[nflug] Network Issues

[Justin S. Leitgeb]

Tyler Poland wrote:
> Justin,
>
> Wouldn't most of the people supporting [a Buffalo-area community 
> wireless network] be using TW or Verizon?
> Just curious.
>
> Tyler
>

At least until people put a substantial amount of time and energy into a 
Community Wireless Network (CWN), it won't provide another option for 
Internet service. 

However, if you look at the kind of mesh network established by groups 
like Personal Telco in Portland, they have built a wireless "cloud" over 
some of the city.  This cloud is connected by nodes (often embedded 
devices running Linux) with multiple radios at each point, one as a 
local access point and one or more radios directed to other locations 
which form a mesh by a protocol such as OLSR (http://www.olsr.org).  
Personal Telco relies on devices using Soekris mainboards like the 
Metrix devices 
(http://metrix.net/wireless-kits-metrix-outdoor-wireless-kits-c-1_19.html) 
for this purpose.  You can see how this sort of mesh is implemented in 
the network that Personal Telco has built by visiting their network map 
(http://map.personaltelco.net) and clicking on "Show OLSR Tunnels."

Once this mesh is established, you don't need Internet access at every 
node point in order for all of the nodes to be able to access it.  
Theoretically, there is nothing to prevent you from buying a T1 from any 
Internet service provider in the area and feeding it into the mesh at 
one or more locations.  AFAIK, there are lots of options other than 
Verizon at this level of service in the Buffalo area.

Justin
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