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Ricochet Modems == Wireless LAN?

Posted by michael on from the silver-lining dept.

dpease writes: "Metricom, purveyor of Ricochet wireless networking, died today. I understand that, sans infrastructure, a Ricochet wireless modem can call another Ricochet modem, and that modem-to-modem range is nearly a mile. Is the hardware this company leaves behind a viable solution for a really cool, really cheap wireless LAN?"

6 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What about FCC licensing? by Wog · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nope, they used some tricks to avoid the need. First of all, they put some pretty strict power constraints on these. That's why some people are able to (illegally) boost their power and transmit for many miles.

    They also transmit on a given frequency for a very short time, then hop to another.

    These things allow them to operate on "public" frequencies. It's a great hack, but easy to abuse. If 10 guys boost their power in a neighborhood, no one gets to use it, because of signal bleed.

  2. I think the answer is yes by darrick · · Score: 5, Informative
    If I remember the tech specs (I have them saved on my hard drive somewhere), they can operate in a peer-to-peer mode. The Linux kernel supports it (under Networking Devices, choose WAN devices, and use Metricom Starmode [STRIP]).

    I'd love to see a Freenet spring up in Dallas using these things. Any others interested?

  3. Shameless Karma Whoring by Kalrand · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a link to a FAQ on using your Ricochet Modem outside Metricom's Network.

    http://www.enlightenment-engine.com/eeng/ricochet/ ricochet%20gs%20modem.htm

  4. Yes, you can use the modems peer-to-peer. by Brett+Glass · · Score: 5, Informative
    It just may not work (depending on the ages of the modems) in areas where the Metricom poletop transmitters are still active. (I suspect that this was done so that people would not create peer-to-peer networks that interfered with the service they were trying to sell.) On the newer units, the peer-to-peer mode seems to "shut off" if a poletop radio is "acquired."

    Alex Belits, a true Metricom packet radio fan, has lots of information on this at http://phobos.illtel.denver.co.us/~abelits/metrico m/.

    I have mixed feelings about the demise of Metricom, myself. Properly used, the technology could have had great benefits. However, the company was arrogant and poorly managed. At one time, K N Energy (the local gas company) announced that they were going to deploy Metricom in our town. Neither they nor Metricom had given consideration to the fact that a wireless WAN serving many community organizations and some of the schools ran on the same frequency band. (The Metricom equipment -- dozens of transmitters running at the maximum legal output -- would have blown the other users right off the air.) The existing users made a reasonable request before the City Council: If Metricom was going to monopolize a public resource -- the 900 MHz band -- they should pay at least some of the cost of moving the schools and small business users to another band. But Ralph Derrickson of Metricom (the CEO until the bankruptcy) arrogantly refused to make any such concession. Fortunately, K N Energy's management was not so coldhearted, and agreed to help the community network move to another band if Ricochet was to be deployed in our city. (The network was never deployed, however, as K N Energy dropped its Ricochet franchise shortly thereafter.) The story is at http://www.lariat.org/metricom.html.

    It may have been a similar lack of consideration for others (prices too high for the market; poor customer service) that led to Metricom's recent economic problems. $80 per month for 128 Kbps or less simply wasn't competitive with DSL, and there are not enough mobile users to support such a system by themselves. $29.95 per month would be more like it.

    --Brett Glass

  5. People are already doing it! by molo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Its called STRIP - STarmode Radio IP, and there are Linux drivers. Check out the info at:

    http://ns.uoregon.edu/~jremy/strip.html

    There appears to be two modes to these modems: peer-peer or broadcast. Apparently Metricom calls their broadcast mode "starmode." These drivers allow you to basicly setup a wireless subnet. Very cool.

    Can someone comment on the security of these modems? I might have to get myself a couple.

    --
    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
  6. Yes, it should work with new hardware by Adam+J.+Richter · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to Alex Belitis's Metricom-on-Linux web page, there was no hardware change. It's just that the Metricom pole top units were no longer programmed to forward peer-to-peer "star mode" packets for modems registered after December 23, 2000. If you have two modems talking directly to each other rather than through a pole top unit, then there shuld be no problem.

    On the other hand, six months ago I tried and failed to get my Merlin Metricom card to talk my external USB metricom modem in star mode.