Chris Kelley: Internet Connectivity

Building wireless communities in the UK

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 14:19:10 GMT

The Register article Become a wireless ISP: for £300 discusses using the Locustworld MeshBox to build mesh networks.

Its simplest form is with a single antenna, which works on WiFi (802.11b) standards anywhere in the world, and provides shared access to the PC, but also looks for other Meshbox installations in the neighbourhood. There's a second option; an additional, long-range antenna, which you can mount on the roof of your house, to pick up signals from other Meshboxes further away - across the village, perhaps.

What is really neat this that you can combine several broadband feeds (albeit at a 10% increase in wireless load).

There's a pioneer network at Kingsbridge in Devon, and there are trial sites in Macedonia, India, USA, the Netherlands, and of course, in several UK counties.

And the software is open source!

Open Spectrum FAQ

Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:57:53 GMT

There seems to be no technical reason for the strict regulation of radio spectrum that we currently have. This idea dovetails quite nicely with the StupidNet idea.

$25,000 needed to change the world

Fri, 03 Jan 2003 20:53:08 GMT

Wow - a bicycle-powered, portable, Linux-based ruggedized WiFi boxes that are connecting refugee villages in Laos to the Internet and to each other. Donate!

Bird? Plane? UFO? No, Stratellite

Mon, 23 Dec 2002 16:01:31 GMT

Giant, ball-shaped airships called stratellites may soon glide along in the stratosphere carrying transmitters that beam broadband wireless signals to the earthlings on the ground. By Xeni Jardin. [Wired News] - A way to connect the dots in Africa?

Stupidnet in my backyard

Wed, 11 Dec 2002 16:54:20 GMT

David Isenberg on the stupidnet - This is a great article. Please read it. Who will build the networks of the future? If I understand correctly, stupidnets may be woven by do-it-yourself (DYI) networks, be it by innovative local governments, businesses, or tech citizens. These home-grown networks are going up like gangbusters here in Sofia, Bulgaria. I live in the center of the city - the "downtown," if you can call it that. It is typical for ethernet to be strung from the cybercafe a couple of blocks away to your apartment. (WiFi networks have not caught on yet; however, local entrepreneurs are beaming WiFi from the TV tower. Cool. But IMHO the service is a tad pricey...) What happens when the whole neighborhood interconnects their networks? Will a small company offer telephone connectivity to the network? Will the cable company offer network members a special deal on entertainment?

User experiences with satelite internet access

Thu, 21 Nov 2002 08:52:36 GMT

From Slashdot: Another Stab At Internet Access By Satellite - I've made a list of user experiences with satelite internet access from those posts.