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Lanlink Linking The Coasts

Posted by timothy on from the wlans-across-america dept.

Dan Bricker writes "A guy in Parma Heights, Ohio has a website to promote an idea of linking the east coast to the west coast using standard off-the-shelf 802.11 equipment. He is aiming for a July 4th, 2006 first coast-to-coast ping. This project appears to be totally volunteer based, With no other stated reason than fun with pringle cans and bad weather, and do it just to do it. Can this be done? What real world applications does this have?"

6 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. To answer the post: by Hollinger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes. No. I would think the time and effort could be better spent trying specifically to get broadband (or at least WiFi) net access to rural areas.

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    Michael C. Hollinger
    1. Re:To answer the post: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I would think the time and effort could be better spent trying specifically to get broadband (or at least WiFi) net access to rural areas.

      ... Which is controlled by mega-corporations like AOL-TimeWarner, SBC, Verizon, etc. If we are content to let them lead they're going to lead us back into passive activities like television. The Internet is already moving in that direction. Servers are prohibited on the vast majority of broadband providers' networks meaning that you go back to being a consumer relying on others for content. Most people can't afford the costs of colocating with a large Internet provider who in turn ends up peering with these mega-corporations anyway. We must take back control of the Internet and ensure there is always a grass-roots alternative to capitalist greed.

  2. I don't know about you people.. by peculiarmethod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    but this absolutely would be percieved as the first step towards a public controlled public broadcast venue for news.. and seeing as how the beiggest complaint in politics amongst the general public is the lack of interconnectedness between the east political environment and the west coast equivalent, I would see this as a milestone towards an ultimate goal of broadcasting bills, propositions, votes, general news, as well as the future forms of blogs.. i see this as not friv, but profoundly progressive and long due.

    pm

    --
    ** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
  3. very difficult... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, as we all know there are some pretty desolate regions of the US. Now it would be possible to throw a bunch of routers in the middle of the desert, but they would have to be battery powered or something. The most significant problem would be getting everything to work correctly without even a single down router. Assuming each router covers a tenth of a mile, you'd need about 30,000 routers to make it across the US. Dozens will break or have problems every day, so you'll need at least two per site. That means a total of 60,000 roters. At $100 each that brings the total to $6 million. The battery powered routers for the desert will obviously be more expensive though. Also you'd have to stop people from stealing these somehow, which would be a serious problem.

    In conclusion, it would be really hard and really expensive to do this, but it is possible.

  4. Emergency access by bigattichouse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Creating ex-temp webs like this might assist insurance adjusters and other computer-needing personnel to work better in emergency hot zones... it would be nice if a company out there started manufacturing the "cans" for emergency use and the FCC made some modifications to the rules for emergency usage ... so every little town could have a few "wi-fi" kits in storage to chain up when a hurricane has leveled everything.. you could also throw some authentication mechanisms on the idea and build a quick "emergency VoIP network" the same way. Just a thought from the thoughtbrew: www.bigattichouse.com

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    meh
  5. Why this (might) matter. by vkg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Something like 70% of internet backbone is owned by half a dozen companies. The RIAA & co are putting increasing pressure on businesses and universities, and backbone providers may be next.

    The Government is, frankly, outright hostile to many forms of free expression, and some basic civil rights we've come to take for granted (abortion rights, for starters, never mind the Bill of Rights).

    This project may teach valuable lessons about using open standards to form a non-owned, alternative internet backbone.

    --
    Hexayurt - open source refugee shelter,