By Dory Kornfeld

On Tuesday, Wireless Toronto (everybody’s favourite community wireless group) held its very first Hacknight.
In this new year, Wireless Toronto will be doing more than just setting up free wifi in public places; they’re starting a series of group tech-project hacknight get-togethers. Beer, wires, routers, cordless drills…you get the idea.
Tuesday was the first part of a grander project to build a wifi backpack:

“We’re building a wifi backpack, which we’ve affectionately called the WiFi Roach Coach (long story). It’ll be a battery-powered WRT54GL and Rogers/Bell/Inukshuk pre-WiMax modem providing connectivity. (It’s a NextNet Expedience RSU-2510-AV.) This’ll allow us to set up an instant Wireless Toronto hotspot anyplace where we can get a (pre-)WiMax signal. It’ll be especially useful to provide wifi coverage at events.”

Yup–a hotspot in a backpack!
These hacknights, which will be held at InterAccess from here on in, are open to any and all interested parties. The next one will be next month, but there may be a mini fill-in event to finish the Roach Coach. Stay tuned to the Wireless Toronto Blog for details on upcoming events.