[olug] digest of comments re: 802.11 Wireless Omaha Metro-Area Network

[Mat Caughron]

Mat Caughron kicked off the idea of an Omaha metro-area 802.11 wireless
community network with a post announcing that his company, Proteron LLC
has a wireless node at 40th and Cuming Street that is publicly accessible.
You can hit it from a car (assuming you have a wireless-ready laptop) from
Cuming street, 40th street, or the parking lot in front of the Ideal
Hardware store.

Examples of networks in other cities at the following link, inspired his
post to the OLUG mailing list:  see
http://www.toaster.net/wireless/community.html

Chris Garrity <m0ntar3 at home.com> mentioned that there's a free net zone
brewing down around 16th & Harney.  He also posed the following basic
questions about how it all would work:
"The routing aspect of is the part I'm trying to understand (and the
array of possible hardware configurations). It's been suggested to me
that the hardware should do spanning tree, which is or is not included
within how ospf works? I found that hardware configurations range from
between $100 (do-it-yourself) to $700."

Neal Rauhauser <isptech at americanrelay.com> tossed out his coordinates:
1603 Farnam Street  41.15.435 north  95.56.253 west  1340ft elevation. (!)

Jay Woods <woodsjay at home.com> responded by writing that a node may be
doable at 24th and Ames.

David Walker <linux_user at grax.com> is a northwest Omaha resident, wrote
"I'm out west (132nd and maple) so I don't know how easy it would be for
me to connect in. "

John Reiter <1234olug90210 at runbox.com> says "I'm in, I live in Ralston (Q
and 77th)"
(this is a south-central location, does John have any altitude nearby?)

Tim Bornholtz <bornholtz at home.com> is in the southwest part of Omaha and
commented:
"Well, I'm at 162nd & Q."  He is interested, but doesn't know were to hop
on to get to downtown.

Paul T. McNally <pmcnally at alltel.net> had some connections to offer:
"My next door neighbors are moving to 168th and Harrison. I could get them
to join us, no sweat. Also I'm game to join. I live at 90th and Maple.
I'll have to see what I can
see from my roof."

Roger Schmeits <schmeits at clarksoncollege.edu> was interested in a
wireless broadband network from a consumer standpoint:  "For what its
worth I live at 48th & Center but unable to see the Woodman
tower.  I am very interested in some type of Internet connection other
than the phone line.  Have been contemplating some type of connection for
a possible web server
(home use) but holding off till @home settles down but interested in other
venues. and asks: "You keep talking about hopping could someone expand on
that?  Can I assume you are literally bouncing the signal from dish to
dish as long as you have line-of-sight?  What equipment is required?  "

John Reiter <1234olug90210 at runbox.com> wants to try to figure out where
all of our links need to be.   He is looking into obtaining a topo map
because he lives in Ralston, in the valley.
Mentioned he could set up a general proxy for everyone to use, along with
some file sharing space since he has 100Gb free storage space at the
moment on his LAN.

To tie this all into a Linux-appropriate thread, the Linux wireless tools
page is at:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html

Check out the signal-strength windowmaker dock app at:
http://www.schuermann.org/~dockapps/

And for GUI-junkies, there is the GNOME wireless applet project:
http://gwifiapplet.sourceforge.net/


****************************************************************************************

And comments and research from off the list:


FYI: Hardware costs are around $250 for LinkSys, D-Link, Orinoco wireless
hubs (which serve the purpose of acting as a home LAN hub as well) and
hardware prices are expected to move downward due to continued competitive
pressure.  Antennas and dishes vary widely in price.  Wireless cards for
laptops are typically around $100 to $150.  So this isn't for the
faint-of-wallet, unfortunately, but it isn't outside of the realm of a
hobbyist's budget either.

The Portland area pdxwireless.org site has a really neat map as well as a
limited FAQ on this topic:  http://www.pdxwireless.org/faq.php

GPS coordinates are very helpful in being able to set up a network of this
type.  So if post'em if you got'em (and are comfortable with the privacy
ramifications of doing so).

Do the book stores (B&N or Borders?) or coffee shops (local and chain)
or any other hospitality services locations have any plans to put wireless
up?

An ex-Omaha resident at Wayport (www.wayport.net) indicated that
there were no plans to install their fee-based wireless networking service
at Eppley.  I've used their service in Dallas and Austin airports and was
very pleased with signal strength, cost, and the usability of it.

The original email was sent to gauge interest in such a project.  Let's
continue to discuss the feasibility of public/community wireless
networking.  I'm mildly optimistic that something may come of this idea,
even if the only thing that happens is a map of Omaha area
public-accessible 802.11b net zones.






Mat


P.S.  If any comments were missed or misquoted, do post corrections to
this list.  Thanks.


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