Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 20th May 2009
1 COMMENT 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
A new free Wi-Fi service called FreeRunner launches today in the UK bringing free WiFi to individuals across the North East of the country.
Founded by wireless heavyweights Owen Geddes, Matt Heiman and Louise Pargetter, the company has solid experience within virtually every major wireless service provider in the UK. Along with an impressive pedigree, the startup has initial funding from NorthStar Equity – on face value at least – they appear to know what they’re doing.
So how does it work?
The service, provides free broadband access to individuals by installing free to use access points in public and commercial venues. Freerunner can be installed in community-oriented venues, such as public spaces, libraries, transport hubs, community centres and schools will receive the service completely free of charge.
In commercial venues, free access will be funded by the venue – but at supposedly a third of current costs from other operators like the cloud, T-Mobile and BT Openzone.
In Freerunner’s own words:
” You get free wireless broadband, in return the people paying for you, want to show the odd advert or get you to buy a cup of coffee. “
The company formally launches at the The Wireless Event, Olympia, London today.
Written on 14th May 2009
4 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Written on 21st April 2009
7 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Heat Map of Wi-Fi strength
People expect a wireless network and connectivity at a web conference. And they expect it to work too. unfortunately it usually doesn’t. Every edition of The Next Web Conference suffered from some problems. This year, it was almost perfect.
It was so perfect that I publicly offered to make the Wi-Fi work at leWeb in paris next year. It famously didn’t work last year even though Loïc reportedly spent over 100.000 Euros on it. We spent a little more than 5.000 so I offered to provide working Wi-Fi for 50.000 in Paris.
This is what the setup looked like last week:
- We provided almost 50 workplaces with fixed ethernet and power connections. We also provided ethernet cables for everyone to use. This means that the heaviest users switched to cable.
- Average number of simultaneous WiFi users was an average 130 (all day) with peaks of more than 150 users.
- WiFi limits were set at 10Mbps down and 5Mbps up – no limits on fixed ethernet
- Around 50GB of data was transferred over wireless in the main hall
- Wireless was provided with a managed WiFi setup (Ruckus) and 8 APs in the main hall
- Wireless in the nearby rooms was provided with 3 extra APs
- Average signal strength per client was 75%
- Bandwidth usage peaks were at 80Mbps
- There were about 20-30 rogue WiFi devices visible at any given other than our managed WiFi setup (other APs, phones, ad-hoc networks etcetera)
Early in the morning on Thursday the technicians (@eventengineers and @mdbraber!) found a small error in the DHCP settings which they were eager to fix. As they rebooted the system the company handling the Fibre optic cables decided to unplug a bunch of cables to clean things up. It took a while to find out that the DHCP settings were fine and to persuade the Internet provider to reconnect the cables. Fortunately the downtime was short and easily fixed. (more…)
Written on 20th April 2009
1 COMMENT
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
![To find WIFI...sometimes you gotta to do what you gotta do [Monday Morning Madness]](http://thenextweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/russia.jpg "russia")
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Written on 19th March 2009
1 COMMENT
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Independent hotspot directory Total Hotspots and location based social startup Rummble have collaborated on a iPhone app that makes finding your nearest hotspot a breeze.
Built off the Rummble api, the application, appropriately titled ‘Total Hotspots’, allows users to easily add, rate, review tag and photograph hotspots to share with others. Referencing the locations of over 170,000 hotspots worldwide, the app makes finding wifi nearby fast, slick and simple.
The app is the first official application built off the Rummble API, which will officially be available to all very soon. Impressively, the collaboration saw Total Hotspots shoot up the iPhone ‘utility’ charts to fourth within 48 hours of being released.
Being based in London, I’m unable to confirm the accuracy and/or comprehensiveness of the app outside of the UK. However, if London is anything to go by – you’re in good hands.
The app is available in the app store, for £2.99.
Written on 19th January 2009
6 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
I’m writing this post while I’m waiting for my car to be repaired at the car repair service.
I have to wait here for almost two hours and am offline. I’m trying to tell myself that this is a good thing because I can finally catch up on all those messages in my Inbox that need to be read.
But I’m going through serious withdrawal symptoms here. Not a minute goes by that I don’t open a browser window to quickly check up on something or one of my applications asks me for an Internet connection.
Evernote wants to sync with its servers. My .Me account wants to connect to me.com. My Dictionary warns me that it get its content from the Internet so I can’t even look a few words up.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a 3G ExpressCard?
My friends all have jailbroken iPhones with Wireless Tethering, I must make amends.
Work hard all my lifetime, no wi-fi makes no sense,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a 3G ExpressCard?
Written on 16th December 2008
47 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
The (Holland-based) CoffeeCompany got a lot of publicity recently because they continuously change the names of their Wi-Fi networks to persuade visitors to order more coffee. A few examples:
OrderAnotherCoffeeAlready
BuyCoffeeForCuteGirlOverThere?
HaveYouTriedCoffeeCake?
BuyAnotherCupYouCheapskate
TodaysSpecialExpresso1.60Euro
BuyaLargeLatterGetBrownieForFree
One of my neighbors uses a naughty SSID which I won’t reprint here.
My own network is called “VirusTrap63″ which I came up with to scare people into not joining. Yeah, I could also just secure it but that is just boring.
So what did you name your Wi-Fi router?
What would be a better name for my Wi-Fi network?
What funny SSIDs have you encountered?
Let us know!
Written on 4th August 2008
0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
You might support an obscure terrorist clan without even knowing it. Ok, I know this sounds a bit like propaganda from the Bush administration. But it actually happened to 48-year-old American expat Kenneth Haywood. He was just chilling in his apartment last week, when an anti-terrorist squad raided his house. These cops probably scared the living daylights out of him before they asked an explanation for emails sent by the Indian Mujahideen from his IP address.
