[MLB-WIRELESS] Hang on a tick before you all get carried away...ok Clae.

Clarence Liau cliau at bigpond.net.au
Thu Jan 10 17:57:57 EST 2002


Lucas,

It does seem to be that you're approaching this thing with exactly the wrong
attitude in mind. Almost all wireless networks are in their early stages.
That means that the people (us) that are building nodes now are pioneers in
the true sense of the word. And as pioneers, they build what they do for
more than personal expectations, or evaluations of net present value, or
whatever. If everyone thought as you did: "what's in it for me?", none of
these networks would ever be built. In San Francisco, Seattle, and so on,
there are people who point their antennae whichever way without expectation
that they will ever receive thanks, or compensation. They do it because of
an ideal, that information wants to be free.

Secondly, all the points that you raise have been addressed separately by
people here already! If you fail to be dissauded from their arguments, then
it serves no purpose repeating your point of view.

>2.  I have pointed out some bandwidth will be lost to people using Melb
Wireless
    for commercial purposes.

As it stands, the bandwidth available on a link, 11mbps is not shared
throughout the whole of Melbourne. If it were, I wouldn't even be
considering it. Looking at other wireless networks in other cities, this has
simply not eventuated, mainly because commercial purposes are better served
through traditional connection media.

>3.  There is nothing in this world that is Free. even Death incures a
Tax.

That is a given.

>4.  There are laws that people should abide by and Melb-Wireless will be
subject to.

We're not suggesting otherwise

>7.  If some one donates Time, money, equipement, facilities, you cannnot
expect
    a "reasonable service".

I don't understand what you're getting at here. None of us expect a
"reasonable service". That's the reason why we put in time and effort to
maintain our own nodes.

>8.  Biggest attraction i have seen for wireless lan for a lot of people
is internet access,
    so where is the net access going to come from? If you read most
ISP's service aggreement,
    can not redistribute the internet, so guys with cable who intend to
supply some net content
    will be voiding their contracted aggreements, Fact.

Few of us propose to share our connections otherwise, due to the legalities,
and Telstra's cap on residential broadband users. Those who do, are
doubtless aware of what they are doing. MELBWIRELESS IS NOT AN ISP. It's
purpose is simply to connect all of us with wireless links, beyond that is
up to our generosity.


>9.  Another attraction for people is able to swap "Pirated Software"
(ooh bad word here).
    To spend many $$$ to gain access to P.D. software seems pointless to
me.
    And having written software before, i understand what time and money
is involved,
    and would be very upset if some one was ripping it off.

There are very few rational answers to irrational questions. I believe the
same was said about widespread access to the internet. If people want to
swap pirated software, they will find ways.

>10. Some of the Costs in setting up wireless-lan seem to be slightly
mis-leading.
    It may be true that if you get given a PC here, or get a
discontinued item there the costs may be
    low. But if you want to set it up tommorrow with brand new reliable
Equipement, its far higher.
    If your car you bought from OS fails tommorrow, what service do you
get?
    So some locally and readily avaible pricing should be mentioned.

If it were easy and cheap, perhaps discussions that we hold here wouldn't
exist. The truth is, it usually is comparatively cheap compared to building
a network using cable, when you take into account cabling costs. I am
looking at slightly less than $500 in setting up my node. I really don't get
what you're trying to imply here. It is not the responsibility of any of us
to direct you to anything. We're all individuals who got into this thing for
personal reasons, and are not here to mentor anyone. Sure people are
responsive when you ask them things, but it's not their responsibility to
put together commercial packages and sell them.


>12. Also i am pusing the point of possible uses of the wireless lan,
other than what was mentioned
    above, their maybe some great application for it that some one has
not heard of.

It's called a network, everything that is possible on a TCP/IP network will
be possible here. That should be all the answer you need, if you have a
modicum of knowledge with applications.

Clarence


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