Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Ian Meyer <ianmeyer AT mac.com>]

they have signs that are the )(? does anyone have a picture of these  
things?

thats cool

ian


On Tuesday, August 12, 2003, at 8:08, Paul Jones wrote:

> http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-380593.html
>
> Carrboro slowly expands wireless Internet access to Carr Mill Mall
>
> By Isaac Groves, The Herald-Sun
> August 11, 2003 Â            7:40 pm
>
> CARRBORO -- Slowly but surely, Carrboro is joining cities like Paris,  
> New
> York and Winston-Salem in providing free wireless Internet access in
> select parts of town.
>
>  "We'll start with downtown and test that out and see if people are
> receptive to it," said James Harris, Carrboro's economic development
> director. "If people are receptive to it, we'll go from there."
>
>  Having finished the wireless network in Town Hall and the Century  
> Center,
> Carrboro and its information and technology officer, Andy Vogel, are
> extending the network across Weaver Street to Carr Mill Mall.
>
>  Harris says he would like to see the wireless access area extend from
> downtown and go east down Main Street toward Chapel Hill.
>
>  The wireless network allows anyone with a laptop computer equipped  
> with a
> wireless Ethernet card to have Internet access anywhere within the
> 200-foot range of a network antenna. The signs for the town's wireless
> network, looking like two inverted brackets, let people know where the
> network is available.
>
>  "People can walk in off the street with their laptops and access the
> Internet," Vogel said.
>
>  For now, the signs only hang on the walls of Town Hall and the Century
> Center. Vogel is recruiting volunteers to extend the service off of  
> town
> property for the first time.
>
>  Wireless Internet access, or "Wi-Fi," has been in the works in  
> Carrboro
> for a while now, but the town hasn't had the funds to build the network
> all at once.
>
>  "The town of Carrboro doesn't have a lot of money, but we have a lot  
> of
> good people who can help," Vogel said. "We have people volunteering  
> from
> Chapel Hill who don't even live here because they think it's a neat  
> idea."
>
>  So far, Vogel has gotten 12 volunteers from his announcements on the  
> town
> of Carrboro Wireless listserv, and says if half that many actually  
> show up
> to do the work, he can probably get done by the end of September or  
> early
> October.
>
>  Vogel plans to use an open-source, UNIX-like operating system that he
> says is hard to hack, and a system of Cisco wireless ports. The  
> antennas
> are two or three times the size of a TV remote control and plug into
> fiber-optic cables.
>
>  The signal radiates about 200 feet, and Vogel says it is safe for  
> people.
> According to the NYC Wireless Web site, the signal is one-sixth the  
> power
> of a mobile phone and less powerful than what leaks from the average
> microwave oven.
>
>  A wireless network is part of the town's overall effort to get more
> information-based businesses into Carrboro, not because the businesses
> want to use Carrboro's network, but because information-technology  
> workers
> like to live in places where such things are available.
>
>  "It can draw a type of person, a young person interested in  
> technology,"
> Vogel said.
>
>  Carrboro already has the infrastructure in the ground for wireless, in
> the form of the $99,000 fiber-optic network it installed at Town Hall,  
> the
> Century Center and the public works yard on Smith Level Road about 3½
> years ago. The antennas for the Cisco ports will connect to that
> high-speed line.
>
>  "All it's costing the town is a little of our bandwidth," Vogel said.
>
>  Bandwidth, Vogel explains, is like a pipe that carries information to  
> and
> from the Internet. Much of the pipe's capacity goes unused in an  
> average
> day, and at night it's almost completely unused, so having residents  
> take
> advantage of wireless access is really just helping Carrboro get more  
> for
> its money.
>
>  The Carr Mill project is still in the planning stages, and Vogel  
> doesn't
> know how many antennas the mall will need. But he hopes to put the lawn
> outside Weaver Street Market, the first floors of both Carr Mill  
> buildings
> and possibly the ice cream store across the parking lot within range of
> the wireless network.
>
>  The businesses inside on the mall's first floor could use the wireless
> service too, but it would not serve them very well because there will  
> be
> no "firewall" to protect their data from hackers.
>
>  "We don't want to provide something to the businesses in Carr Mill
> necessarily, but to the residents living near Carr Mill," Vogel said.
> "Legally, we can't show favoritism for one business or another."
>
>  The advantage to Carr Mill businesses, Harris says, is the number of
> potential customers drawn to the mall by the wireless network.
>
>  Vogel says he's not sure how much it will cost to make Carr Mill part  
> of
> the wireless network, but he says it won't be too much if he can get
> enough skilled volunteers.
>
>  "It's not the hardware that costs, it's the human factor; it's the  
> smart
> people," Vogel said. "We'll make it work, we always do."
>
>                 URL for this article:
> http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-380593.html
>
> ======================================================================= 
> ===
>                              Paul Jones
>  "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." Alasdair  
> Gray
>                     http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/
>   pjones AT ibiblio.org   voice: (919) 962-7600     fax: (919) 962-8071
> ======================================================================= 
> ====
>
>
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