Hi all, I would appreciate letting me know how we can join the links to Wireless user group web sites. We have just had our first meeting.
http://www.tbwug.org/ Regards, George -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 2:00 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: nycwireless Digest, Vol 8, Issue 23 Send nycwireless mailing list submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of nycwireless digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: antennas ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) 2. Smart card consortium offers Wi-Fi access specifications (jon baer) 3. Computerworld - "Free hot spots pay dividends" (Anthony Townsend) 4. Re: Smart card consortium offers Wi-Fi access specifications (Kevin Arima) 5. hot-spot in a box solution (Terry Schmidt) 6. RE: hot-spot in a box solution (Nigel Ballard) 7. Soekris, Pebble and Aries MiniPCI 802.11g (Dana Spiegel) 8. Re: Soekris, Pebble and Aries MiniPCI 802.11g (Terry Schmidt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 16:15:05 -0400 (EDT) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [nycwireless] Re: antennas To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> They ripped that out of the Naval Radar Engineers Handbook (see https://ewhdbks.mugu.navy.mil/contents.htm) There's a chapter on jamming, and I like the example that starts off like this: "Assume that a 5 GHz radar has a 70 dBm signal fed through a 5 dB loss transmission line to an antenna that has 45 dB gain." So the radio output is 10 kilowatts and the entire system has an EIRP of 102 Megawatts. Nice. And the FCC is worried about my base station with an EIRP of 200 milliwatts :-) BTW: a simple dipole is easier to build and has better gain than an alford > I was making myself a better TV antenna and I ran across this.. > > http://www.kyes.com/antenna/navy/rpatterns/radiapat.htm#antennatypes > > It shows you the various common antenna types and their radiation > patterns. These can all be scaled for WiFi use and some may be better > than what we're currently using. For instance an Alford Loop could be a > very compact and easy to construct omni. > > -- Daniel ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 16:02:58 -0400 From: "jon baer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [nycwireless] Smart card consortium offers Wi-Fi access specifications To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" pretty interesting + probably how it should be done, although i can't see many people immediatley adapting it or the equipment costing what it costs now ... Mobile users will find it easier the use their mobile phone account to pay for their use of public Wi-Fi hotspots owing to the publication of a "universal" smart card specification that can be used by WLAN providers to authorize WLAN access. The WLAN-SIM 1.0 specification was developed by the WLAN Smart Card Consortium, and it also provides details on how smart card technology may be used to allow seamless roaming from hotspot to hotspot. The smart card is the wireless networking equivalent of a phone SIM card. It identifies the user, allowing the hotspot owner's back-end system to provide access to the network knowing that it will receive payment from the WISP the user has subscribed to. The Consortium says that the specification builds on existing standards, including 802.1x and EAP for authentication and WPA. http://www.newswireless.net/articles/031021-association.html http://wlansmartcard.org/ - jon pgp key: http://www.jonbaer.net/jonbaer.asc fingerprint: F438 A47E C45E 8B27 F68C 1F9B 41DB DB8B 9A0C AF47 ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 16:26:03 -0400 From: Anthony Townsend <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [nycwireless] Computerworld - "Free hot spots pay dividends" To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed Free hot spots pay dividends By Bob Brewin OCTOBER 20, 2003 At first glance, it might not make sense for profit-making businesses to give away, rather than charge for, wireless Internet access. But a growing number of hotels and restaurants have found that it pays to offer free Wi-Fi Internet access. This perk attracts customers and provides a real bottom-line payback for a relatively small capital investment, according to free-Wi-Fi pioneers. Cities and community development organizations across the country have embraced free Wi-Fi to boost economic development and attract visitors to downtown areas. A handful of small airports in the shadow of large hubs offer free Wi-Fi to attract travelers. And Verizon Communications Inc. in New York offers Wi-Fi free of charge to its Internet service subscribers to distinguish itself from its cable-modem rivals. Operators of free Wi-Fi hot spots are capitalizing on the boom market in Wi-Fi-enabled notebook and handheld computers. Gemma Paulo, an analyst at In-Stat/MDR in Scottsdale, Ariz., estimates that shipments of notebooks equipped with industry-standard 802.11b chips or cardswhich offer a raw data rate of 11Mbit/sec. at a range of 100 feet indoors and 300 feet outdoorswill hit 16 million this year. Free Wi-Fi is an alternative to paid services offered by companies such as Starbucks Corp., which, in partnership with T-Mobile USA, currently offers Wi-Fi service at rates ranging from $9.99 per day to $29.99 per month in 2,300 of its coffee shops. Lovina McMurchy, director of Starbucks Interactive, says the paid Wi-Fi service helps attract customers after peak morning hours. And those who use it tend to be "high-income customers" who "come more often and stay longer," she says. She declined to reveal the service's impact on the company's bottom line. John Wooley, chairman, CEO and president of restaurant chain Schlotzsky's Inc. in Austin, isn't so shy in sharing details of