These Indian Mujahideen are a dangerous group from Mumbai who probably hacked Haywood’s wireless network. After communicating via this network, they killed 42 people with 22 separate bombs in Ahmedabad, India.
The business consultant Haywood told the Hindustan Times that the technician who set up the web connection had insisted he wouldn’t change his default password. How easy do you want to make it for these fundamentalists?
So if you’re sensitive to all this code orange/ red BS you might wanna have another look at your wireless network. If you’re not, check your network anyhow. Your neighbor might be using it for his torrent addiction…
Written on 5th July 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
One thing I used to love about living in New York, was my favorite coffee bar: The Lotus on Clinton and Stanton. In the weekends, I grabbed my Macbook, sat down for a good ol’ cup of American coffee, and started browsing away. Sometimes I started a talk with one of the other visitors – as New Yorkers are always eager for a chat about life. I miss that in Holland, where most people tend to be more closed and busy with themselves. But now it looks like an app from Norway-based software agency Ground Control might help me to get back into that New York vibe. Moot connects you to people who are using the same Wifi spot as you. Isn’t that cool?
When I attended one of my classes at New York University in 2006, Scott Heiferman, CEO and co-founder of MeetUp, gave a guest lecture. He told us that online services should be all about helping people. The goal of his start-up was to connect people in real life by using the web. Well, that obviously worked. Moot has the same purpose, so what will happen with this service?
A local Pownce
So Moot sort of works like a local Pownce: it’s all about sharing media. After creating an account, you can select the music, video, and images you’d like to share. Short note here, you can only share stuff for which you have the copyright. People who are on the same wireless network can browse through these files and download whatever they want. If they like what they see/ hear, they can express their appreciation by giving you “respect”. There’s the solid basis for a good chat. Instead of walking up to random people, you’ll will now know whether you like someone’s weird/ good/ tremendous taste. How’s that for randomly meeting interesting people?
Where’s the Mac app?
Unfortunately, Moot now only works on Windows platforms (also the mobile ones by the way). They’ll have to launch a Mac app as soon as possible, since they’ll desperately need the early adopters. Moot is only fun when a lot of people use it, and there are some barriers for people who aren’t used to services like Twitter. Most early adopters own Macs – visit a tech conference if you don’t believe me — thus the guys from Ground Labs have some work to do.
As soon as they’ve got that figured out, I’ll hang up some flyers in my coffee bar – so I’ll never miss an interesting person anymore.
By the way, the design of the Moot site is uber trendy, don’t forget to watch the magnificent intro movie – and no, I’m not exaggerating here.
Written on 3rd July 2008
5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Remember my ‘Wow!’ post about Nimbuzz last May? The Dutch mobile VoIP and IM start-up then launched a VoIP app that was compatible with more than 500 handsets which allowed free calling in 50 countries. I received a couple of comments on this lyric post, mostly from people who wondered why they should say other mobile VoIP clients like Fring and Truphone goodbye, and start using Nimbuzz. I figured that yesterday’s announcement about their second round of funding – $15 million from a round led by Naspers/MIH and Mangrove (known from Skype) – was a good excuse to dive a little deeper in that.
The Nimbuzz team relaxing
With 500k seed capital, a series A of $10 million in 2007, now another $15 million, 70 employees, and offices opening in Argentina and Brazil, there must be something special about Nimbuzz. Of course you could say they’re the prime example of a new bubble, but that would be a little too simple and cynical. So I’ve contacted Tobias Kemper from Nimbuzz to figure out what they offer that 129 other mobile VoIP start-ups don’t. Turns out it’s a rather technical story.
Kemper: “Fring is focused on 3G and Wifi, Truphone is trying to be more of an operator and isn’t free. And – as no one has understood this yet – we do buddy calling, we’re connecting existing communities. Fring also has buddy calling but nowhere near the seamless experience that we can offer, since we also work on GPRS and EDGE. Again, Fring does work on Edge, but not without credits such as SkypeOut.” Right.., so to sum it up: Nimbuzz has a broader reach as they support more mobile generations.
That’s a good thing, as Kemper told me they’re not just focusing on techies and early adopters – even though these groups are the only ones who know what mobile VoIP is about. Hence their effort to support to reach that number of 500 compatible handsets. Kemper: “We even work in more countries than Truphone with our dial in solution and had it since inception, whereas Truphone only came out with it last month and it seemed to be all the rage.”
As an expansion of their accessibility promise, Nimbuzz will soon launch a “Communicator” widget (terrible name, Kemper agrees) that allows visitors of your site and social profile or readers of your emails to connect to your phone, even if they’re not on Nimbuzz.
So to answer the questions of commenters like Travis and Bram, if you’re happy with Fring and Truphone, stay there. Though you might want to switch when Nimbuzz becomes more popular. I think they will, as they sincerely seem to focus on people who don’t own an iPhone or fancy Nokia phone. Yet we have to remember that the group with less-developed phones might not be interested in this whole mobile VoIP thing, as it’s hard to grasp. Also, the accessibility-mission has a major downside, with makes Nimbuzz – ironically enough – less accessible: the size of their app is around 1 MB – which is way too large. So that aspect needs some work.
Nimbuzz is currently expanding to Latin America and Africa, following the footprint of their investor Naspers/MIH – who already owns a stake in Mxit, a popular South African GPRS and 3G-based IM service. According to Kemper, Nimbuzz is “actively talking with operators and social networks to intergrate our solution and offer our features.” Sounds like they’ve no problems finding destinations for that 15 million.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
