. you’ve swiped on, but not off), you will be granted access accordingly.

At any rate, I’m interesting to see how this all rolls out.

Last week, Insight on SBS hosted a really interesting forum to debate the compulsory internet filter that has been proposed by Senator Stephen Conroy and the incumbent Australian government.

You can watch the entire SBS broadcast here:

Insight - Blocking the net (click to play)

The proposal aims to introduce a level of compulsory internet filtering at the ISP level throughout the country to deny access to any non peer-2-peer material at has been refused classification by the Classification board or otherwise deemed illegal.

The debate offered by Insight has representation from a number of different camps. The for’s and against’s seem to be fairly evenly balanced in the program which is nice to see.

Representatives included (in a very rough order of appearance):

• Senator Stephen Conroy
• Sue Mclean (Cyber Safety Advisor)
• Colin Jacobs (Electronic Fontiers Australia)
• Mark Newton (ISP Network Engineer - Internode)
• Some Christian guy that spouted rubbish that had nothing to do with the debate
• and parents, both for and against.

Now, to get opinionated, I don’t believe that a compulsory filter is the answer.

I don’t have a wealth of statistics to back up my claim here, but I do have a fairly educated opinion given a high exposure and familiarity to the online medium. And my belief is that for the material they are talking about I would strongly argue that the vast majority of it is distributed through peer-to-peer networks, encrypted channels and by old-fashioned email. And none of these methods would be filtered with the currently proposed scheme.

The end result is that people who are running these illegal material rings will still distribute it amongst themselves, the others who want to access it online will circumvent the filter, leaving the rest of us with a infrastructure-heavy filtering system that is filtering out content that we aren’t even trying to access anyway.

And the bit in bold there is the key thing.

Why put in a compulsory filter to stop people accessing material that they aren’t even going to try to access? Sure, their kids might try to get there or stumble upon it, so in those cases offer an opt-in filter that they can choose to run their connection through. The argument that it will stop those that want to access illegal material from doing so is ridiculous. This is a situation where, if there is a will, there is a way. And in this case, I imagine the ‘way’ would be a 2 minute google search…

I’ve been tracking the usage statistics for WiFi in Australia (WIA) using Google Analytics over the last couple of months. I hadn’t looked for the last month and a bit, so it was a surprise to me that a decent proportion of the traffic was coming from the domain freesydneywireless.com - the site for Free Sydney Wireless (FSW). I went and checked out the site and it turns out that in mid February the crew running Free Sydney Wireless wrote a brief (and encouragingly positive) feature on WIA! I think this may explain why the Sydney hotspot map is easily our fastest growing map. I’m really stoked to see the Sydney WiFi community getting behind this project.

A little more about Free Sydney Wireless:

Free Sydney Wireless website

FSW is a project site and blog for the setup of a wireless MESH network. To quote FSW, who in turn are quoting Meraki (a MESH network hardware manufacturer):

Mesh networking is a powerful way to blanket any area with wireless Internet access. In most wireless networks each access point is plugged directly into an Internet connection. But Meraki mesh networks are different. Our repeaters communicate wirelessly with each other, meaning that each repeater can provide Internet access, even without its own direct connection. In fact, in an average Meraki mesh network, only one of every 10 repeaters needs to be physically connected to the Internet. This makes it possible to build a bigger network that’s surprisingly affordable and more reliable.

If you are interested in the concept of a wireless MESH network, please take the time to visit the Free Sydney Wireless site. Not in Sydney? No problems! The FSW site also has links to other MESH network startups, including groups for Canberra and Western Australia. Definitely worth checking out!

It has been a busy month, so I’m afraid the updates on how the hotspot project has been going have been a little thin on the ground. Despite the lack of updates, there has been a flurry of activity on the maps themselves!

The has been an impressive number of hotspots being added to the Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast maps. I would like to especially thank @josh909, @sonialastrega and @robertablinger for continued support contributing wifi hotspots and letting me know about it!

I’ve had a lot of interest in more information about MESH networks across Australia, both where coverage exists and how to contribute. There is some information on a community-driven wireless network at Free Australia Wireless. I am also talking to people about other MESH related projects. I’ll keep you all posted on anything that eventuates!

Follow WiFi-in-Australia on twitter: http://twitter.com/wifi_australia

Thanks to Pippa Allen for taking the time to contribute the WiFi map of the Northern Rivers Region to WiFi-in-Australia.

The Northern Rivers region covers a range of towns in northern NSW, including Coolangatta, Byron Bay, Lennox Heads, and Ballina. WiFi hotspots in Byron Bay and Ballina have already been contributed by Pippa. Anybody from the area (or those guys and girls from South-East Queensland that regularly hop the border) who knows of WiFi hotspots in towns throughout the region, we would love for you to add your favourite hotspots!

This post is also a little late in delivery: a fair bit has happened on the WiFi map front whilst I’ve been away. Shortly after Josh contributed his hotspot map for Sydney, we had another map contributed, this time by Jimmy Breen for Perth!

If you’re kicking about Perth and know of some hotspot that should be added for the good of Western Australian mankind, visit the Perth map from ‘The Maps’ section of the site and get adding!

Cheers again to Jimmy and Josh for taking the time to create the Perth and Sydney maps.

This post is a little late in delivery: I’ve been abroad and internet access was sketchy at best! A little over two weeks ago, we’ve had our second WiFi map added. It is the second capital city to be added, but (more importantly) it is the first user-contributed map!

Thanks to Josh Liebmann for taking the time to contribute the WiFi map of Sydney to WiFi-in-Australia.

Since the map was first added, I’ve noticed that others have also jumped on board and started adding hotspot locations. I’m really stoked that we have the Sydney map active, as it is notoriously difficult to find WiFi access in the city.

Hi guys,

We have had a bunch of hotspots added to the Brisbane map, bringing our Brisbane hotspot total to over 20 locations, which is a brilliant start!

We have also had a couple of points added to the Gold Coast map, but it could definitely be improved.

Finally, still looking for some contributors to help out with getting a Sydney and Melbourne map started. Any takers?