MichaelCodanti and AdamShand were talking the other day. They both have a bunch of PC's sitting around in our houses that we need to get rid of. Now we could just give them all to FreeGeek but we had another idea.
We get the feeling that there are a bunch of people out there with wireless gear but who aren't running NoCatAuth because getting a LinuxAccessPoint up and running is a little intimidating.
What if we pre-configured all of these boxes, had a big meeting where we walked everyone through configuring it for your home network, and sent you off home with a box that would work on your home network.
We would probably charge somewhere between $10 and $30 a box to cover things like additional NICs and other small bits and pieces that we don't just have lying around.
DonPark suggested that we also make this a swap meet where people could give away, sell or swap old hardware that they have lying around.
Please list your name if you have or know a space that can HOST the InstallFest.
I haven't asked them yet, but FreeGeek probably has the space, tools, and misc. parts for this project. Maybe we could have one of their hardware people host us there. Anybody here know someone there? Do we have a PersonalTelco -to- FreeGeek liaison? --ChadPatteson
I talked with Richard at FreeGeek on 2002/4/2 and he said that the best times would be during a down time for the org, Sundays or Mondays, but they can make room any evening that might be needed. An advance notice of 2 weeks ought to be enough, but more would be great. They're all set up for doing lots of hardware and software stuff. I would suggest a Sunday afternoon. --RossOlson
Please list your name if you are interested in either helping out or getting a pre-setup computer (and which of those you fall under as well)!
ChristianSeppa (Had a Pentium now at Hostel looking to get a NoCat Linux Box up and running for the Nice Neightborhood)
DanRichardson (Help setup others and finally get my Stylistic 1200 up and running)
JeffZurcher needs help getting his box configured, will help(if I can), bring spare parts, beer and maybe bring some interested VWLUG members)
AndrewWoods (would love to pay $10-$30 for a linux gateway)
JakeGrubbs I'd love to build a box, and I've got a couple of 486s
EliabHelon (i've got tons of stuff, mostly old 486 and pentium < 233, but still useful, and i'm glad to give it to anyone who can use it.)
LucasSheehan (I have a good number of boxes I will happily contribute to this. And have some beer and fun at the same time, beer is allowed right!?
..) TomOffermann (I have a 486 laptop w/16 MB of RAM that I would like to set up. Is it powerful enough?)
A 486 will be fine but you probably want to round up another 16MB of RAM if you can. -- AdamShand
ChadPatteson I've got a 486 dx33 tower with 8MB RAM. I guess I'll need a NIC, wireless card (and maybe more RAM). Willing to spend bucks to get it working as a node for my neighborhood. Great hands-on experience.
SamChurchill I have a FreeGeek box, a Sharp Tri Pad and a 200Mhz Apple Power Computing that needs work. I'd like to install NoCat in my FreeGeek and trade my Tri Pad - along with some bonus bucks - for a Pentium laptop. I need to get on the air but I am stuck with dialup and don't have a compelling application. Except vanity.
PatrickSullivan will come and would appreciate help installing nocat on his toshiba t2105 486-50 laptop running debian woody
RayHendricks will come I have an old compaq presario (monitor build in)486, upgraded to a 586 with 32megs that I would like help setting up. I've been told Linux won't go.
ErickaTucker I'd like to help out - I have some 486s and linux k-h.
AaronBaer I'd love to be involved; to lend any knowledge I can (Linux/wireless/other) and glean some NoCat knowledge from others. Possibly getting it installed on my node. (Then we need to have an AntennaBuildFest to improve my measly public coverage)
We've discussed having an antenna building party many times, I'd love to see this happen but don't have time to orgainze it. If someone wants to take this on and run with it that would be great. -- AdamShand
RossOlson would like to get a standard box set up and make it as easy as possible for everyone to simply put a box in between the wireless AP and the Router that would be at the person's home. More thoughts on GenericNoCatBox.
GeneMerrill has a stylistic and all the gear, but needs a little help with the sysadmin aspects of running NoCat. He once risked enraging AT&T by attempting to set it up as node on his cable modem, but couldn't coax it to work (even using Adam's neato disk image). He also enjoys long walks in the park, salad shooters and writing in the 3rd person.