Re: [WISPA] CableWIFI?
They are Ruckus AP's broadcasting at FULL POWER. These AP's are mostly Strand mount ap's. 7782's. On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Mike Lyon mike.l...@gmail.com wrote: Startting to see this SSID pop up around town. How is this conglomerate setting up it's APs? Are the likes of comcast and such just adding add'l SSIDs to users gateways / cable modems or are they actually deploying dedicated infrastructure? -Mike ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] CableWIFI?
Oh yay! More noise! On Jan 3, 2014, at 10:58, Zach Mann zma...@gmail.com wrote: They are Ruckus AP's broadcasting at FULL POWER. These AP's are mostly Strand mount ap's. 7782's. On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Mike Lyon mike.l...@gmail.com wrote: Startting to see this SSID pop up around town. How is this conglomerate setting up it's APs? Are the likes of comcast and such just adding add'l SSIDs to users gateways / cable modems or are they actually deploying dedicated infrastructure? -Mike ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] CableWIFI?
We see them here all the time. Both CableWIFI, BrightHouseNetworks (The name of the cable company) as well as hidden SSID's. They have been stringing them around the county for awhile now. Even started to deploy on 5Ghz. It's pretty ridiculous. Do a site-survey from one of your towers and watch how many thousands your AP's can see. I heard something about them using them for their new security offering. Allowing an alarm Brain to connect to a near by AP via 5Ghz for monitoring. Nick Olsen Network Operations (855) FLSPEED x106 From: Mike Lyon mike.l...@gmail.com Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 1:43 PM To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] CableWIFI? Startting to see this SSID pop up around town. How is this conglomerate setting up it's APs? Are the likes of comcast and such just adding add'l SSIDs to users gateways / cable modems or are they actually deploying dedicated infrastructure? -Mike ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] CableWIFI?
I will tell you exactly what it is. I am very familiar: Cable Companies discovered that they could easily offer roaming WiFi to their existing customers by utilizing their existing strand and 90 volt power riding it to add access points. Not in the sense of full Metro WiFi (like MuniWiFi) but more as hotspots. The first big adopter was Cablevision, with a brand they called OptimumWiFi. They now have nearly 100,000 APs in their markets. They use Belair APs, Cisco APs and possibly may be testing Ruckus and others. Although they could be, these are usually not mesh systems, as many MuniWiFi systems had to be, because each AP can have its own ready-made backhaul. Most broadcast on 5GHz as well as 2.4 GHz. This is because like us, they discovered that 5 GHz was clean, and most new devices- especially phones and tablets, have 5GHz now. The speed on these is around 15x4 Mbps. Additionally, Comcast did the same thing, as did Time Warner, Cox and BrightHouse.Comcast is very busy rolling it out inside homes and businesses as well. It is done with a second SSID that does not impact a customer's usage cap. These networks each broadcast their own SSIDS. They are OptimumWiFi, Xfinitywifi, CoxWiFi, TWCWiFi and BrightHouse WiFi (I am not positive of the actual SSID on the last two). The systems are available at no charge to their customers who have the required service level at home. I'm sure they are probably working on a pay per use model as well. CableLabs, worked with all these MSOs to agree on a consortium between them to share networks. The companies I mentioned have connected their authentication systems together to allow roaming between all the hotspots operated by one other. This now gives the MSOs hundreds of thousands of hotspots that their customers can use. Compare this to the few hotspots ATT offers their customers- McDonalds and Home Depot (they lost Starbucks to Google). Once an MSO integrates their network, they add a new SSID: CableWiFi. If you connect to that you see a captive portal that allows the user to select their home carrier and away they go. They can roam all over the US with their phone, tablet, laptop or whatever. Everything is as if they were home- including CALEA! In areas where the territories of two MSOs touch, they often broadcast each other's SSIDs as well. For example in Long Island and also parts of NJ, you will see OptimumWifi, xfinitywifi, and TWCWiFi all with the same strength. That is because they are coming from the same Cablevision AP. Now, you may remember back in 2007 when we WISPs were running around worrying about Earthlink (and some cities) starting to deploy MuniWiFi . I remember it well... posts that were like this: the sky is falling, cities are installing MuniWiFi. It is going to put us out of business Back then I said: Don't fight them, join them. Most of them offered the opportunity to have your SSID on their system. Earthlink carried several other SSIDs. Among them, in some markets, DirectTV and Vonage. In our market, we worked with the Cities and BECAME THE ISP. They actually handed us an Ethernet cable that had all the houses in town connected on the other end. We just added a Mikrotik and made the whole town a hotspot. As these MSOs widen their footprints, prepare to see many more SSIDs. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Mike Lyon Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 1:43 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] CableWIFI? Startting to see this SSID pop up around town. How is this conglomerate setting up it's APs? Are the likes of comcast and such just adding add'l SSIDs to users gateways / cable modems or are they actually deploying dedicated infrastructure? -Mike ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Re: [WISPA] CableWIFI?
