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The Slurpr WiFi aggregator: up to 324Mbps broadband for "free"

engadget.com — Oh my, the 5-0 won't like this one bit. Meet The Slurpr, a WiFi access point which aggregates up to six "available" (read: unprotected) 54Mbps WiFi channels into one bigazz, "free" connection. It's the latest invention by Dutch hacker, Mark Hoekstra and his new sidekick (of is it the other way around?), Boris.

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  • skev303, on 10/11/2007, -49/+4Cooool wardriving uber router
    • dbr_onix, on 10/11/2007, -1/+40To make use of this otherwise useless comment-thread, a direct link :
      http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/781/slurpr-the-mother-of-all-wardrive-boxes
    • darkstorm777, on 10/11/2007, -21/+8eh, Id rather put the money on something of other un-usefulness....like an Optimus Keyboard...at least it wont put me in jail...in theory
    • Breepee, on 10/11/2007, -9/+44Only I don't see why it's illegal? I'm sure as hell allowed to access AP's that are open to me, right?
    • h4ppydotcom, on 10/11/2007, -4/+18No, I don't think it is - well, at least not in The Land of The Free:
      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070522-michigan-man-arrested-for-using-cafes-free-wifi-from-his-car.html
    • patkirkrick, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1Well, it's up to a judge to determine if it's illegal... the cop and DA were probably just being dicks. I'm guessing from the article this was a plea bargain and the judge didn't even have a say in this.
    • supernovasky, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15So its kind of like the wireless hardware version of bittorrent... which begs the question, could you imagine torrenting on this?
    • Skatmob, on 10/11/2007, -2/+18I'm not really sure why you need a router for this. Microsoft and their VirtualWifi allows one wireless card to connect to multiple hotspots already. It must be possible to do this on a driver/software level.

      http://research.microsoft.com/netres/projects/virtualwifi/software.htm
    • kethraal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5"No, I don't think it is - well, at least not in The Land of The Free:"

      That's debatable. I'm guessing it was either a plea bargin (as mentioned above) or just a really ***** lawyer.

      An open AP, by definition, acknowledges connection requests, and authorizes _any_ client that requests a connection. Therefore, it could easily be stated that the AP "gave permission" to the client in question. Likewise, if you have an answering machine that picks up the phone every time it rings, all those phone calls are "answered" -- even if you didn't explicitly pick up the reciever for each one. You couldn't then argue that "oh, those calls were completed without my permission", since _you_ were the one who installed the machine that answers them.
    • darkhero, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3$1,347 + Jail Time = ***** That. I am a intern at a ISP and in the next few years 10mbs will be standard.
    • FredSpeaking, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@Skatmob
      "Virtual WiFi: Virtual WiFi allows connections to multiple IEEE 802.11 networks with one WiFi card. It virtualizes the WiFi card, and connects each virtual adapter to a different wireless network. It switches the WiFi card across all virtual interfaces to give an *illusion* of simultaneous connectivity on multiple wireless networks."
      -http://research.microsoft.com/netres/software.aspx

      So not likely
  • bazery, on 10/11/2007, -17/+8This thing is awesome, and considering half the people who have an internet connection have no clue how to secure it, it'd be pretty successful-----haxors unite
    • bazery, on 10/11/2007, -5/+12The idea is good, the legality probably not,
      also its like a router hedgehog
  • Bomega, on 10/11/2007, -15/+5I'm getting mine next week!
    • c0re1337, on 10/11/2007, -9/+7For $1,347? Count me out.
    • jjremy, on 10/11/2007, -4/+155$1347?

      I'm surprised and disappointed they didn't make it $1337...
    • Matteos, on 10/11/2007, -2/+109Thoose crazy dutch, spelling leet with an A...
    • rhabd0mancer, on 10/11/2007, -2/+55There is a $10 mail-in rebate available.
    • GawtMilk, on 10/11/2007, -5/+44That's leat!

      I'll go post about this on my blag.
    • FuzzyCat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+111 x RouterBOARD 532A (comes with free copy of routerOS from microtik) ~ £134
      1 x RouterBOARD 564 Daughterboard ~ £80
      1 x RB532 Large Indoor Case - N-Type + Daughterboard ~ £25
      6 x Wistron CM9 miniPCI 802.11a/b/g adapter ~ £6 (x 6 = £36)
      6 x 2.4-5.8 GHz Omnidirectional Swivel Antenna with cable ~ £26 (x 6 = £156)

      ~= £431 ~= 633 EUR ~= $851

      Considering routerOS, which comes with the board supports bonding out of the box, and that this would clearly not be aimed at anyone other than geeks, this is NOT a good deal...

      sorry, I burst your bubble, I'll shut up now...

