Re: [chat] Sydney Wireless Network

[James Peter Gregory <jgre4014@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 3 Nov 2001, Marcel Kunath wrote:

> Haberfield here. Perfect distance to Newtown if you ask me.

my usual lack of direction prevents that statement from making any sense to
me, but I'll take your word for it :)

>
> Yeah the stuff on Mudgee sounds ok but I'd prefer to go the whole route to
> 802.11b with 11Mbps instead of the 2Mbps. I don't think the Mudgee approach is
> any cheaper.

Well, I'm yet to be convinced either way but my initial reading of the site
said that it'd be about $85 for a 2mb card and about $400 for a 11mbps card.
Being the poor university student that I am (bring out the violins), I'd
prefer to be spending the $85 if it's still an experimental set up.

The other thing is that I suspect a 2mb setup would be more stable around
the city. Do we have any sources for people who have set this up for 11mbps?

>
> mk
>
> > > On Sat, 3 Nov 2001, Marcel Kunath wrote: >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > well I am sure people are aware of the recent Telstra changes. I can live wi
> th
> > > 3 Gig but having to watch myself (and the other 5 people on this one cable
> > > modem) is not easy. At times I want to sporadically download a gig may it be
>
> > > KDE's new release or a distro or something.
> > >
> > > I have been reading about these localized wireless networks in metro areas f
> or
> > > the past year and I find the idea very interesting. The most organized
> > > information and network seems to be seattlewireless:
> > >
> > > http://seattlewireless.net/
> >
> > Interesting stuff. I attempted to get broadband happening at my house in
> > newtown at the start of the year and eventually gave up because it was so
> > difficult.
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > There is mentioning of two networks in the Sydney area:
> > >
> > > http://hwy.com.au/~bigmoe/wlan/
> >
> > this one looks interesting. Their mentioning of 40 km distances is pretty
> > impressive. Of course in Sydney I doubt it would be anywhere near that
> > distance because of random obstacles in the way, however the density of
> > population in sydney probably means there doesn't need to be that distance
> > between nodes anyway.
> >
> > >
> > > http://www.nepean.air.net.au (dead link)
> > >
> > > and a few more in Oz and around the world:
> > >
> > > http://www.wirelessanarchy.com/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I do not know where the Sydney based networks are in terms of development. I
>  am
> > > pretty much uneducated when it comes to wireless overall. I still have a kee
> n
> > > interest to get access to data outside from the ISP network to be able to
> > > attain data and/or provide data and not pay my ISP for it. The Seattle netwo
> rk
> > > seems to have it figured out and be sound in their structure without risk of
>
> > > falling asleep/apart due to lack of human support.
> > >
> > > So basically I want to ask what people know about wireless in Sydney and if
> > > people are as frustrated as me and want a separated network from their ISP t
> o
> > >
> > > - download data
> > > - upload data
> > > - play games
> > > - share data (programs, source code, rpms, ftp servers with distros on them)
>
> > > - connect their home network with their business network
> > > - build a free network independent of Telstra (w/ with fully functional DNS
> and
> > > DHCP ?)
> > >
> > > I am aware that there are security issues and you can't protect a wireless
> > > network from being accessed and it would be open to any person who wants to
> > > access it. I still think its limited internal uses are great and would provi
> de
> > > a good service for the Sydney area.
> >
> > ah, but you can make it safe. This is what ipSec is for. Indeed using
> > freeswan I believe you're able to compress the data also, which would be a
> > big pro in a situation like this.
> >
> > >
> > > There are costs involved but I think it would pay off just as much as learni
> ng
> > > Linux paid off for me. Fact is though a network needs multiple nodes to
> > > function and make sense. Hence I am writing this if there are people who are
>
> > > curious and want to invest time, effort and a little money to have something
>  in
> > > addition to their ISP connection.
> >
> > I'm certainly interested. If what they're saying over at the mudgee wireless
> > network is true then it seems much more worthwhile then phone companies
> > would want you to believe.
> >
> > I guess it comes down to identifying a few people who are relatively nearby
> > (within a km or two) who are interested in playing with this sort of stuff
> > to get started. If it can be arranaged then I'm interested in giving this a
> > go. So who here lives somewhere near newtown and wants to play with this?
> >
> > I think this should probably go to the main list, btw.
> >
> > routing on such a network is an interesting question... Do these wireless
> > lan cards actually use ethernet or do they use ppp or something? if they
> > used ppp then it might be better to use something like multi-drop ppp so
> > that there's a couple of ways for data to move around... or something.
> >
> > hmmmm... *goes off to ponder routing and have breakfast*
> >
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> >
> > nope, thank you. :)
> >
> > >
> > > Marcel
> >
> > James.
> >
> > >
> > > --
> > > SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
> > > More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug-chat
> > >
> >
> > --
> > "I'm not vegetarian becuase I love animals; I'm vegetarian because I hate
> >  plants." - unknown.
> >
> >
> > --
> > SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
> > More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug-chat
> >
>
>
> --
> SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
> More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug-chat
>

-- 
"I'm not vegetarian becuase I love animals; I'm vegetarian because I hate
 plants." - unknown.