<img src="{data}/news/old_attachments/images/blackbeltjones.gif" class="frame" align="left">You may start to hear more about this phenomenon called 'warchalking' sooner of later. With the increase in wireless internet access, users with a lot of extra bandwidth are wondering how to let others know what sort of access is available in the area. Enter warchalking. <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/">Business Week</a> has the article <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2002/tc2002073_1130.htm">A Wireless End Run Around ISPs</a> discussing how this trend started, some symbols to recognize and possible future usage or problems. Advocates of a free internet have been creating their own antennas and 802.11b or WiFi networks for a little while now. <iq>Enthusiasts can buy an antenna for as little as $50 ... [m]ore creative techies have turned a Pringles can or a piece of tinfoil into a working antenna.</iq> But, how do you tell whether there is a connection in the area? <bq>... Create a set of international road signs to the Internet. Two half-moons chalked on a pavement or a wall indicate that a connection is available. A full circle informs would-be surfers that the node is closed.</bq> The term <span class="reference">warchalking</span> has a suitably geeky pedigree: it's <iq>a play on "wardriving" or "warwalking," which refers to people who toot (sic) around cities with special software designed to sniff out open wireless nodes. (And the term "wardriving" derives from "wardialing," a word coined in the classic 1983 sci-fi thriller WarGames starring Matthew Broderick.)</iq> Of course, one easy-to-spot problem is that ISPs are going to want to shut down these private mini-ISPs as quickly as possible, regardless of the fact that the bandwidth they're sharing has already been paid for. If you let other people use a bit of your bandwidth for free, in corporate capitalist terms, that's people who aren't paying for their own access. That's not fair, of course...and you'd be a fool and a communist to think that it might be. <bq>On June 25, Time Warner Cable sent a dozen "cease and desist" letters to customers it says were publicly instructing others about how to share broadband connections on the NYC Wireless site.</bq> The corporations are, of course, addicted to the <iq>one-wire, one-customer philosophy</iq>, which makes sense only for the corporation. A cable connection can easily service the web browsing of a dozen or more people. Naturally, that adds us to a loss of 11 customers in the eyes of corporations, but the service being provided is perfect. That's exactly the connection most people need and it's cheap, and will soon be ubiquitous. It'll be like tuning in to a radio station for free. You can just hop from connection to connection as you move around, jumping in and out of broadband networks. Now, that's cool. For more information about Warchalking, check out <a href="http://www.blackbeltjones.com/warchalking/">Black Belt Jones</a>.