[zeromq-dev] How do we activate and connect to WiFi hotspots in edgenets?

[Pieter Hintjens]

(a) I think we need to start an edgenet mailing list, as this is both
such an interesting discussion, and yet so different from what people
are expecting here

(b) wifidirect is a "not quite mesh" 1-to-1 link and in fact very
close to what I was thinking of with edgenet in the beginning. There's
not a lot of choice, if you don't have 802.11s mesh working in the
firmware, which few devices have.

(c) you don't need root access to enable AP mode on most phones afaik.
Not Android, anyhow (the API isn't documented but you can dig it out.)

(d) we tried, and failed (in a previous closed project) to create and
discover cells automatically. Best approach seems to be manual
assistance.

-Pieter

On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 4:58 PM, Arnaud Loonstra <arnaud at sphaero.org> wrote:
> On 01/08/2014 03:46 PM, Bruno D. Rodrigues wrote:
>> I don’t know too many details about FON, but we have an ISP in Portugal
>> that provides FON over all their clients (if they accept) and as soon as
>> I connect to one FON hotstpot, the device automatically connects to any
>> other. No idea if it’s just because it’s the same name, or if there is
>> any other value that is forced to be the same, but somehow it is possible.
>>
>> On Jan 8, 2014, at 12:03, crocket <crockabiscuit at gmail.com
>> <mailto:crockabiscuit at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>> People may be able to devise an algorithm for automatically turning on
>>> hotspots in several smartphones among many.
>>>
>>> But, even with hotspots turned on, how do phones connect to each other
>>> if smartphones simply refuse to connect to randomly named hotspots?
>>>
>>> Should we forcefully rename hotspots to a predetermined name(e.g.,
>>> "edgenet") and agree to connect to hotspots named "edgenet"?
>>>
>
> You could follow a roaming setup. Setup an hotspot with any name and
> make sure it is setup for roaming. Usually the authentication is done
> using radius. Which would be very easy to implement as radius is very
> simple protocol. Even just MAC authentication would suffice but you
> could go on into EAP/TTLS or PEAP setups.
>
> To setup an hotspot on a phone you'll probably need root access.
>
> WifiDirect would be better but I don't any devices that support it. It
> will probably be stopped by vendors ;) Just like PTT.
>
> Rg,
>
> Arnaud
>
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