Re: wi-fi info

From: <captgoodnight@acsalaska.net>
Date: Tue Jul 20 2004 - 21:01:39 AKDT

On Thursday 15 July 2004 03:21 am, you wrote:
> On Jul 15, 2004, at 1:38 AM, captgoodnight@acsalaska.net wrote:
> > I totally agree! Way to much competition in this arena, BUT, if you
> > were to move to a place
> > like Iraq, Africa or some other technological challenged arena, you
> > may make it work. I heard
> > on 91.1 once about a wireless AP vehicle that cruzed around some
> > streets in Africa so some
> > of the "privileged" could receive/send e-mail during certain times of
> > the day. This was of
> > course in a really challenged area. If I remember correctly, the cats
> > that started the project
> > were looking into moving on to stationary APs, funded by
> > science/government
> > grants. Not millions at all, but a cool thing to do ;)
> >
> > Another thing to think about, of course :) is security! Open APs are
> > MiM havens! I kinda find it
> > irresponsible to open-up customers to this genre of attack without
> > their knowledge of the
> > risks, from the ISO/OSI frame of mind. SCARY! Kinda lame! - only my
> > opinion of course.
> >
> > What would be fun, and kinda worth it, would be to take old computers,
> > turn them into APs and
> > be selfish with em, sure have em has "hotspots" (I growl when I hear
> > that word!) but keep it
> > quiet; a small grid of APs for the penguins ;) Just for the geek of
> > it. Dorms at UAA/APU, misc
> > free spirited offices...heh, who knows, think about the dialog with
> > your boss over that one...
> >
> >
> > Totally off topic; those airplane gurus in Fairbanks with that home
> > brew airplane, in the paper
> > today, was the coolest thing in a long time. That plane is awsome.
> > Truly a super geek award goes to
> > those birds! Incredible! I'm jealous, I wanna build a carbon fiber
> > airplane too! WOW! I gotta take
> > flying lessons, ohohoh, a flying AP! heh
> >
> > bedtime ;(,
> > eddie
>
> The only way that would work is if wireless technology (as i know it)
> increased greatly, the advantages over having a system like that would
> be.....I must scream that, THE COST WOULD BE HORRENDOUS, the only way
> you could cut cost is if you had lots of these little things that would
> route traffic between them, but where you get the space to put all of
> these (i'm talking thousands around anchorage)

Whoa there, maybe like 5-10.

> or, you could have fewer
> of these things with more expensive technology, to span the distance
> better. Maybe i'm underestimating the power of wireless technology, but
> as far as my experience goes, it takes a lot to get any kind of
> connection rate that's worth a damn. A side note, if anybody does
> decide to do this, anybody willing to pitch in for a CO-Located AP so
> we could connect this sucker in to a rather large data pipe? I could
> drum up hundreds of old pcs that would work perfect for a wireless
> access point running linux, and nothing more, routing and firewalling,
> but what about the antenna stuff? It's EXPENSIVE, and where would we
> install this, the space on top of buildings around town and such would
> be...expensive....And another thing, we'd need to be very thorough in
> our coverage, because as soon as we're not, you're opening up holes for
> maintenance/reliability HELL. Think if one goes down, suddenly, you
> have a HUGE area that's down, and possibly a whole section of
> anchorage, But if you had lots of these little things, they could
> reroute traffic to others. And once the network is big enough, who's
> going to maintain it? I would like to be able to spend all day out in
> the field fixing one of these things, but that's not reality...we'd be
> pumping soo much money into this, and never seeing any kind of return
> on our investment. It's all talk...

Ugrh, yes, it is all talk. I was thinking more of a small building, maybe two right next
to each other (like dorms or apartment buildings). Yes, money would be an issue, wireless
cards, antennas, cable, large pipe...The list goes on. If I was ever to jump into something like
this, it would be for a few friends in a couple buildings, no service contract nonsense, fix it your self kinda
contract, heh. No customer reps, no sales, no banks, no seriousness!
A little beer here (burrrrrrp heh) a little Micgiver there, and presto, a larger than moms wireless network, heck,
maybe even tear it down after the novelty wears off; catch my drift :) Duck tape action. Just a groovy thing to do.
%hits and giggles :) Good learning too, taking an old pc and making it a AP isn't exactly a trip to compusa, umm,
you get my drift.

bests,
eddie

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Received on Tue Jul 20 21:01:53 2004

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