'''Unwired Weekly'''
Welcome. UnwiredWeekly is a service for public Community Lans. Community LAN developments, news, hardware, software, deployments, people and events are compiled each Mondy. No rumor is too insignificant, no scandal is too big for your editor, Samantha Noz.
PS: This newsletter will soon be posted on FreeNetworks.
- == IN THIS ISSUE ==
News:
- Sirius Trouble?
- Cellular Switcharoo
- A-Team does 802.11 Hat Trick
- CTIA Announcements
Boardwatch:
- BAWUG
- Boston Wireless
FreeNetworks.org
- Linux-wlan
- NYC Wireless
PersonalTelco (Q-1)
- Seattle Wireless
Hardware / Software
Deployments
People
Events
Rumors / Talk
Buy/Sell
= NEWS =
Sirius' Trouble for Community LANS?
http://80211b.weblogger.com/ Sirius, petitioning the FCC, is worried about cars that use both a satellite radio service and 802.11 devices like a wireless phone or PDA. The emissions caused by the phone or PDA operating on the 2.4GHz frequency could interfere with the satellite radio, officials say.
The satellite radio industry uses an adjacent frequency to deliver its service, using 2.32 to 2.34GHz. The unlicensed band, 2.4-2.483GHz, is only 55MHz away from the upper end of the licensed band, Sirius officials say, and could possibly overlap. As such, Sirius is asking the FCC to reduce the wattage of those unlicensed devices, to 8.6 u V/M, or the wattage gadgets expel to transmit their 2.4GHz signal. --
Cellular Companies: Fight or Switch?
As Major-General Gordon said to his manservant while strolling on the palace veranda in Khartoum in 1884: "Ronnie, my young sprat, this doesn’t look good. Lay out my brown tweeds, would you?"
Cellular companies may not be surrendering. Instead they seem to be "joining" the Community LANs revolution (in a fashion). Consider these notes from the battlezone:
Voicestream (Deutsche Telekom), taking no hostages in Starbucks, is in bed with MobileStar and Microsoft (www.80211-planet.com/news/article/0,4000,1481_987741,00.html) AT&T (NT DoCoM0) testing wireless LAN connections in Japan (www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/24444.html) Sprint Wireless. Sprint has joined WECA last year and may offer 802.11b in airports in 2002. Verizon, $100 Billion in the hole (and counting), will expand its 3G 1XRTT Express Network into more Northeast cities, the Midwest and South on April 2. April 1st not. (www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_992281,00.html)
The WLAN market for home and business will grow more 30 percent a year by 2006 (www.80211-planet.com/news/article/0,4000,1481_992001,00.html) --
Cell and W-LAN in a PC Card:
Plextek's Marvel puts Tri-band GSM/PCS and IEEE 802.11b wireless connectivity in a PC card launched at the CTIA Wireless 2002 show (18-20 March). The PC card, will fit into any standard Type II slot in a notebook or laptop PC and will support GSM voice and SMS, GPRS high-speed data, and 802.11b connectivity. Nokia and others have announced similar chips. --
Atheros Ships Combo Chipset (http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-9045381-0.html)
Atheros Communications delivered the industry's first chipset to support all three IEEE wireless LAN standards: 802.11a, the 802.11g draft, and 802.11b. The Smart Select automatically chooses the optimal RF technology (a/g/b), rate adaptation and error correction methods, power reduction and internationalization features, and security protocol for a wireless network, and dynamically adapts to changing conditions as the user roams within that network. Atheros Ships Combo Chipset Rolling Three WLAN Standards into a Single Solution; Support for 802.11a/g/b Facilitates Wide-Scale Wireless LAN Deployment
=BOARDWATCH=
PERSONAL TELCO BOARDWATCH http://lists.personaltelco.net/pipermail/ptp/2002q1/subject.html
- # One Standard - Nigel Ballard reports:
HiperLAN and 802.11a will now emerge as the globally supported standard, but with a few additions over the current release. The IEEE is adding DFS (dynamic frequency selection) and TPC (transmit power control), to meet the requirements of ETSI.
- # Install Fest - Adam Shand:
What if we pre-configured all of these boxes, had a big meeting where we walked everyone through configuring it for your home network, and sent you off home with a box that would work on your home network. Would people be interested?