    • EtherGnat, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Even geeks sometimes have a need for an integrated solution. This device may be easier to manage and move, might be more reliable, and likely has better technical support than a build your own device. Time is frequently more valuable than money.
    • FuzzyCat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1
      @EtherGnat

      I might have agreed with what you said if these guys hadn't just brought a load of off the shelf microtik gear and put it together. The parts list I gave above is (aside from the wifi cards) exactly what they brought. I'd futher add by not using the routerOS software they actually removed some stability.

      I should also add that his quoted price 999 eur plus taxes is just bogus, the prices I quoted above are inclusive of VAT (vat does not apply to non EU countries) and I used simple 1 off prices, no volume deals, just one off pricing.
  • quik22, on 10/11/2007, -26/+4buried as lame.
  • Kamino, on 10/11/2007, -1/+41Considering they will release the source, cheaper and DIY ones will probably see the light soon.
  • gr3yn3t, on 10/11/2007, -3/+88http://digg.com/users/macbot/news/submitted

    engadget much?
  • hasansexy, on 10/11/2007, -16/+15Why? For 999$ you can get at least 20 months of highspeed internet.
  • DomZy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+23heh, adding WEP cracking as well. Sounds nice.
  • Niten, on 10/11/2007, -6/+44The description is really inaccurate: Not only would you be hard pressed to find six open 802.11G access points each with an Internet connection capable of saturating the wireless link's bandwidth (I don't know *anyone* with a 50+ Mbps home connection), but even if you could, actual bandwidth would be much less after taking into account protocol overhead.

    Interesting idea, though, questionable legality aside...
    • commiecat, on 10/11/2007, -2/+24I'm not sure about you, but I live in a relatively small college town (Gainesville, FL), and it's really not that hard to find 5 or 6 wide open networks in a given area. Swing by any dorm hall or apartment complex and the amount of "linksys" SSIDs is staggering. And this is just with my laptop's internal WiFi -- no external antenna or anything.

      The article starts with the creator talking about how in *Amsterdam* they can sit in a spot and find several unsecured WAPs and would wind up picking the best one. If you check out wigle.net, there is a map of the world with available WAPs and SSIDs -- Amsterdam has hundreds, if not thousands, of spots mapped on the site.

      I don't think it's inaccurate at all. Does everyone live in an area where you can find that many WAPs? Probably not. But I'd venture to say that anybody living in a major city would be able to use this. The real question is who would pay that much money for it...
    • catalysis, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8You can find 5 WAPs from your room in almost any apartment building. Usually 1 or 2 are wide open. One that I can see right now has an SSID "default." I doubt you could get in much trouble accessing that one.
    • dbr_onix, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8There's another possible benefit :
      If you try moving around with a laptop connected to a single AP, you'll get constant dropped connections, but since this blends together any available access points, assuming a convient string of unencrypted wireless access points, you should be able to get a fairly consistent connection.
      How it (The laptop's software) would deal with the changing external IP's for persistent connections (Like downloading stuff, SSH connections etc) I'm not sure, but for the normal email/web browsing it'd work - Why anyone would want to spend over $1000 for it I'm not quite sure, but it's another use of the device..
    • jeffness, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10my major technical concern for this idea is spectrum usage.. Wireless connections get pretty poor once you have 6+ WAPS running close together, even on different "Channels".

      They all interfere with each other.. Add this "aggregator" to the mix, and your spectrum is awash with traffic.. Just sounds like a bad idea to me.
    • jeffness, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6oh and dbr, sorry to disappoint, but you're misunderstanding the concept.

      Think of this device as a centralized router that brings together 5 disparate networks. It's just a router with multiple antennas. Thats it. There's no hand-off mechanism for wireless, and no advantage that you speak of.

      In all likelyhood, this device connects 5 open WAPS to a single wired network. I'm not sure if you'd want to connect to this device with a wireless card.
    • Niten, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9@commiecat: "I'm not sure about you, but I live in a relatively small college town (Gainesville, FL), and it's really not that hard to find 5 or 6 wide open networks in a given area."

