Wireless Mania

burnsy and others sent in links to stories about 802.11b that are cropping up everywhere. The New York Times has one. (Well, two, actually.) Salon has one. InternetNews has a piece about Boingo, a new wireless start-up, that's also covered in this Forbes article. (The NYT article above also mentions Sputnik.) Both Boingo and Sputnik are trying to leverage the existing community wireless networks to speed their network build-outs. MIT's Tech Review has an interesting piece about a wireless start-up that has already tried and failed. Fixed wireless is also booming, according to an industry study.

Comments

Wireless.

[saintlupus]

Ah, what a time to have AirSnort. And I hear CompUSA is going to be putting Access Points on sale soon!

--saint

Re:Wireless.

[SDotter]

WEP is not the most secure way of encrypting the
data as it combines hardware and encryption.

Therefore, I am using IPSec for my WLAN and
the accesspoints are in plaintext-mode.

By using FreeSwan on the gateway and
ssh-sentinel on the laptops, the network access can
be controlled by issuing and revoking certificates.

Unfortunately, that's not the kind of
software which comes with AccessPoints.

Meanwhile

[wiredog]

The Supreme Court is going to review the decision allowing NextWave Telecom Inc. to hold on to its spectrum licenses that were thought protected in the bankruptcy proceedings. This could delay the use of that bandwidth for as long as two years.

Re:Wireless is great!

[saridder]

Well hopefully RFC 3118 (Authentication in DHCP) will be implemented soon, meaning less unathorized addresses passed out. I doubt your neighbors would use it, but it is avail for vendors to implement in their access points.

Fixed Wireless is booming huh?

[Aexia]

I guess *that's* why AT&T Wireless laid off its entire Fixed Wireless division.

Supermobiles are here

[Anonymous Coward]

Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet (www.aftonbladet.se) report on the latest PDA/mobile combo presented in Cannes at the GSM World Congress. See the pics at http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/it/story/0,2789,1371 12,00.html

One problem...

[Xamdam_us]

One problem with 802.11b is that someone using a hand held 2.4 GHz phone can cut off the signal. If a person walks between an AP and a user it will cut right through the link.

Like anything else, Your Milage May Vary

[greensquare]

I see a couple of postings from people complaining about WiFi Stuff. One guy says the public Access Points don't work. And he wants to increase signal stregth. Somebody else is bitching because his range is only 40 feet.

This is just like anything else.

If you put your stereo and your TV right next to each other and try to play music and watch TV at the same time, it is going to suck. If you put your 802.11B 2.4 Ghz Access Point right next to your 2.4 Ghz Wireless phone, and your microwave oven that you use to do all of your cooking, then your throughput and your range are just going to suck.

If you put your stereo in your bathroom, and then close the door, you can't hear it for shit out in your living room. If you put your Access Point between the fishtank, and your metal filing cabinet, your range and throughput won't be too good. ( 2.4 Ghz can't go through metal or water very well.. )

If you leave your linux box on an open network, and leave the root account without a password, and then tell people to log into it, soon it will be trashed by someone, either on accident or on purpose. If you leave your admin account on your Access Point unprotected, and tell people to use that access point, pretty soon it wont work either.

In my opinion 802.11 B does work pretty well in terms of range and throughput. Using an off the shelf Cisco access point with only a standard rubberducky antenna, and PC Card with an integrated antenna in a laptop, I have maintained 1 and 2 Mb/s connections at a range of 1800', in direct line of sight, and through a glass window.

In a typical cube farm office environment ( 5' high partitions made of metal frames, and cloth/cardboard ) I have demonstrated a good reliable 5 - 11 Mb/s connections in a 150' radius.

In a home, 40' radius should be no problem, assuming typical drywall/stud construction.

Kevin

Re:Is it, or is it not, easy?

[laserjet]

Most likely, you just haven't had enought time to play with 802.11b. Once you do, it is a cakewalk, and proably the best money I have spent on computer equipment since my first modem (2400baud).

head over to 802.11 Planet and look at their tutorials to get started.

there is nothing like surfing on your ibook from your couch, playing an mp3 in the background streaming from your linux box. i leave my inernet connection wide open 1) because I want people to use it. My internal network is protected behind a good firewall, but anyone in the area can have internet access. and 2) i think it's the right thing to do to help the community. think if everyone shared their connection. it would make the world a much better place.