Slashdot Mirror
Neighborhood Area Networks?
schmaltz writes: "Recent discussions about long-haul wireless on Slashdot seem geared mostly to benefit institutions, really, until this post on the peer-to-peer-oriented Decentralized list opened my eyes: "What will society do, when there are kits in every computer store and mall, for 802.11a neighborhood routers? What if you could buy a kit with four pole-mounting 15DB directional antennas, and a router in a sealed case that maintains mesh networks? ... There will be a great blooming of local gaming, IM, and voice/video telephony ... a lot of sharing of music and video on these NANs (neighborhood area networks) ... share a 2nd phone line ... we will all realize pretty quickly this is NOT the Internet ..." Maybe NANs could put the telephone company out of business. Seems like the equipment and software are either available or nearly so -can this be done today? I want to build the first NAN AP on my block!!"
Not a Number?
Not a (real) Network?
Nanites against Nanotechnology?
NAK ACK NAK?
news.admin.net-abuse?
Nethack all night?
Nontrivial Address Nodes?
NAN is already overused, and might lead to confusion. I could go on for some time. Why don't we instead call these something like 'Residental Area Networks' or 'LANS for Blocks'.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
This is nothing new. Windows 95 has had Network Neighborhood for years. You stupid linux geeks are so behind the times.