      Hah, well it turns out that, yes, I live in the very same small college town as you. I agree that it's easy to find open access points here; my point was more related to the fact that none of those access points will provide you with anything near 54 Mbps to the *Internet*.

      Small world, huh?
    • rald84, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7i'm wondering if this is just "load balancing." in order words, if you're downloading five files, each will use one connection. but if you're downloading ONE file, you'll only be able to use one connection. any insights? it would be NICE if gave a true 300Mbit connection
    • lowbot, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5>How it (The laptop's software) would deal with the changing external IP's for persistent connections (Like downloading stuff, SSH connections etc)

      Its probably just doing basic random load balancing. So SSH stays established on eth0, download stays on eth1, etc. The outgoing web connections alternate between eth0, eth1, eth2, etc. Something tells me alternative on every packet (instead on every connection) is going to be very problematic.

      The worst part about this is you dont know what youre getting. Okay, you're on 3 wifi connections. One is 1.5 down, the other is 256k, and the other is 6mbps down. Well, the 6mbps is fast but everyone is using it. The 1.5 is fast but one guy is doing massive torrents on it. The 256k is slow but its free-ish. This isn the equvalant of 8mbps, its more like a speedy 400k line. You're much better off (speed-wise) just paying for a broadband card or wifi service that isnt saturated.

      Its is a good idea and one everyone wifi user has had, but someone got off their ass and did it, but I'm certain the laws of diminishing returns comes into play pretty quickly. Not to mention that an open AP is usually a lagged and oversaturated AP.
    • rald84, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3ah ok, the main article seems to answer this

      "The box at this moment happily boots Debian and the bonding of all the network traffic is done in a load-balancing way, but the other way around. Instead of balancing the load of one connection over multiple servers, we balance multiple connections into one device."

      so its useful if you want a reliable wireless connection, but not useful if you want true 300 Mbit wireless.
    • commiecat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@niten -- small world, indeed! I understand your point -- there's no way to guarantee what sort of throughput you'll get to the 'net. But the potential should be there in most cities nowadays. Here you can find tons of WAPs that are unsecured -- "linksys", "default" and "gators" SSIDs all over. :)
    • lowbot, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1>Wireless connections get pretty poor once you have 6+ WAPS running close together, even on different "Channels".

      Err, no. There are three non-overlapping channels in the US for wifi. They physically cannot interfere with each other by definition of non-overlapping.

      We could have a fourth (like the japanese do) with channel 14 if the fcc allowed it.
    • piwy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1@Niten (#6917298)
      Seeing as they are from The Netherlands, 50Mbs is not that difficult to get. And again seeing it's amsterdam even 100Mbit is not that difficult.
  • close2theflame, on 10/11/2007, -10/+0ok so tell mem this, who would have 6 lines to put into it and who would waste the money on it just pay for a good connection for a year and get a N-router and still save money
  • Paperclip1, on 10/11/2007, -4/+32When I hear "Slurpr", WiFi isn't what comes to mind. ;)
  • aryo, on 10/11/2007, -12/+5or you can buy 5 wireless antennas and a router and glue them together.
  • bazery, on 10/11/2007, -5/+10Jeez people are fast to digg down, Personally I think this is a really good idea, imagine it in a laptop
  • skidme, on 10/11/2007, -8/+5OK, but can it bake pies?
    • Bomega, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7It could if you would add that functionality. And if it sells, we will start offering it too!
  • pcharles23, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2its cool.

  • Jonny0stars, on 10/11/2007, -3/+19*builds Faraday cage around house*
    • bazery, on 10/11/2007, -10/+1*builds Faraday cage around house*
      Out of paper mache because he can't afford any metal after spending all his money on a router
  • Olain, on 10/11/2007, -3/+13Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't you have connection problems with overlapping channels? You have channels 1-11 in the states and your supposed to have 5 channels of separation which would leave you with 1-6-11. Also even if this did work. The only thing you could get out of it would be downloading large files from different connections then piecing them back together with a download client. I don't believe Bit Torrent would even work over it since you would have up to 6 different IP addresses. I see no other use then downloading large ISO's with a download client such as Get Right. So i see it as lame.
  • ripstuntz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12Ahhh, how I can pwn my neighbors wireless connectionz now

    but why pay over $1k for something that isn't as reliable as a dedicated high speed line...?
    • firsttube, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8A one time fee is cooler than monthly payments, not to mention if you're on the go, right?
  • taintedzodiac, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Lost my interest at "bigazz."
  • Andon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I appreciated the reference to Hero's Quest (Quest For Glory I.)
  • marx2k, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Slap Harley Davidson, LL Bean and Calvin-*****-On-A-Cisco logos on it and I'm totally in.

