[TriLUG] open wlan in the efland area

[Ralph Blach]

Brian,

My friends are perfectly willing to pay for access.  (Their neighborhood
has no Cable and no DSL).  What I am asking is for a WiFI provider that
sells a WiFI service.  I know that their are compaineis that supply this
kind of serivice. People use cantennes to connect to them and get
distances of miles.  So if anybody knows a provider in the Efland area,
please let me know.

Basically what they want is high speed acess in their home.

So, again, does anybody know of any wifi in the efland area.

Chip
kf4wbk






Brian A. Henning wrote:
> Chip,
>   Are you asking what I think you're asking?  It almost sounds like you're
> asking if there are any unsecured WLANs your friend could leech off of..
> There's a term for that which escapes me at the moment..  Anyway, I am going
> to assume I am misinterpreting you and offer what little I know about public
> WLAN availability in general.
> 
> WiFi hotspots are gradually becoming more popular among coffee shops and
> fast-food joints.  These typically aren't free; one would purchase an
> account from a provider such as AT&T (no preference; just the name that
> comes to mind) for a monthly fee.  Subscribing would allow your friend to
> access high-speed internet connections whenever he takes his WiFi-enabled
> hardware to one of these hotspots.  I think I have seen places like Barnes &
> Noble tout WiFi hotspots as well.  This would be mostly a matter of driving
> around looking for signs/advertisements.
> 
> If your friend has his home in that area and would like to subscribe to a
> high-bandwidth service for his home, one first step he could take is to call
> his local POTS provider.  They may be able to provide information about
> local DSL providers.  Or call his cable company.  Then it would be up to him
> how he would like to distribute the connection within his home, either with
> wires or wirelessly.  I recommend against Linksys .11b gear; I have seen
> them perform unreliably in a number of installations.
> 
> As far as truly public WLANs that may cover his home, it's unlikely; typical
> transceiver range on a good day, with line-of-sight and minimal sources of
> interference, is about 300ft, or about the length of a football field,
> excluding the endzones.  Not to mention that this sort of thing is rarely
> free.
> 
> If I'm inadvertantly spinning yarns here, someone please step in and unravel
> with my blessings. :-)
> 
> HTH,
> ~Brian
> 
> 
>