Ricochet Modems == Wireless LAN?

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?"

Comments

Re:What about FCC licensing?

[Wog]

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.

Re:People are already doing it!

[Wog]

From what I've read and *seen*, these work much like landline modems. They even accept AT commands! Just tell one to "dial" the serial number of another one. If it's within, say, a mile of yours, a "ring" will happen on the other end. Of course, to prevent breakins, just have the recieving device set up with authentication. Just like you would running a dial-up server at home.

I believe I also read that these modems encrypt data locally, and transmit on a given frequency for only a very short burst at a time. (This allows them to avoid hefty FCC charges!) If you've got concerns about eavesdropping, then add your own encryption before data is sent.

A simple plan...

[Scoria]

So we all want an open and free network...

The next time a large network like this shuts down and auctions their network off (unfortunately, we can't do this with Ricochet because they've already registered the bidders), let's all pitch in and bid on it.

Sure, there are a lot of inherent problems in purchasing this. For example, who would maintain the hardware?

It's still a decent idea, and if we all pitch in a little, it just might happen...

I think the answer is yes

[darrick]

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?

Shameless Karma Whoring

[Kalrand]

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

won't work with new hardware

[jchristopher]

In the recent article about Ricochet's bankruptcy, there was a comment (can't find it now, sorry) which basically stated that in the newest versions of the modems, Ricochet had done something on their end to disable peer-to-peer.

I'm sure someone can elaborate... but I believe that it basically said it will work with the older 28.8 modems, but not the new 128 capable ones.

Re:growing momentum of a collapsing economy

[GigsVT]

I'm not looking forward to my eventual lowering of salary due to there being more and more techies available

Ah, supply and demand. This is all natural and necessary of course though. We were in a period of rapid and unfounded growth in many areas, such as Metricom's attempt at building an infrastructure that not enough people really wanted or needed.

In all, to 95% of the people out there, the Internet is just a suppliment, like a glorified fax machine. Sure the potential is there, but the only killer app I have seen so far (from a business standpoint) is really email.

I think if metricom had started like most businesses, real business, and started small, in limited market(s), then reinvested those profits, and grown slowly, we might not be seeing them falling on their face right now. A lot of this venture capital feeding frenzy created this idea "if you build it, they will come", and that is rarely true.

So a message to all of the people out there that have to fend in this new-new economy, start small, work the bugs out, and don't try to do everything at once.

Yes, you can use the modems peer-to-peer.

[Brett Glass]

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

People are already doing it!

[molo]

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.

Homebrew 6 Watt, 900 MHz wireless data amplifier

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a schematic for a 6 watt, 900 MHz bi-directional wireless data amplifier this would be perfect for old Ricochet hardware. All the parts are quite easy to find also.

Yes, it should work with new hardware

[Adam J. Richter]

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.

Re:The LAN idea:

[Quarters]

Yeah! Too bad there isn't some sort of global network tying everyone together. That way people could play games of UT and Q3A with each other without having to move their computers into the same room!

Wouldn't that be grand?