[Hudlug] Community wireless

[Rob Shakir]

Hi, 

Here's an IRC log of the guys from #SLUG (shropsire LUG) where me and a
couple of others had a talk about the possibility of a wlan here:

<webboss> Hi, yes so I see... welcome to shropshire
<ShakX> we come seeking knoweldge
<ShakX> about the WLan, we are thinking of starting the same project in
Huddersfield
<webboss> ok... but you realise the odds are not in your favour?
<ShakX> are you the guy to talk to about that?
<ShakX> webboss: why?
<webboss> yes I am
<webboss> OK, I know huddersfield quite well... Geographically its not a
good area for 2.4Ghz wireless 
<ShakX> We heard of Ham radio is that slow?
<webboss> very 1200baud
<ShakX> ah, so not even worth it. 
<webboss> about 10 times slower than a slow connect via a mobile phone
<ShakX> Whats the ideal terrain for 2.4Ghz wireless, would it be
possible at all?
--> ferg (~chris@pc2-hudd2-3-cust115.hud.cable.ntl.com) has joined #slug
<ferg> hi
<webboss> well, 2.4ghz is really designed fore small cells of coverage..
say half a mile raduis
<webboss> you would need to put in a large number of cells with ADSL
backbones between each.. which kinda defeats the idea of using wireless
<webboss> coz if an area has ADSL you may as well use that
--> atom-z (~matthew@pc1-hudd4-4-cust82.hud.cable.ntl.com) has joined
#slug
<ShakX> yeah, that is a good point, the cells are they expensive?
<webboss> well.. a hub node to run each local cell is gonna cost about
200 quid minimum... and each one will need an adsl link to link it to
the next hub node
<webboss> we are lucky in shropshire in that we have quite a number of
ppl with ADSL and quite a few hub nodes who will eventually link up
using long range wireless links, just becuase they can see each other
<ShakX> so it will be v. expensive in our area :( 
<webboss> yup
<ShakX> yeah, direct line of sight is needed isn't it...not good :(
<ShakX> What do you guys use your WLan for?
<webboss> compared to doing it commercially its very cheap... Ive just
put in a commercial link that cost about 7000 quid
<atom-z> webboss: we could build a huddersfield VPN
<atom-z> but WLAN seems unlikely
<webboss> well, different ppl use wireless for different things.. we are
still only just starting out in a lot of ways, so its mainly small
pockets of interlinked users ... and they dont rreally uise it for
anything special.. it more about learning how to than the end result
<webboss> there is something else you need to keep in mind too...
<ShakX> atom-z: the VPN that works through our current internet
connections yes? so therefore we are just basically having a network
(like an ethernet) between us all?
<atom-z> yes
<webboss> in our lug we have 8 radio hams, 1 ex TV outside broadcast
engineer, 3 ppl who do wireless lan for a living and 6 network
engineers... plus about a dozen guys who work in micro electronics... we
already have the skills required... most lugs dont
<ShakX> atom-z: sounds a good idea, Ill note it for discussinon on
tuesday..
<atom-z> webboss: well... you people also have licences
<webboss> yup some of us do
<ShakX> webboss: Im not sure of the people who work in our LUG. That
would be a major sticking point though, we probably won't have the
experts that you have...
<webboss> certainly a VPN is going to be more use intially for you


Thanks
Shak

On Tue, 2002-11-05 at 11:32, Chris Lindley wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> there's an article about a community wireless network in Bristol, on
> Slashdot.com
> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/05/0227236&mode=flat&tid=95
> 
> Cheers
> Chris
> 
> ps see everybody tonight!
> 
> -- 
>   Chris Lindley                                  
>   chris.lindley@scotgate.org          chrishl@bmb.leeds.ac.uk
>   ICQ#157144010	    AIM#fergycool    jabber#fergy    IRC#Ferg
>   Climb up it, kayak down it + make sure it runs on GNU/Linux
> 
> 
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-- 

             (o_    Shak - Rob Shakir <rob.shakir@ntlworld.com>  
 (o_   (o_   //\    "Testing? What's that? If it compiles, it is good if
 (/)_  (\)_  V_/_   it boots up it is perfect" - Linus Torvalds