    Oh, and warm and cold cupholders plz kthx
  • STARTSOMETHING, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1all i need is a yes or no (not a bury)

    this thing connects to 5 different wifi's cracks their wep's then you have the speed of 5 connections right?
    • taintedzodiac, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2No WEP yet.
    • Technopundit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Nobody uses WEP anyway, On today's routers, WPA is just as easy to configure.
      This thing's fun, interesting, overpriced and unnecessary. From what I am reading, there are other, cheaper ways of doing the same thing. If I'm going to go through the hassel of becoming the WiFi Mayor of My Street, I'd rather invest the money into time, and learn something from the experience.
  • dan7600, on 10/11/2007, -10/+2i'm in ur street stealin ALL ur WiFiz
    • DownSyndrom3, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6@dan7600 (#6917905)
      Digg has killed the meme.
  • slapthemonkey, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1pre-order the €999 / $1,347 box .......Whewwwww!!!!
  • DrDabbles, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Okay, there are several real issues with this idea. While, yes, you could potentially connect to five or six 802.11 APs at 54Mbps, you could never actually attain a download speed of more than one single internet connection's ability. Of course, you could get around that by using some smart proxying on the device, but then you run into even more issues...such as sessions dropping on secure sites.

    Realistically, it would be better to see devices like this going up on the outsides of buildings to provide metro access via WiFi. I'd love to have WiFi in my car, and as I drive past an AP it could download traffic data from the internet for every street within a few mile radius. THOSE are smart ideas, this is just plain not going to work.
    • yabos, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Well think of torrents or download managers that open multiple connections. Both of those would be able to download the same file over multiple connections simultaneously.
  • StiGUP, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1at first I thought 7-11 came out with a new slurpee...LoL..


    this thing is cool though...throw a wep cracked on it and i'm sold :)
  • kierskoe, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6This article is LAME, no mention of how the thing actually works.. re-assmbling packets, ip addressing issues, collision detection mechanism, crc ..... Hey heres a picture and this is the jist of what i claim it does, thats supposed to make a good article?
    • DrDabbles, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Above and beyond all that, connecting to five or six APs means you're going to have channels overlapping. This means each channel will operate at a slower speed than it could theoretically operate at. It sounds to me like the creator has no idea how any of this technology actually works, and he simply assumes more antennas=more speed. I wish I could see a picture of his car, because I bet it has 15 exhausts on it.

      +1 for anybody that can tell me where the exhausts reference comes from.
    • wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0I would assume they're using netgraph, in conjunction with ng_one2many.

      netgraph:
      http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=netgraph&sektion=4&apropos=0&manpath=FreeBSD+5.3-RELEASE+and+Ports

      netgraph one2many:
      http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ng_one2many&sektion=4&apropos=0&manpath=FreeBSD+6.2-RELEASE
    • yabos, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Well to me it's pretty easy to understand how this works. It works the same way as those routers that you can use more than one internet connection and it automatically load balances or switches to the working connection if one goes down. It's load balancing not link aggregation like you can do with ethernet. If you have multiple connections downloading one file like bit torrent it'll increase your speed greatly. And yes you can get interference from overlapping channels but that's not anything you can get around anyways because you're using other people's access points. This just means that you'll get faster speeds and yes access points still work with interference from other ones on the same channel they just aren't as efficient.
    • kierskoe, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0@Yabos

      I dont think you quite fully understand "load balancing". It will not split up individual requests, therefore you will not see any increased bandwith establishing any single session, however each single session will be afforded the least congested link... e.g 2 links and 2 requests, each request will get 100% bandwith on each single link not double.