# NoCat for Mac OSX - Peter Bakke:
It looks like the newest version of OmniWeb (v4.1 beta 1) works just fine with NoCatAuth. This is good news for the hoards of MacOS X users who thought they were out in the cold with OmniWeb ... or maybe I'm the only one.
- # Portland Hostelling Node - Nigel Ballard:
The Portland Hostelling International free node at 3031 SE Hawthorne in Portland is getting one of the donated Intel 2011b access Points. Chris the manager has ordered the QWEST DSL service and is already an Easystreet customer. The DSL circuit went live Feb 25th.
- # Super wireless maps from U. Kansas - Dan Richardson:
I've got the Multnomah Washington & County 1 meter Satellite maps on CD that I bought from the State on a whim. They're 8-bit color as well...<<.U of Kansas project http://www.ittc.ku.edu/wlan/ takes wireless coverage mapping to the next level. An arial b&w photograph has sections tinted various colors to show signal strength.>>
- # 802.11b Homebrew Antenna Shootout - Gregory Rehm:
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html
# Nigel Ballard: Nokia today unveiled its first data product that brings GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) technology to laptops and handheld devices. The small but powerful Nokia D211 is a multimode radio card offering "always-on" Internet access within GPRS, HSCSD (High Speed CircuitSwitched Data), and wireless LAN (Local Area Network) coverage areas.
- # Rob Hospitalized - Schuyler Erle:
At about 8pm PST on Wed. Feb 20, our very own Rob Flickenger accidentally fell from the roof of a two-story building, while attempting to set up a point-to-point 802.11b link here in Sebastopol. He was immediately taken to the hospital, where he was underwent surgery for severe internal injuries. He has since been taken out of intensive care, and is in stable condition.
- # Grassroots IPv6 - Dan Parslow:
The question is, what if anything can the creators of a wireless community network such as PTP do to contribute in their own small way to the acceptance of and demand for IPv6? Would it be advantageous to require that participating nodes support it? Would that introduce onerous complications and be an unwelcome and unproductive form of mission creep?
- # Pioneer Square IM and Mail - Adam Shand:
Right now you can't send mail on port 25 from the Pioneer Square node. This is because I view spam as the single largest threat to our legitimacy right now. Once we get one of the possible solutions that were discussed here tested and working that restriction will go away. As for IM's I'm not sure, ICQ was working for Nigel last night when I was at Starbucks talking to him (around 6pm)
- # Rose City Park 802.11 network - Don Park:
http://lists.personaltelco.net/pipermail/ptp/2002q1/012246.html The sun is out and the PTP wireless infrastructure is getting its first connected nodes in the Rose City area (Northeast of Hollywood). The goal: connect three houses in the area to each other. The house of Erik W. is the hub with two spoke nodes of Lucas S. (6 blocks away from the hub as the crow flies) and Steve B. (2 blocks away from the hub). The hub is a Lucent Silver card with 50 feet of LMR-400 to a Superpass 8db Omni on the roof. Its easy to stand in Steve's yard and pick up a signal from the hub node. The challenge is Lucas's connection.
- # Beta Test Map Server - Adam Shand:
http://lists.personaltelco.net/pipermail/ptp/2002q1/012270.html In preparation for the maps server being moved from it's long standing home at Matt Hickey's to the Personal Telco server I'd like people to test it's new home and offer feedback. You can find it here: http://maps2.personaltelco.net/ Any bugs we need to know about.
- # Broadcasting Linux - Sam Churchill:
For the past month -- and for the next 500 days or so -- Free Radio Linux will transmit a computerized reading of the Linux operating system.http://radioqualia.va.com.au/freeradiolinux/ "What we thought we would do is build a speech bot that would read out the entire Linux source code, live over the Internet."
- # 100mw Prism2:
DEMARC Technology Group is pleased to give you an update on new addition to our product line! DEMARC now offers a 100mW 802.11b Prism 2.0 PCMCIA wireless card! The card has two MMCX connectors for external high gain antennas. The card works with both Linux and Windows drivers.In addition, DEMARC is offering a PCI to PCMCIA adaptor base on theRICOH R5c475II chip set. http://www.demarctech.com/products/relia-wave-100mw-pcmcia-card.html
- # Atheros Ships Combo Chipset - Sam Churchill:
Rolling Three WLAN Standards into a Single Solution for 802.11a/g/b Facilitates Wide-Scale Wireless LAN Deployment. . Smart Select automatically chooses the optimal RF technology (a/g/b), rate adaptation and error correction methods, power reduction and internationalization features, and security protocol for a wireless network, and dynamically adapts to changing conditions as the user roams within that network. http://www.atheros.com/news/combo.html
- # Pocket LOOX - Don Park:
okay while we're talking PDAs (my favorite topic), why not pick up a Fujitsu LOOX when it comes out. It runs Pocket PC 2002. http://pr.fujitsu.com/en/news/2002/03/12.html Its the first PDA that claims to be close to shipping that runs on Intel's XScale line of CPUs. Like the Zaurus it has a CF and a SD slot.
