Hey there Frank, et al.
I also am/was somewhat associated with SeattleWireless.net. I've not met Matt, but knew Panos Krokos, the supposed CEO. He and I shared info. last summer about where SeattleWireless.net stood, in addition to the .com side of things, and would often brag of their systems' capabilities - especially transmission distance (further than scientists at Cornell)....? But I never got the impression that they had a system developed that was large enough to be called 'largest'. In addition, the nodes they have in Seattle are in no way connected, nor is 'roaming' possible at this time. So there must be something they're not sharing, or their claims are pure rubbish. I will say that their Greenlake node works fairly well, and browsing the Internet by the lake was enjoyable.
Sorry if this is just rant. I've not posted bef!
ore but was compelled to share on the SeattleWireless issue. I'll email Panos (it's been a while) and see if I can get the grit on this issue. I'll post if anything shows up.
Regards,
Jason (new guy in Pasadena)
--- On Fri 03/07, Frank Keeney < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
From: Frank Keeney [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 21:03:31 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [SOCALWUG] WISP Wannabe Sells Wi-Fi Snakeoil
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/2881WISP Wannabe Sells Wi-Fi SnakeoilRob FlickengerMar. 06, 2003 03:16 PMImagine my surprise when I found this "press release" floating around theNet this morning:"Seattle Wireless, a Social Wireless Area Network (SWAN) platformprovider, announced the expansion of its services to the 12 largestmetropolitan cities across North !
America, making the Wi-Fi technologycompany the nation's largest Wi-Fi provider."Gee, that's funny. I'm involved with SeattleWireless.net, and that's thefirst I've heard of it. Odd that Matt Westervelt and Ken Caruso (thefounders of seattlewireless.net) didn't say anything about a pressrelease. You would think they would have said something, considering thatI just accompanied them to the third FreeNetworks community network summitin San Francisco.Ah, there's the confusion. It's seattlewireless.COM up to its oldshenanigans again. If you haven't heard the saga, it's easily summed up byconsulting the Internet Archive for both seattlewireless.net andseattlewireless.com (which appeared a full two years AFTER theseattlewireless.net project started.) Since the .com appeared on thescene, it has gradually included more and more pieces from various otherfree network projects (including the Einstein Quote from nocat.net's frontpage, and even something nebulous called their "Personal Telc!
o" platform(directly taking the name of PersonalTelco, Portland's major communitywireless network.)Up until today, seattlewireless.com has been little more than an annoyanceto actual community networking projects. But several important lines havenow been crossed:Various node lists and maps from projects including NYC Wireless,PersonalTelco, and of course, SeattleWireless.NET, are listed asseattlewireless.COM nodes. They are now taking money for the privilege ofaccessing these nodes, none of which are supported by their"organization". Interestingly enough, their credit card entry page doesn'teven use SSL. The "company" is now making wild claims about what itstechnology can do. Here's a choice quote: "Our telecommunicationsindustry platforms, the Telecom Platform, the Village Telephony Platformand the Personal Telco Platform, allow roaming between different networksand across standards such as 802.11, Bluetooth, HiperLan, TDMA, CDMA, and3G cellular networks. We partner with carr!
iers, CLECs, ILECs, and telecomcompanies to license these Wi-Fi platform networks while supplying tools,content, services, branded bandwidth, and portals." Finally. I've alwayswanted to roam from my Bluetooth directly to CDMA. Now that's a feature.In short, don't be fooled. If you're interested in community wirelessnetworking in Seattle, go to seattlewireless.NET. At the risk of statingthe tragically obvious, know who you're dealing with before you giveanyone your credit card number online. SeattleWireless.NET will never askyou for a credit card.We build Free Networks.Rob Flickenger is the author of two O'Reilly books: Building WirelessCommunity Networks and Linux Server Hacks.Frank Keeney -- ----------------------------------------------------------------Pasadena Networks, LLC. http://pasadena.net626-676-4761Wireless equipment, support and solutions.http://www.pasadena.net/shop/ |
