[MLB-WIRELESS] Building the MW Network

Lee Honan lee at atypic.net
Tue Dec 27 12:00:04 EST 2005


Rick,

Thanks for responding.  I wasn't suggesting that Internet access should 
be offered as commercial-grade or the only reason to join.  I guess your 
point re MP3s implies that Universities no longer route Internet 
traffic.  Obviously the only way to protect against nodes shifting is to 
have redundancy in the network (which requires it to grow in the first 
place).  Being new to MW, I haven't been privy to past discussions on 
this topic (will look in archives)- did any constructive ideas come of 
it?  Is there a strategy to grow MW?

Lee

rick wrote:

> lee the points you made have been brought up before, if we offer 
> Internet we cant supply it to all the areas and can offer any QoS or 
> any garentee that the person will even get a link, with costs of 
> equipment going up to 500$ for a good setup, unlimited Internet for a 
> year will be about the same costs.
>
> if we use a university network and you transfure a mp3 well the uni 
> can be sued, so its a can of worms they dont want to be a carrier for
>
> as for the core network when we had GUR for example shift location, 
> the network nearby collapsed as we where to dependent :(
>
> Lee Honan wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been fiddling around for the last month, trying to get a routing 
>> node up in Carlton (JDS).  After putting up an 8m rooftop mast with a 
>> 25dbi parabolic and a 15dbi Omni, figuring out the vagaries of 
>> OpenWRT etc, I have been looking for a node to connect to.  While I 
>> have found a lot of APs, I could only find one MW node (HVC) and am 
>> at too oblique an angle to get a good signal.
>>
>> So despite being in a central location with good line-of-sight North 
>> and South, a high mast, decent antennae etc, I can't find a node to 
>> link to.  Looking at the link maps, there are a lot of isolated nodes 
>> with relatively few operating links.  That got me wondering if MW is 
>> in danger of being limited to a clique of enthusiasts, and what needs 
>> to happen for MW to achieve critical mass.  If this navel-gazing 
>> topic hasn't been broached recently, it would seem to be a worthwhile 
>> discussion.
>>
>> Some possibilities I've thought of (my relative ignorance may mean 
>> these are infeasible):
>>
>>     * Provide a more compelling offer for people to join.  I don't
>>       understand why providing Internet access seems to be poo-pooed
>>       on the MW site; while it has obvious challenges (e.g. finding an
>>       ISP- APANA?), it's the most obvious reason for people to invest
>>       the time and $.
>>     * Identify tall structures that members have access to and invest
>>       in panels etc to create perhaps 5 'core nodes' (perhaps fund
>>       with higher member fee that includes free access as above- e.g.
>>       I think most would happily pay $50 pa; maybe higher fees for
>>       those acting as a leaf only).
>>     * (maybe a bit far out) Approach Universities etc to act as
>>       wireless.org.au routing nodes- similar to their role in forming
>>       the core Internet.  I'm next to Melbourne University, which has
>>       a lot of 802.11 infrastructure.
>>
>> Thoughts? Sorry for dropping such a huge eMail in the festive season...
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Lee
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>>
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