Spot on... this is helping them with retention believe it or not. And when 802.11u becomes more mainstream they will be involved in the cellular hand-off as well. Don't forget social data gathering as well. On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 6:11 PM, ralph ralphli...@bsrg.org wrote: I will tell you exactly what it is. I am very familiar: Cable Companies discovered that they could easily offer roaming WiFi to their existing customers by utilizing their existing strand and 90 volt power riding it to add access points. Not in the sense of full Metro WiFi (like MuniWiFi) but more as hotspots. The first big adopter was Cablevision, with a brand they called OptimumWiFi. They now have nearly 100,000 APs in their markets. They use Belair APs, Cisco APs and possibly may be testing Ruckus and others. Although they could be, these are usually not mesh systems, as many MuniWiFi systems had to be, because each AP can have its own ready-made backhaul. Most broadcast on 5GHz as well as 2.4 GHz. This is because like us, they discovered that 5 GHz was clean, and most new devices- especially phones and tablets, have 5GHz now. The speed on these is around 15x4 Mbps. Additionally, Comcast did the same thing, as did Time Warner, Cox and BrightHouse.Comcast is very busy rolling it out inside homes and businesses as well. It is done with a second SSID that does not impact a customer's usage cap. These networks each broadcast their own SSIDS. They are OptimumWiFi, Xfinitywifi, CoxWiFi, TWCWiFi and BrightHouse WiFi (I am not positive of the actual SSID on the last two). The systems are available at no charge to their customers who have the required service level at home. I'm sure they are probably working on a pay per use model as well. CableLabs, worked with all these MSOs to agree on a consortium between them to share networks. The companies I mentioned have connected their authentication systems together to allow roaming between all the hotspots operated by one other. This now gives the MSOs hundreds of thousands of hotspots that their customers can use. Compare this to the few hotspots ATT offers their customers- McDonalds and Home Depot (they lost Starbucks to Google). Once an MSO integrates their network, they add a new SSID: CableWiFi. If you connect to that you see a captive portal that allows the user to select their home carrier and away they go. They can roam all over the US with their phone, tablet, laptop or whatever. Everything is as if they were home- including CALEA! In areas where the territories of two MSOs touch, they often broadcast each other's SSIDs as well. For example in Long Island and also parts of NJ, you will see OptimumWifi, xfinitywifi, and TWCWiFi all with the same strength. That is because they are coming from the same Cablevision AP. Now, you may remember back in 2007 when we WISPs were running around worrying about Earthlink (and some cities) starting to deploy MuniWiFi . I remember it well... posts that were like this: the sky is falling, cities are installing MuniWiFi. It is going to put us out of business Back then I said: Don't fight them, join them. Most of them offered the opportunity to have your SSID on their system. Earthlink carried several other SSIDs. Among them, in some markets, DirectTV and Vonage. In our market, we worked with the Cities and BECAME THE ISP. They actually handed us an Ethernet cable that had all the houses in town connected on the other end. We just added a Mikrotik and made the whole town a hotspot. As these MSOs widen their footprints, prepare to see many more SSIDs. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Mike Lyon Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 1:43 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] CableWIFI? Startting to see this SSID pop up around town. How is this conglomerate setting up it's APs? Are the likes of comcast and such just adding add'l SSIDs to users gateways / cable modems or are they actually deploying dedicated infrastructure? -Mike ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ___ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
