Mike Doty

So, not satisified with the free wifi that the apartment provides(it's only to be used for occasional access), I bought a PePLink CPE device, recommended by google. This a ARM9 SBC with a 200mW 802.11b/g radio and a 5dbi antenna. Google caps your link at 1M/1M, but it's really a reasonable speed, considering it's free. A one time payment of $180(I paid more than I had to to pick one up locally) to bring the signal indoors is well worth it IMO. Testing at all the popular sites shows me at 960k/930k. I'm debating purchasing a higher gain antenna just for stabilities sake.

Now for the bad news on all of this. The PePLink device runs linux(no, this isn't bad), but it seems they violate the GPL license. I can't find the source code or a written offer anywhere on their website or in the support CD provided. I also cannot find a copy of the GPL license text anywhere in the mentioned areas.

I find this quite odd as peplink has openly supported linux in the past. They were a supporter of FOSDEM in bruxelles back in 2005. A quick google search returns lots of articles regarding peplink and OSS. Even some of the PR material they use mentions linux.

I suspect this is merely an oversight by the company(perhaps a www redesign?) and not a blatent misuse of GPL code. I'll be emailing their business development department in the next couple of days to point out the possible license violation and ask where I can find the source. I'll blog as I receive more information.

For the record, this is some info that I extracted from the kernel in the firmware image:


Linux
(none)
2.4.24-rmk2
#492 Fri Dec 2 13:03:43 HKT 2005