= The Ideal Access Point =

Recently (and maybe not so recently) people have said things like "gee, PTP would really rock my socks if they could provide me with an access point that does everything I need to do for cheap and I wouldn't need to even think about it". Well, this is certainly something that is possible (or at least, some approximation of this goal). So, let's get a description going and then build a prototype and then build lots of them and then accomplish ThePlan.

== Things We Want: ==

 * Cheap (less than $100)
 * Powerful (60+ mW with ability to attach an ExcessivelyLargeAntenna)
 * Secure
   * The node host's internal network is isolated
   * The node host can still access their internal network safely
   * All wireless users can have some MAC-layer crypto if they want some (WPA2 and friends) but don't have to if they don't
   * The node host has some liability offloaded with a splash page
   * It acts as a firewall and does a good job at it
   * It has some sort of traffic/bandwidth throttling control and/or prioritization (wondershaper and friends?)
   * VPN tunneling and TOR and stuff
 * Access
   * Personal Telco NOT members can get into it to help fix it (with new members added automagically to the keychain)
   * The node host can get into it
   * It will (automatically?) participate in PersonalTelcoVPN (especially if it is behind a NAT)
 * Freeness
   * It runs a free operating system (Linux) and other free software (OpenWRT?)
   * The hardware is open (unlikely, but would be very cool)
   * No filtering of client-to-client traffic
   * The radio has a good, hopefully open, driver (MadWifi?)
 * Ease of Use
   * Should be easy to configure things that need to be configured easily
 * Robustness
   * Waterproof enclosure
   * PoE
   * No moving parts (CompactFlash storage)
 * Growth
   * It is running some mesh protocol we all like ([[OLSR]]? HSLSR?) and looking for neighbors
 * Applications
   * It has a place people can upload stuff and this stuff is easy to discover (zeroconf etc.)

== Recipes ==

The RussellSeniorBuffalo:

 * Buffalo WHR-G54S ($60 or thereabouts)
 * OpenWRT
 * A bunch of work

FINISH ME!!!