If we want our network of ad-hoc access points to ever grow into something more then a quick place to check ones email, then we need a way to communicate between maintainer and user, explain the purpose of the AP, and what services are offered. The current way to do this is with NoCat or something like it, capture the users web traffic the first time they connect, and re-direct to an appropiate landing page. This is a “good enough” solution to me, but it makes Josh (who needs a blog) grumpy, as he is inclined to see slippery slopes in the darndest places.

A Lot Less Slippery?

Rob “Community Wireless” Flickenger has a better solution, use Rendezvous Zeroconf mDNS, and goes on to show how he setup service advertising on his Linux AP.