---------- Forwarded message ---------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anthony Townsend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Telecom-Cities" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 10:33 AM Subject: [nycwireless] Seattle Weekly - "The revolution may be wireless" > http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0129/tech-fleishman.shtml > > Published July 19 - 25, 2001 > > The revolution may be wireless: Northwest networkers work toward a complete > communications grid, minus the corporate interest. > > BY GLENN FLEISHMAN > > WHEN I WAS A KID, before I discovered theater and girls, a friendly amateur > radio operator (a "ham") took me under his wing, helped me learn Morse code, > and introduced me to the joys of talking to people all over the world using > a transmitter. > > Fade quickly into adolescence, acting, and acne, and I could barely remember > the dits and dahs--ham slang for dots and dashes--to tap out an SOS. > > But those days return vividly when I speak with techie sophisticates who are > building their own free community wireless networks, networks which, > coincidentally, share some open radio frequencies with hams. > > These networkers string their tin-can network--sans string but including > some real cans--from apartment to storefront to rooftop for no better reason > than because they can and because it's cool. The fact that it's useful, > helps the public good by expanding free access, lets them meet their > neighbors ("Hi, I'm running a free network"), and might even put the screws > to cell companies and telco giants--these are but lagniappe. > > Adam Shand, the organizer of a late June summit in Portland, Ore., of these > network builders and advocates, thinks that the interest stems from it being > a "fun geek problem." As to the upshot of it all, he says, "No one's quite > sure yet; we don't know what our ending goal is." > > Seattle finds itself with a growing group of enthusiasts led, as much as any > group of this kind can be led, by Matt Westervelt under the rubric Seattle > Wireless (www.seattlewireless.net). Matt and others have collected a few > dozen geographically dispersed nodes in homes and places like Aurafice Cafe > on Capitol Hill. They are nearing the point where they stitch these points > into a sprawling, mostly seamless grid using cheap, off-the-shelf, and even > homemade equipment. > > The Seattle crew and dozens of similar networks around the world rely on > IEEE 802.11b (or Wi-Fi), the industry standard for high-speed, low-power > wireless. It doesn't require a license to broadcast on the frequencies it > uses in the 2.4 gigahertz band; Wi-Fi uses some of the thinly apportioned, > unlicensed free public spectrum. > > Wi-Fi runs at very low power due to FCC limits, but it can still span dozens > to hundreds of feet indoors through walls and floors; the high frequency > allows the radio waves to pass through. Outdoors, however, the distance > expands dramatically. Twenty-mile line-of-sight tests using cheap equipment > were successful, and I've heard of many working multiple-mile links. > > The 802.11b protocol allows central access points (APs) to coordinate > networks of machines or to connect multiple wired networks. Dozens of > manufacturers make APs, as well as PC cards for laptops, PCI cards for > desktops, USB and Ethernet adapters for older machines, and special modules > for handhelds like the Handspring Visor. > > With enough density of APs, you can build a seamless network allowing both > indoor and outdoor use at speeds of megabits per second. You could walk > around with a laptop streaming video off the Net with nary an interruption. > (A Wall Street Journal story earlier this year followed someone doing just > that around London.) > > Most volunteers' nodes have a high-speed DSL or cable modem connection to > the Internet. The volunteers are engaging in anarchic enlightened > self-interest: By freely sharing their bandwidth, they're increasing the > value and coverage of the entire network, making it more likely for others > to join and share as well. (It warms my heart, reminding me strongly of the > 1994-vintage barely commercial Internet.) > > These volunteers typically also have the advantage of access to their own > roofs and windows, where they mount cheap, sometimes homemade high-gain > antennas that extend the range and sensitivity of a network. > > This is where the free networkers believe they have an advantage over > commercial services, such as MobileStar (www.mobilestar.com), Starbucks' > wireless networking partner (see "Wired But Wireless," May 31). Commercial > outfits would have to make their own, presumably fee-based arrangements to > locate and service antennas and high-speed network connections. > > It's hard to call free wireless networking a movement, because the dozens of > organizations and thousands of individuals involved are scattered around the > globe. But a loose affiliation has started to develop, and the recent > Portland summit furthered ties among builders from Seattle, Portland, and > Vancouver, and those farther afield in New York and the Bay Area. > > Some met privately one day to discuss creating an association and pooling > resources, and the next day met in public to present several sessions on > building antennas, creating network maps online, and the status of for-fee > Wi-Fi (disclaimer: I was gently roped into presenting). > > The interest is there; the nodes exist; the volunteers are working hard. > These advocates and builders may not know why they're on this bus, but they > know how to drive it. The revolution may not be televised; it's more > probable that it will be wireless. > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > ---- > > Loosely affiliated members of this group include: > > BAWUG, primarily an educational group: www.bawug.org > > Nocat, in Marin County north of San Francisco, some of the members of which > also happen to work for technical publisher O'Reilly & Associates: nocat.net > > PDXWireless and Personal Telco in Portland, which have merged their > interests and meetings: www.personaltelco.net, www.pdxwireless.com > > NYCWireless: www.nycwireless.net > > BCWireless: www.bcwireless.net > > > > > _________________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com > > -- > NYC Wireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ > Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ > Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
