Hams and LANs

[Paul L. Rinaldo]

Gang,

This fell into my hands:

Paul

>(Hem Ramachandran is KB5LQD)

>10/8/2001 Interactive Week
>
>  Wireless LAN Grab
>
>  By Nancy Gohring
>
>  Not everyone is willing to wait for someone else to cut the desktop
tether. 
>
>  Loose coalitions of tech geeks, amateur radio hobbyists and social
activists worldwide have begun to build free broadband wireless networks.
Sit in a park or café near one of these networks with your laptop and
modem, and you can access files on your home or office computer, or access
the Web without a hardwired connection. 
>
>  While some of these networks are designed to extend free Internet access
to people who otherwise couldn't afford the service, others are building
what amounts to a community intranet. 
>
>  "It's not about Internet access," says Matt Westervelt, a system
administrator and founder of SeattleWireless, the group piecing together a
network in Seattle. "It's about building up a network, connecting people
through their computers in the community." 
>
>  The networks are based on the 802.11b wireless networking standard.
Participants purchase access points, then create or buy antennas and place
them on the roofs of their houses or apartment buildings and become nodes
on a network that links members' computers together. Many members with
antennas already have high-speed data lines, such as DSL or cable modems,
and they can share that Internet access for free with anyone who has an
802.11b modem and is within range of an access point. 
>
>  Westervelt predicts a growing number of local businesses will raise
antennas and join the network as a way to establish a presence among the
other users of the network. A couple of coffee shops in Seattle are already
part of SeattleWireless' network, which so far has eight nodes. 
>
>  As more people join the network, the community grows and gives more
impetus for businesses, for example, to maintain sites on the community
network for free. Instead of paying a recurring monthly fee for a Web site,
members incur only the one-time cost of putting up an antenna and linking
to the network. 
>
>  Other businesses may want to add nodes on the network so workers can
access the corporate network from home or nearby cafe's or restaurants. The
network doesn't have to hit the public Internet, and can use virtual
private network technology to tunnel securely into the corporate intranet. 
>
>  The independent way the networks grow, however, may be one of the
drawbacks. "One thing we're butting up against is it's not particularly
easy to hook up," Westervelt says. Making that process easier for Seattle
residents, as well as groups around the country, is another one of
SeattleWireless' goals. "We want to make this as reproducible as possible,"
he says.
>
>  Word Spreads 
>
>  These volunteer projects seem to grow in fits and starts, yet the
momentum in Seattle has spread quickly outside the city. 
>
>  "Seattle is the pioneer in doing this in the world," says Hem
Ramachandran, a technology manager of IT solutions company Marlabs and a
founder of an Austin, Texas, group committed to building a free wireless
network. 
>
>  Ramachandran's main goal is to extend free Internet access, but he, too,
is focused on building a community network. "The idea is to have an
independent network. If the Internet backbone goes down, this will act as a
network, which would still be up in an emergency," says Ramachandran, an
amateur radio aficionado. 
>
>  These groups run the risk of angering ISPs that might not like the fact
that some of their network users are accessing the Internet without paying.
So far, leaders of the free wireless groups believe that they are just a
blip on the ISPs' radar and not worth worrying about. 
>
>  That may be true among the more open-minded ISPs. "If some people are
experimenting with cool stuff, we don't have a problem," says Mike Apgar,
president and CEO of Speakeasy Network, which offers static IP addresses
and allows customers to serve as smaller ISPs. 
>
>  John Drewry, 3Com's senior director of business development, says most
ISPs aren't happy to learn that customers are sharing connections for free,
but the practice isn't expected to blossom to a threatening size. "The
problem with grassroots LANs [local area networks] is that someone has to
pay for that service, and the reliability and performance of the link will
be limited because no one has the incentive to invest additional dollars,"
Drewry says. 
>
>  That fact may slow the growth of the free networks and affect the
networks' quality, but it also preserves the market for customers that
might be willing to pay for the assurance of quality service. 
>
>  "I don't know that this represents a huge threat to existing or emerging
service providers looking to charge people," Drewry says. 
>
>  MobileStar Network is one well-known company using 802.11b in places
such as Starbucks coffee shops to offer high-speed wireless Internet access
to paying subscribers. The company has backup measures in place to ensure
that customers receive high-quality service, and says that assurance will
continue to attract customers. 
>
>  However, some DSL and cable modem service providers may have reason to
complain. Dana Spiegel, who runs a consulting business and worked with a
Boston group that was unsuccessful in its efforts to build a wireless
network, points out that high-speed data providers oversubscribe based on
projections of how much bandwidth customers will use. An unexpected number
of users on their networks could affect their business plans. "The network
providers are concerned about maintaining the bandwidth they have," Spiegel
says.