[MLB-WIRELESS] Fwd: [mesh] WOAH!

[KevinL]

On Mon, 2002-07-01 at 14:26, Tony Langdon wrote:
> > And i've said it once and i'll say it again.  Why put energy 
> > into investigating
> > the viability of an Internet feed when you could be putting 
> > that energy into
> > getting an actual network happening.  I'm thinking we've got 
> > a pile of people
> > here with a Enterasys wireless card in their PC/notebook with 
> > no wireless network
> > at all saying "yeah sic mate, internet feed for my wireless 
> > network, wicked".
> >  WHAT BLOODY WIRELESS NETWORK?!?!?? You've got a wireless 
> > card and a can of
> > pears you think you might make into a "cantenna" one day. Big woop.
> 
> Well, to put another slant on it,I _already_ have wireless Internet.  Just
> ask Troy, who made use of the facility on the weekend.  I might mention,
> that involves a wireless router on my LAN, which is connected to cable. :-)
> Hooking up to other people _outside_ of the Internet is where the real fun
> starts.  If someone points an antenna my way, I'll have a bash at pointing
> something back. :)

Seconded - I already have wireless 'net access, and several people from
melb-wireless have already seen it in action - and I have the
infrastructure in place to provide a head-start on building something
more involved.  I'm also stirring as hard as I can to get links up
around me - and we've had some success already.  My big problem atm is
I'm in a <chorus>basin surrounded by trees</chorus>, so I don't expect
to see myself connected to this stuff in a big hurry - but I'm buying
poles and antennas and suchlike, just in case ;)

It just strikes me that _every_ person I've talked to about wireless has
started with "so, you could get the net anywhere".  Without discounting
the strength of a locally-oriented network, Internet access seems to be
driving quite a few people, one way or another.  Hell, perhaps
low-bandwidth, shoddy Internet access might be just enough to tip one or
two people over into actually doing something.

> > 
> > I'm starting to feel as if I'm the only person who has 
> > something up and running
> > and is actually physically making progress instead of just 
> > talking and speculating
> > about it.
> 
> Well, I have the bits too...  Just need an accessible node. :)

I have a node, but it's in a shoddy location.  I _am_ doing my best to
get others up this way connected, in the hopes something bigger will
happen.  But I'm not going to blind myself to the idea of carrying
commercial traffic across the network just because it doesn't look
viable yet - and there's a bunch of really interesting puzzles to solve
in making that happen, that I wanna be involved with.

I also believe, incidentally, that the infrastructure to count traffic
for bringing Internet access onto a community mesh can be re-applied
elsewhere, by others that want resource counting and/or billing.  I
don't know who those might be yet - my guesses would be community
fundraising of some sort, individuals that want to provide some form of
resource to people they like, and general network monitoring in terms of
usage of various links in the mesh - finding hotspots, etc.  So it's
more than just "lets charge for bytes", it's a generic "how do we deal
with resource management on a community network".

I will agree that we need to spend more time building the network first
- but I don't see that throwing this stuff out completely is worthwhile.

Anyway, I'll shut up again now.

KJL
("It's happening, Reg!  Something's finally happening!" ;)


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