[Answer] Building a street wifi network

Good day.
This post is the answer to this topic .

Who cares, welcome under cat.

Prelude:

Some time ago I also had such an idea in view, and even found some solutions.
And what, the bed is not plowed, in our city the shareware coverage is only in the center (I call it conditionally free because of the need to watch ads when connected), free only in taverns or macdonalds ... There is a place to roam.
Armed with Google, we have the following.
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Of course, I will list the dry theory, this is purely IMHO.

Option number one: buy an already crafted wi-fi router, connect it to your lanyard with the Internet and share profits with your left uncle. No technical knowledge is required, a certain amount of money and simple setup are enough.
From the pros, the simplicity of the solution, from the minuses - the cost of the router will be more than the market time in 5 times, the need to share profits.

Option number two: try to walk on the potential rake described in the article . I will dwell on this in more detail.

1) A more detailed diagram of building such a network, 8) "Channel width"
Pull the cable from the optics provider does not make sense. The speed consumed by wireless devices (if, of course, they do not watch movies online and do not update software) is small enough, the number of clients is unlikely to exceed ten in a separate unit of time, because 2-3 Mb / s is enough for the eyes. 3G is enough.
To close the network? What for? It is enough to provide a centralized connection to the home (or rented) server. There are a lot of articles on how to configure access in the web-face of a router from the Internet.
Traffic. Depends on customer activity. Here you can not guess.

Points 2) Coverage, 3) Equipment, 4) Signal Penetration, 8) "Channel Width" echo each other and here is why:
Sometimes it is cheaper and easier to install 2-3-5 routers weaker than one powerful. This will reduce communication quality problems due to signal reflection and absorption. In addition, we must not forget that the quality of communication is affected not only by the power of the transmitter, but also by the receiver. If the signal from the receiver does not reach the transmitter, the channel will not be created.
An example would be TP-Link TL-WA5210G in conjunction with the iPhone4. A fairly stable reception was up to 200 meters in direct line of sight, then the signal disappeared. According to the specification of the specified router, we see that it can "receive a signal at a distance of up to 15 km", which means the problem is in a weak apple module.

5) Legal schemes
This is definitely an entrepreneurial activity, because you need to register your activities with all the consequences. This alone should make you think about the benefits of such a business.
Or hide well (winking smiley).

6) Programming scheme for monitoring modems and traffic; 7) Modem programming
There are not two options, but more.
You can raise a proxy on your home server and allow traffic through it.
You can use features from dd-wrt.
You can join one of the many hot spot networks.
You can configure the modem so that the client, for example, watches an ad when connected, and after 15 minutes reconnects.

9) Security operations via WiFi
According to PCI-DSS (a standard such for the card industry), connection to the resources for payment by cards must be made via secure channels. Most resources use HTTPS for this, which is enough. However, social networks and some mailers also use this protocol, so you should not worry about this item.

As you can see, the scheme is full of rakes, following which you do not know Zen.

For myself, brought the option number three:
We take a 3G modem and a wi-fi router that has a 3G connector. We connect the modem to the tariff, for example, 30 Gb / month at a speed of up to 3 Mb / s (if the traffic limit is exceeded, the speed decrease to 128 Kb / s). We put the dd-wrt firmware with NoCatSplash on the router, indicate the page with the advertisement in the settings and the period for which we give the Internet to the client until the next advertisement, set up 3G and look for where to put the equipment.
Ideally, places where people regularly gather in large numbers and wait. Maybe under the windows of the business center (many are waiting for the end of the working day, and on the corporate network there is a DLP / whitelist / and-not altogether disconnected), near train stations and universities, and so on.
You can try to negotiate with the residents of neighboring houses, kiosks, or directly approach the owners / employees of enterprises and for a small bribe to rent a power outlet somewhere in a quiet corner.
Of the advantages, we have a sufficiently low-cost solution within 100 ye for a set (router modem) + connection to the tariff and monthly fee for a couple of months. The solution is scalable, mobile. Of the minuses - I knowingly kept silent about registering a legal entity. If they find such an access point, confiscation is inevitable. One thing is warm - you may not be found / searched. Some technical skills are also required (however, Google gives quite understandable explanations), search for a place to install.

In general, it was a little messy, but I hope intelligibly.

Thanks to this post I received an invite, accordingly, it is possible to open each item more fully in a series of articles.
ZzyZH thanks to Lansaro for spodvig write this top.