Answers for your questions: Do I need to be in New York to set up a Neighbornode?  No! You can be anywhere in the world and set up a Neighbornode. The process is very easy - if you can set up a wireless access point for your own living room, you can set up a Neighbornode. Even if your living room is in Bangladesh. Is this okay with my service provider?  Each service provider has its own Acceptable Usage Policy. Some ISPs state outright that sharing bandwidth is a violation of your agreement with them, while others are totally accepting, even encouraging of it. Many ISPs fall somewhere in between these two extremes. You should find out what your ISP's Usage Policy is before starting a Neighbornode. Is this secure?  Quoting NYCWireless: "No! Wireless Ethernet is insecure by default. Any user on the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) can spy on unencrypted traffic from other wireless users. Wired connections are generally more secure when communicating with other servers. Users are advised to use SSL to connect to web pages and mail hosts, SSH instead of telnet whenever possible, and VPNs (virtual private networks) for all other data to ensure privacy and security." This is true for all wifi, not just Neighbornodes. Hosts of Neighbornodes generally maintain a standard ethernet cable connection to the Internet so that they can maintain security for themselves while creating an online space for their neighbors to interact. What is your affiliation with NYCWireless?  We are not directly affiliated with NYCWireless. Neighbornode is a project conceived and maintained by students at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. That said, we have worked closely with the members of NYCWireless on joint projects (see the NYCWireless Community Hotspot Project), and have to give them endless thanks for all of the support they have given us and continue to give us with Neighbornode So what can you do on Neighbornode, anyway?  You can: post messages to a bulletin board for all of your neighbors to see (and reply to) post photos to a photoblog, either from your computer or from your cellphone set up a neighborhood webcam for people to check out link nearby nodes together to create "supernodes" where larger areas can share information resources add your own artwork and text to the splash pages, to customize your node. This faq is a work in progress. Got questions we haven't answered? Send 'em to john. Introduction Put a Neighbornode on your street See locations of current Neighbornodes FAQ Neighbornode Explained In the Press To your bulletin board