Following is a modest proposal to the makers of Wi-Fi routers.
I understand the idea behind putting security in a router. I don’t want people getting into my local network either.
But do we really need protection against other people using my bandwidth when I’m away?
The problem is easy to fix.
Give each router its own on-off switch, so that it will remain on after the computer it is tied to is turned off. Then provide software in the router to allocate bandwidth, between the local network it’s linked to and the outside world.
This “side channel” would consist of those bits not being used by the home network. If you’re home and downloading software or a movie, in other words, you take all that bandwidth. When you’re away, however, when the computer is off, that bandwidth becomes available to others.
This is the opposite of what happens now. Right now I can only use others’ routers while their PCs are turned on. I am stealing their bandwidth while they are using it. With a side channel, I can share their bandwidth when they are out.
Software can firewall the side channel from the local network. No one from outside should be able to get into your home network except by going through the firewall. This gives side channel router owners more security than the present system, which uses weak WEP key passwords to protect local networks.
The key to this firewall would be set automatically, it could be as long as you wanted, because it’s your network and you’re not going to need that key. (If necessary, have the ability to copy that to a personal stick memory. You can then get into your network from the outside. Call it a “jimmie” feature.)
With side channel Wi-Fi routers we don’t need government or the phone company to build a WiFi cloud. We can do it ourselves, by buying routers with a side channel.
