Globe and Mail: Take the Internet into your own hands

“I’ve linked each service into a gateway that allows for the
sharing of a single Internet connection among multiple computers.
My Rogers@Home service is linked through a Netwinder from Rebel.com
(http://www.rebel.com); the HSE connection through an e-Smith
Manager (http://www.e-smith.com).”

“Such products offer much more than simple sharing of a
connection — they provide further redundancy. For example, both
products — each from Ottawa-based companies and using the Linux
operating system — provide you with your own e-mail server. That
way, if your ISP mail server is toast — you can send your own
mail.”

“But there’s an important point about this kind of thing — it’s
against the policy of both the high-speed services. You can get
kicked off either for doing it. But give it a year or two, and
competitive pressures will mean that such policies will have
disappeared.”

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