what he calls the "strong ROI" from the company's free Wi-Fi service. Schlotzsky's currently offers free Wi-Fi in 30 of its 600 company-owned or franchised Schlotzsky's Delis. Wooley says he figures that the free Wi-Fi results in an additional 15,000 visits per restaurant per year by customers who spend an average of $7 per visit. That means Wi-Fi service brings in more than $100,000 per year per outlet in return for an investment of about $8,000 per restaurant for wireless infrastructure, Wooley says. The largest continuing cost is backhaul to the Internet over 1.54Mbit/sec. T1 circuits, Wooley says. Since the cost of a T1 circuit varies from $300 to $700, depending on what part of the country you're in, he says Schlotzsky's would average those costs to induce existing franchisees to offer the service. (New franchisees will be required to offer free Wi-Fi, Wooley notes.) Guerrilla Marketing Wooley also uses the free Wi-Fi service as a high-tech marketing tool. When wireless users first connect to the Schlotzsky's Wi-Fi network, they're shunted to an in-house "splash" Web page that the chain uses to promote itself and its bill of fare. Schlotzsky's has even bought high-gain Wi-Fi antennas that transmit the splash page as far outside its restaurants as possible, Wooley says. One Austin outlet beams its signal into dorm rooms at the University of Texas, and another beams it into a competing Starbucks. This high-tech guerrilla marketing campaign to grab the eyeballs of potential customers is less expensive and potentially more targeted than buying a 30-second TV commercial, Wooley says. Panera Bread Co., based in Richmond Heights, Mo., has also embraced free Wi-Fi as a marketing tool and plans to offer the service in 130 of its 600 bakery cafes by year's end, eventually extending the service chainwide. Ron Shaich, the company's chairman and CEO, says he views free Wi-Fi as an amenity that has already started to attract and retain customers at what he calls a "minimal cost." In fact, Shaich considers free Wi-Fi to be such an essential marketing tool that he dismisses any discussion of ROI. "What is the ROI on a bathroom?" asked Shaich, pointing out that the day of pay restrooms in restaurants has long since passed. Keith Pierce, president and CEO of Parsippany, N.J.-based Wingate Inns International Inc. says he has enlisted free Wi-Fi as his newest weapon in a technology arms race to attract budget-minded business travelers. Pierce says Wingate, a division of travel conglomerate Cendant Corp., started offering free wired Internet access four years ago as part of an all-inclusive room rate that also included free local phone calls and free use of on-premises business centers. Now that competitors have started to offer free wired Internet service, Pierce has raised the ante by rolling out free Wi-Fi throughout the chain, with all 100-plus properties expected to offer the service by the start of next year. Pierce says he didn't even consider paid Wi-Fi service, saying his research shows that going the paid route isn't worth the effort. Under the paid model, Pierce calculated that a typical property would have roughly two paid Wi-Fi users a day. After splitting the revenue with a Wi-Fi operator, Pierce says this would return only about $7.50 a day to the franchisee. Wingate has outsourced deployment and operation of its free Wi-Fi service to LodgeNet Entertainment Corp. in Sioux Falls, S.D., the company that also provides Wingate with in-room pay movies and video games. Easier and Cheaper Than Ethernet Apple Core Hotels Inc., a New York-based operator of six budget hotels in mid-Manhattan that cater to business travelers, knew it needed to offer free Internet access for competitive reasons, says Vijay Dandapani, the company's chief operating officer. Dandapani says Apple Core chose Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet because it was far easier and cheaper to install in the company's hotels, which are rehabilitated buildings that are all at least 100 years old. Installing Ethernet connections would have required drilling into walls and "making a mess" of wallpaper and carpet, Dandapani says. Installation of the Wi-Fi service went quickly, he adds, taking about six weeks per property. Installation was a learning process, Dandapani says. Buildings with high ceilings, which allow for better propagation of the Wi-Fi signal, required only two access points per floor. Buildings with lower ceilingsand worse signal propagationrequired four access points per floor. Beachfront Hawaii might be the last place you'd expect to find a Wi-Fi hot spot, but Waimea Plantation Cottages on the island of Kauai operates what's probably the westernmost Wi-Fi service the U.S., free or paid. It's five miles from the end of a dead-end road on Kauai's western shore. Liz Hahn, a spokeswoman for Kikiaoloa Land Co. in Waimea, Hawaii, which operates the cottages, says the company decided to offer free Wi-Fi as a perk to guests to enhance their vacation experience. "People can get up in the morning, check their e-mail and then spend the rest of day relaxing," Hahn says. Customer service and satisfaction at a relatively low capital cost means that free Wi-Fi will continue to proliferate at the expense of the paid model, according to Schlotzsky's Wooley. "I think pay Wi-Fi is going to go away," he says. Panera's Shaich agrees, saying hotel and restaurant customers will eventually come to expect free Wi-Fi access. Dan Lowden, the vice president of marketing at Wayport Inc., a Wi-Fi network company that offers paid service at 545 hotels and 12 airports, at rates that range from $6.95 for a single connection to $29.95 a month, contends that the paid and free models will coexist. Paid networks offer higher-quality service with better hardware and carrier-grade networks, Lowden says. He adds that Wayport offers its paid service in locations untouched by free Wi-Fi providers, such as major airports. Maybe not for long, though. Wooley says he has his eye on offering free Wi-Fi in airports. Craig Mathias, an analyst at Farpoint Group in Ashland, Mass., predicts that free and paid Wi-Fi will coexist for the next five to 10 years. But he says the paid model will eventually prevail, as cellular carriers add Wi-Fi service to their portfolios and dominate the market. ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 16:30:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Kevin Arima <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [nycwireless] Smart card consortium offers Wi-Fi access specifications Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wed, 22 Oct 2003, jon baer wrote: > pretty interesting + probably how it should be done, although i can't see > many people immediatley adapting it or the equipment costing what it costs > now ... > I was looking around for how much it costs to have smartcard/biometric logon to my laptop. I think the reader itself costs about $100 itself. The one fundamental issue that I have with this "setup" is what happens if you are not happy/have problems with a certain WiFi provider. If you are paying them directly (as it is right now), then you talk to the provider, but if billing is handled through this consortium, I wonder how seriously they will take complaints with their individual providers. Kevin "Starfox" Arima ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 17:39:32 -0400 From: Terry Schmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [nycwireless] hot-spot in a box solution To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Just saw this review on Tom's Hardware originally from Tim Higgin's www.smallnetbuilder.com. <http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/Reviews-56-ProdID-B4000.php> The Zyxel ZyAir Wireless LAN Hot Spot Gateway (B-4000). $649 gets you an AP/Router with Label printer. It has a built in Captive Portal, ala NoCat. Interesting thing is that it also includes a label printer, so your staff at the cash register just has to push one of the buttons, and a receipt comes out with the login name, password, etc for the purchased time on the wireless network. Guess this reduces the dependence of a small shop that wants to sell WiFi service on the bigger companies to provide the back end billing, gateway, etc. --Terry ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 14:48:25 -0700 From: "Nigel Ballard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [nycwireless] hot-spot in a box solution To: "'Terry Schmidt'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" The reviewer says: The B-4000 is also known as the WSG-5000 and is available from a number of other vendors, but I hit a dead end tracking down who the actual OEM is for the product. He should look no further than here: http://www.handlink.com.tw/ Cheers Nigel Nigel Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.joejava.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Terry Schmidt Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 2:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [nycwireless] hot-spot in a box solution Just saw this review on Tom's Hardware originally from Tim Higgin's www.smallnetbuilder.com. <http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/Reviews-56-ProdID-B4000.php> The Zyxel ZyAir Wireless LAN Hot Spot Gateway (B-4000). $649 gets you an AP/Router with Label printer. It has a built in Captive Portal, ala NoCat. Interesting thing is that it also includes a label printer, so your staff at the cash register just has to push one of the buttons, and a receipt comes out with the login name, password, etc for the purchased time on the wireless network. Guess this reduces the dependence of a small shop that wants to sell WiFi service on the bigger companies to provide the back end billing, gateway, etc. --Terry -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 12:09:09 -0400 From: Dana Spiegel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [nycwireless] Soekris, Pebble and Aries MiniPCI 802.11g To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Has anyone had any experience with the (new) *EL-3054MP ARIES 802.11G Mini PCI card under Pebble on a soekris box? I want to know how easy it is to set up under the default Pebble installation. The card information can be found here: http://www.netgate.com/soekris-miniPCI.html * -- *D a n a S p i e g e l* *s o c i a b l e D E S I G N* *::* *www.sociableDESIGN.com* 123 Bank Street, Suite 510, New York, NY 10014 p +1 917 402 0422 :: e [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 12:30:34 -0400 From: Terry Schmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [nycwireless] Soekris, Pebble and Aries MiniPCI 802.11g To: Dana Spiegel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > Has anyone had any experience with the (new) *EL-3054MP ARIES 802.11G > Mini PCI card under Pebble on a soekris box? I want to know how easy it > is to set up under the default Pebble installation. Probably a better place to post / research this is the Pebble Mailing list. <https://www.freenetworks.org/mailman/listinfo/pebble-linux> Treading through the archives and spam, there is a post about a special MadWiFi Edition of Pebble that supports the Atheros Chips. <http://shoveler.ipl31.net/pipermail/pebble-linux/2003-October/000374.html> You should be able to download that and have support already built in. --Terry ------------------------------ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ End of nycwireless Digest, Vol 8, Issue 23 ****************************************** -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
