"Everything in life doesn't need to be a big elaborate
commercial deal. There is still plenty of room for the small-time
do-it-yourselfer. My wireless access point is set up with an open
bandwidth-limited subnet just so neighbors or tourists or whoever
is in range can have Internet access without a big hassle. (And
without snooping privileges in my stuff.) This is a rural area, so
we don't have Internet cafes and free public wi-fi everywhere.
"I had an IMAP mail account once upon a time that lived on
server that was literally in a friend's bedroom on an ISDN Internet
connection. He hosted a whole herd of friends. It was a little slow
sometimes, but it always worked."