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Sputnik provides free Internet roaming on a wireless planet

Typically, finance directors don't like giving away company assets. And usually, if you suggest to one of them that he should make precious office Internet connections available to passing strangers, his eyes will begin to bulge. Sputnik might just change this ...

Sputnik has been hailed as a bit of a nerd joke, because it turns an old PC into a public wireless access point. Naturally, Sputnik (the company) is based in San Francisco. And in case you were short of cliche images about ageing hippies with beards and sandals, it's all built around open source software. And the founders don't want any money.

Nonetheless, this innovation may just change the way most of us access the Internet; because it doesn't just take bandwidth away. Instead, you can use Sputnik nodes to get bandwidth back; and even, make money - in America, at least.

A Sputnik node is just a personal computer with a wireless card in it, connected to the Internet over an ordinary LAN. Its wireless card is available for any Sputnik-registered user to log onto.

Normally, this costs you money; you subscribe to the Sputnik network (much the same way as you subscribe to Cellnet or Vodafone or cable TV, really).

However, if you have your own Sputnik node up and running, not only will you be able to use other Sputnik nodes free, but you should also get some of the shared revenue the network generates for node operators. In other words, it should pay for itself. And there's the added benefit that your employees can have access to their Internet accounts when they're away from the office, if they can find a Sputnik node.

So, the next question your anxious Finance Director is going to ask, is probably going to be "But this is going to be open to the public! It can't be secure!"

One really clever trick, then, is that the software doesn't run on Windows, or OS/2, or anything general purpose.

When you run your Sputnik node, the machine doesn't load its software from a hard disk, but from a CD - it boots up from the disc, which is, of course, read-only. And the machine doesn't run any other software like Internet Explorer or IIP which can be carelessly configured by the typical user; when it boots the Sputnik disc, that's all it runs. Much of the vulnerability of most servers arises because they are general purpose computers; but a Sputnik is a single-function information appliance. It only does one thing.

That software includes a firewall; nothing gets through (in theory, at least!) except authorised traffic.

It has the side effect, says the company, that you should be able to get a much faster Internet connection, because most wireless access points just broadcast every bit of data that passes on the Ethernet net; but this one has an intelligent filter, which only transmits the stuff that the wireless users want.

"But this is toy software, for home users!" wails the FD.

There is an Enterprise edition Gateway. It links to security systems which enterprises use; Radius, LDAP, EATP, NDS; It has plug-ins for really grown-up network management packages like Unicenter, Rivoli, OpenView. It has detection software for rogue Access Point discrimination. And it has hot failover, to increase reliability.

I first saw this concept at last year's "Spring" show of Networld+Interop in Las Vegas, on the WiFi stand. I came back to the UK warning everybody I knew that there was a revolution on; that the future of the big telecommunications companies was under threat. It was the major reason I decided to launch this Web site; it was exciting, and it empowered the individual user.

And then, it vanished. I couldn't find any sign of it. All was explained last week, though, when John Markoff of the New York Times discovered the new public Sputnik Web site - they'd gone public at last.

"David L. Sifry, Arthur Tyde and David LaDuke launched wireless networking company Sputnik in April 2001, but only last month did they launch a public Web site to reveal their plans," reported NewsForge

In an effort to "under-promise and over-deliver," as Sifry calls it, [NewsForge continued] the trio have thus far avoided marketing and advertising their product, an Open Source 802.11b wireless gateway designed to allow wireless access providers to authenticate users while sharing their bandwidth.

The three co-founders of the Linux services company Linuxcare are not schoolboy experimenters; and open software is no longer just a bee in the bonnet of some MIT enthusiasts. It's a mainstream product area, supported by companies like IBM. And Sputnik is built on that foundation. It's no joke; it's a real threat to established comms.

This threat is the reason the UK's wireless authorities have been dragging their feet for so long about making commercial wireless access possible over 802.11a and 11b and Bluetooth wireless networks, using licence-exempt frequencies.

It's far from clear that this technology can cope with the number of users that 3G phone networks will be able to. But it is, equally, very uncertain that there will be enough crumbs left on the floor when everybody has finished eating at the public WiFi table, to feed hungry 3G licence owners and the hungry Governments who are counting on raking in the revenue from those licences.

Meanwhile, if you have a spare PC, download the client, burn a CD, and register. It's free, it will give you an access point for the cost of a used computer and a PC card, and it might just buy you a seat at the negotiating table when the Sputnik network eventually opens for business in the UK.