      It will not work with bittorrent for each individual torrent anyway due to the hashing algorithm.....
  • dan7600, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@DownSyndrom3

    Worth a shot eh?
  • crawfishsoul, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3But WiFi eats babies! Won't someone please think of the children?
    http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/
  • capran, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Just wondering, does anyone know of any guides to getting your bit torrent box to do something like this? Specifically, I want to be able to connect to open WAPs to get more bandwidth in addition to my LAN connection. I've got a crappy USB Dlink Wifi dongle that I've tried to use for this purpose, but even when I can get it to connect, uTorrent or Azureus etc., all seem to still only be using my LAN, not the Wifi (as judged by my up/downstream speeds and looking at the network connection properties window for packets in/out on the wifi link.
  • JohnnyXmas, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9For $1347, it better pick up brain waves. At least then I'll know WTF my roommates problem is.
  • sitric, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2GET OUT OF HERE!!!!
  • Hubris, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Even under optimal conditions where your router has internet connections through 5 or 6 separate networks....if you are using 802.11g (or the turbo version) you won't have faster than a 54 (108) Megabit connection to the router. You'd have to have multiple connections to your own router to be able to fully use the pipe the router has out to the net....
  • RamboJesus, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Torrents
  • ogletree, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1From what I remember about 802.11 you can't have more than 3 wireless access points being used at any one time in the same area. Also would you have to have 3 wireless cards to access 3 access points since your card can only access one. I bet this does not really work the way they think it does. The overhead would be nuts. Also an access point can only send in one direction to one client at a time. Sounds nice but it would not be very useful.
  • bobzibub, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Pardon my ignorance.... Would you not be able to put your wireless device in promiscuous mode and then bridge virtual connections for the same effect?

    Is there a hardware reason why this could not happen?

    Cheers,
    -b
    • xen0blue, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1good thought, i'd like to know an answer to this as well
  • torgos, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0You may have an "uber-connection" but you won't get crazy speed unless you have simultaneous connections. It's like putting 16 CPUs into your PC and wondering why your copy of Doom II won't run any faster than with one. Buried as just stupid.
  • xxxkrogoth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1The possibility of having all of your connections on "separate" wireless networks in a given area, meaning the broadband providers are all different for full speed is slim. Even in a residential area this would be unlikely. Now if this device had directional YAGI antennas that automatically found separate hotspots from a great distance, then you might be in for some speed. This would also justify the price.
    • Kitsune818, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1It's "Yagi", and a patch array or waveguide and reflector setup would work much better at 2.4 Ghz. Even a pringles can with a probe is decent.
  • JackOpfor, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I can see 50 plus in my hood, both residential and commercial. I havent even tried to count unlocked APs or sort though them much. But with all the new construction & Development in my area I am sure to see allot more unlocked poorly protected APs.
  • Markers, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Why must people invent gadgets like this!?!? Spending $1,300 on this will ***** my wife off something awful... I just do not know if I can resist controlling all of my neighborhood bandwidth.
  • kingyubba, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1make the schematics Open Source!!!
    • Bomega, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2They will be...
    • FuzzyCat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2
      The schematics will not be open source, they use a RouterBoard and a daughterboard from microtik - they didn't actually design any of the hardware at all.

  • gotamd, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1***** yeah.
  • TrojanGuy, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1This story had 1347 diggs when I clicked on it. Spooky...
  • Kitsune818, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Soo.. you'll get six connections to the same ISP who've capped all those connections anyway, and are probably running at a high load on your segment?

    This is retarded. The dude didn't even multiplex the antennas, and they are going to get directional and make nulls.

    Redneck engineering creedo: If one's good more is better!
  • b0rg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Interesting idea, even if it would be really hard to duplicate the result.

    pwning the cable modems of 20 neighbors still won't help much if the entire downstream for the node is only ~30-ish mb/s, and you can get 8 from a single modem without any work.

    Still, just the idea must make a few studio types get the willies.
  • encognito, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Reading about this device made me think about the time I hacked into my neighbor's apartment via a shared wall and stole his phone line. I hooked up the phone line to a second modem and used some network software called "FatPipe" to create an ISDN level bandwidth connection. That was over a decade ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
  • xen0blue, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1uuuughh....that snorg tees girl is ficking HOT

    oh, and that wifi thing is ok too
  • JasonCox, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Seriously, now's here's something you Linux geeks need to deplicate, I'd actually use this.
  • 2922, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1One small detail.... Even if you had six access points and no interference you would never reach 324Mbps simply because this router has a maximum throuput of about 40Mbps :P :P
  • BitsOfSkin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Wow, all those antenna's cancelling each other out, and trying to turn several connections into one with software that is known for giving very questionable results, and the fact they're asking a lot more for this thing than it actually costs...
    Yeah, sounds like a good deal to me...
    /sarcasm
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