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Wireless Networking It's funny. Laugh. Hardware

Community Networking Made Easy 78

Posted by timothy from the but-this-one-goes-to-11-km dept.
Rob Flickenger writes "I for one am sick and tired of all of the work it takes to build out wireless community networks. Evidently, so was the Linksys Community Network: a Real Network project for the masses. It's about time somebody did something to bring Wi-Fi to the People."
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Community Networking Made Easy More

Community Networking Made Easy

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  • umm... check the clock, folks (Score:3, Funny)

    by David E. Smith ( 4570 ) on Wednesday April 02, 2003 @12:33AM (#5642736)
    April Fools jokes are only really funny when posted on April Fools Day. At least here, that day has been over for about half an hour.

  • Screw that shit... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 02, 2003 @12:36AM (#5642745)
    Real Networks have *NO* place on my computer...

    *checks*
    *uninstalls RealPlayer*
    Ahemm, Real Networks have *NO* place on my computer.
  • what are u still doing up? SP ;)

  • Not That Funny (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ken@WearableTech ( 107340 ) <ken@nOSPAm.kenwilliamsjr.com> on Wednesday April 02, 2003 @12:41AM (#5642754) Homepage Journal
    It's not that funny but people are always leaving the defaults (linksys, tsunami, etc)

    Kids please remember to read the WLAN Security FAQ [lwn.net] before playing.
  • I mean, Ha! Ha, Ha. Ha. Ha.

    Ha. Ha. No, really. Ha. Seriously.

    Hey, can we extend this April Fool thing another day? Maybe we could get some other stories duped as well, not just the fiendishly clever and daringly sophisticated RFC3514 repeat joke? Heh. That was really funny, too. Ha. No, no, I mean it. Ha.

    Man, these Slashdot editors know how to party, huh? Parodying themselves, posting the same story Over and OVER and OVER, like they sometimes do UNintentionally... ha. It'd be even funnier if...

  • This just in!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by mao che minh ( 611166 ) on Wednesday April 02, 2003 @12:51AM (#5642773) Journal
    Slashdot editors over-do April Fools Jokes in grand fashion! CmdrTaco, site founder, uses this faux holiday to make light of his tendancy to duplicate news submissions with a long running and thoroughly unfunny repeat posting of an "evil bit in IPv4" story! General Tommy Franks will speculate upon this development.....

    Oh wait! Geraldo Rivera has just reported from the front lines that Slashdot editors have indeed made one last unfunny April Fool's post well after the April 1rst UN sanctioned deadline! The violation in question appears to be an equally unfunny LinkSys-does-something-post! Amazing! We have satellite imagery incoming......

  • For another TCP/IP bit story to be posted?

    You all'd better hurry before midnight!

  • Now seriously though... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It would be nice if there was a way to intelligently bond multiple wireless connections into one. That way if you had multiple access points, say in an apartment building, everyone could share the bandwidth through the walls. I wouldn't mind having 5 cable/dsl connections piped to my laptop.

    Granted, knowing what I do know about wireless collission detection there is a limit to this before it gets counterproductive since it CAN'T detect collisions, it can only warn everyone and pray they play fair.

    I think

    • Re:Now seriously though... (Score:4, Informative)

      by akb ( 39826 ) on Wednesday April 02, 2003 @02:18AM (#5642942)
      It would be nice if there was a way to intelligently bond multiple wireless connections into one.

      Simple.

      Put 2 (or 3) wireless cards in each of 2 boxes. Configure corresponding cards on each machine to be on nonoverlapping channels and as appropriate for connectivity. Configure channel bonding for your OS.
    • Sorry to respond twice, didn't catch your last paragraph.

      I think the only reason something like a wireless "community" isn't considered more seriously is because there's no benefit to having access to more than your own, unless you don't have one to begin with and you're leeching of course.

      This sounds like it could have been uttered by someone during the primoridial development of the Internet. "No benefit to having more than your own"?! I've heard someone observe that the value (meant in the same sen
    • What you are describing is possible! There is an open source project called "Open AP". This is a tiny linux image and runs on the access point. Problems such as load sharing multiple connections, multipoint-to-multipoint bridging etc are solved! Read this for more info and some further links: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/28972.html Also, there is now a smaller version of the meshbox called the meshbook - http://www.meshbook.com
  • April fools day on slashdot sort of blows.

    Why don't we all just check out The Onion [theonion.com] instead.

    It's new today, and at least it's funny.

  • How Ironic (Score:5, Funny)

    by divide overflow ( 599608 ) on Wednesday April 02, 2003 @01:24AM (#5642842)

    Here it is, April 1, and I have 5 moderator points to use or lose. What a waste. All dressed up and nowhere to go.

    • Jeez, I post a humorous post on a lame, bogus April Fool's topic...and someone mods my post "offtopic". Wow, talk about ironic; I just CANNOT catch a break today. Maybe I need to start writing in French.

      Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
  • If Joe Citizen and Jane Doe can set up a node/AP in their local neighbourhood, then we are one step closer to ubiquitous wireless access.

    It's by no means an easy task, though. And until it gets easier for most users, metro networks will be limited to the linux crowd.

    Let's hope this works out and helps people to set up APs. It will benefit us all, some day.
  • Does anyone know where these folks got the idea for this page? I could swear they got their inspiration from FreeSky Wireless, who made their first public announcement at Rubi-Con on Saturday.

    It's obvious that both groups are very popular, since FreeSky also uses the same SSID, and all these folks must be members of both projects. It's great to see such a community-minded spirit across America!
  • I wonder how long it will be until cisco changes it, just to piss some people off. ;-)
  • ...that April Fools were only valid up until midday on 1st April.

    After midday, the tables are turned and the fool is the person playing the joke.

    At least it always was when I was a kid.
  • Why does slashdot think it's appropriate to post lies on national lie to people day? First of all, it stops most people from even getting on the internet for at least 24 hours (like me), but with the internet being more international these days, they can cause problems. I had to stop my chinese neighbor from frantically selling stocks TWICE today because I told him slashdot was a reputable news source. I guess I won't be making that mistake again.
  • Slashdot needs to get over this whole idea of the newness of community networking and "How WiFi Will Save the World." Get over your DSL/cable-fed selves and wake up. Communities all across the United States are already doing this, and have been doing so for years.

    I live in a small north-central Missouri town of about 10,000 residents. What do I do for internet access? Not dialup, that's for sure.

    The local utility company is a co-op run under mandate from the city council. Its services include electri
  • It's about time somebody did something to bring Wi-Fi to the People.

    The People? Are these the same ones always gettin' shafted by The Man(tm)?

  • Looks like they've daisy chained three Linksys amplifiers in series to boost their power. These guys obviously know dick(a technical term) about wireless.

    Amplifiers accept a certain input power level, probably 30mw (+15dBm) in the case of Linksys gear, and they output a certain power level, likely 100mw (+20dBm). If you over drive the amp, you don't get any more out of it, you just shorten its life dramatically.

    On the return path side those devices usually have a low noise amplifier(LNA). Put thr

  • You actually -CAN- do this... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    IF you have a HAM radio license, you can pump up to 100w (thats 100 WATTS, not milliwatts) into channels 1-6 legally.

    However, there are a few catches.

    1) Transmission over 1w requires an AutoPowerControl device, which only beams as much power as is neccessary.

    2) While non-HAM radio operators have to -put up- according to FCC reg. part 15, be considerate of the slashdotted masses. You would want to use this only as a crosslink between WAP's. Additionally, since you are camping a whole channel, you would wa

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