After a good part of a day fiddling, I've worked out the problem with 2: A not-very-good rt5370 driver. Very CPU-intensive. The hint is in the kworker thread that starts taking all available cycles once you push any significent amount through the wireless interface. Some googling shows other pi-users have had the same issue, so just using another wireless adaptor type should do it.
The MAC-changer is useful if you're running the piratebox covertly, snuck into public events or distributing files your government disapproves of, as it provides some level of defence in two scenarios:
- It stops an investigator tying one box to multible events. If you get caught, the MAC could otherwise be used to prove you were also operating the box on previous occasions where it was noticed and logged. This way if you get caught, at least you only get caught for the one time.
- It makes proving ownership harder. Even if you encrypt the filesystem or wipe the SD when you get home, anyone who can sieze your wireless adaptor can just match MACs to prove you are the owner of a device previously recorded.
With MACs changing, any investigator couldn't even tell how many piratebox operators were active - it could be ten people, or just one traveling a lot. I've confirmed that changing MAC isn't responsible for the throughput issue - though I can only give this assurance for the rt5370 as of yet. I've ordered more adaptors to play with.
The webpage I can't comment on much yet, as I've still not gotten it to work. Once I've gotten my roll-your-own done, I'll grab the ready-made image and examine a properly-functional box.
The MAC-changer is useful if you're running the piratebox covertly, snuck into public events or distributing files your government disapproves of, as it provides some level of defence in two scenarios:
- It stops an investigator tying one box to multible events. If you get caught, the MAC could otherwise be used to prove you were also operating the box on previous occasions where it was noticed and logged. This way if you get caught, at least you only get caught for the one time.
- It makes proving ownership harder. Even if you encrypt the filesystem or wipe the SD when you get home, anyone who can sieze your wireless adaptor can just match MACs to prove you are the owner of a device previously recorded.
With MACs changing, any investigator couldn't even tell how many piratebox operators were active - it could be ten people, or just one traveling a lot. I've confirmed that changing MAC isn't responsible for the throughput issue - though I can only give this assurance for the rt5370 as of yet. I've ordered more adaptors to play with.
The webpage I can't comment on much yet, as I've still not gotten it to work. Once I've gotten my roll-your-own done, I'll grab the ready-made image and examine a properly-functional box.