- # Node and Server Monitoring - Adam Shand:
We have started monitoring our active nodes and some servers that provide services to the network. http://mon.personaltelco.net/ if you run an active node and are willing to have it monitored so we can begin to provide statistics on our network and get a feel for how well things are working (as well as be able to fix things promptly when they break) please follow the instructions to get yourself listed: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/SpongClientInstall The instructions are complete but pretty rough around the edges, feel free to improve on them or ask for more help.
EVENTS EVENTS EVENTS:
CTIA Wireless 2002
- Dates: March 18-20, 2002 Location: Orlando Convention Center, Orlando, FL USA
The 2002 Game Developers Conference (GDC)
- Dates: March 19 - 23, 2002 Location: San Jose Calif.
SBAY Geek Ride
- March 24, 2002 at 3PM. The SBAY Geek Ride is a monthly bicycle ride event (weather permitting) from March to October.
- Dates: March 25-29, 2002 Location: San Francisco, CA
Mobile Entertainment Summit
- Dates: April 9-10, 2002 Location: London
GPS-WIRELESS 2002
- Dates: April 11-12, 2002 Location: San Francisco, CA
O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
- Dates: May 13-16, 2002 Location: Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, Calif.
2002 World Wireless Congress
- Dates: May 28-31, 2002 Location: San Francisco, CA
Invent 2002
- HP Worldwide Developer Conference Dates: May 28-31, 2002 Location: Las Vegas Hilton-Las Vegas, Nevada
Eye For Wireless 802.11
- Dates: May 30-31, 2002 Location: Boston, MA
SuperComm 2002
- Dates: June 2-6, 2002 Location: Atlanta, GA
Bluetooth Congress & Expo 2002
- Dates: June 11-14, 2002 Location: Amsterdam Rai, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Eye For Wireless 802.11
- Dates: June 17-18, 2002 Location: Seattle, WA
O'Reilly Open Source Convention
- Dates: Jul 22-26, 2002 Location: Sheraton San Diego and Marina, San Diego, Calif.
You can find me scratching around community LAN archives including:
(1) BAWUG http://lists.bawug.org/pipermail/wireless/ (2) Boston Wireless http://www.bawia.org/archive/ezmlm.cgi (3) FreeNetworks.org http://www.freenetworks.org/ (4) Linux-wlan http://macdaddy.lists.linux-wlan.com/pipermail/linux-wlan-devel/ (5) NoCat http://archive.nocat.net/list (6) NYC Wireless http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ (7) PersonalTelco http://lists.personaltelco.net/pipermail/ptp/ (8) Seattle Wireless http://www.seattlewireless.net/archive/ezmlm.cgi/0
I also check out the news at:
(1) 80211-Planet http://www.80211-planet.com/ (2) Practically Networked http://www.practicallynetworked.com/ (3) Nowirenets.com http://www.nowirenets.com/About/index.php (4) O'Reilly's WirelessDev Center http://www.oreillynet.com/wireless/ (5) Glenn Fleishman's 802.11 Weblogger http://80211b.weblogger.com/ (6) Wireless ISP Association http://www.wispa.org/index.php (6) HomeNetHelp.com http://homenethelp.com/ (7) HomeToys http://www.hometoys.com/reviews.htm (8) Network Computing http://www.networkcomputing.com/1108/1108buyers2.html
MISCELLANEOUS:
Mapping: http://wigle.net/gpsopen/gps/GPSDB/ Nationwide wireless network database and mapping. WiGLE: An online database which accepts "stumbles" or "WiLDs" in the "wi-scan" and "wi-scan with extensions" formats (GPS tagged data about wireless networks). Netstumbler, dstumbler, and other clients generate data in these formats. Data is stored in a database, locations are triangulated, and data is shared via web requests.