Skip to main content

Revolutionary?





"The Broadband Militia" by Michael Behar



But the battle over broadband raises the important question of whether bandwidth is a commodity. Small entrepreneurs think it is. After all, they reason, can a flour company demand a cut of the profits from cookies you sell at a bake sale just because you baked them with their flour? Absurd as this question might seem, the Free Wireless movement is forcing ISPs and telecom companies to define the exact legal limits of bandwidth allocation. That, in essence, is the problem with Free Wireless: It's at the mercy of the Baby Bells and cable companies, which, once the movement reaches critical mass, will crack down hard when they discover they're losing market share to a bunch of hackers.
In keeping with my notion that you should learn something new every day, here's my new thing. I had no idea. Having read this article, it just seems so bloody obvious.



The notion is that Someone buys a broadband connection to the Internet. That Someone sets up a WiFi (IEEE 802.11b networking standard) base station and, voila, anyone with the appropriate NIC can connect. An example of this on a large scale is NYC Wireless. Then there's Boingo Wireless, which touts the "largest commercial Wi-Fi network." They produce and distribute a free app that allows your computer to "sniff out" WiFi networks, thus tying you into an existing connection and you're off to the races.



The problem (or at least one of the problems) is this resell of band width. At home I used AT&T Broadband via a cable modem. I have no choice in my area for broadband access; there is no DSL service and a local, small ISP literally owns all the T-1 bandwidth in town. In any event I've got my ATTBI cable modem, wired to my DSL/cable router/switch, which ties together two desktop PC's. When I need to update things fast on my laptop, I hook it into my little LAN. I added a small hub I had lying around. All told, something like eight computers can tie into my single cable access. ATTBI "load balances" by restricting speed to 1.5mbs, and I don't think they give a hoot how many people are sucking on that 1.5meg pipe; it's all they'll give me.



For a friend I'll be setting up the same thing, only now, for not much more than I paid for my router/switch, the same device adds wireless access. We'll cable one PC/Linux box to the switch, but every other computer in the house will be wireless, including our laptops.



Now if he and I were still neighbors, I can easily see just adding a wireless access point to my existing setup and letting him tap into it. This would in all likelihood piss AT&T off, and that would appear to be what the "wireless militia" is doing.



So the question is why do existing broadband ISP's persist in avoiding wireless? Why are they are dedicated landlines and cables and wires?



Ah, control....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not the Hero We Deserve, But the Hero We Need

The Dark Knight is the best film I’ve seen in years. Not just the best “superhero” film, but the best film of any type. It’s not perfect, not quite a masterpiece, but it’s flaws are, to me, tiny and overwhelmed by the time the film ends. While relatively bloodless, it is consistently brutal, not just in what it depicts but in the themes that drive it. TDK is a film for adults, please leave the kids at home. Let’s deal with those “flaws” first, the largest being the character Rachel Dawes . In Batman Begins , I blamed Katie Holmes . Her acting was weak, to say the least, which is regrettable in that who she is and what she says and does are important to the film. Critics agreed and either for that or other reasons, Katie was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal , who is a better actress. Yet here she’s weak, real weak. Maybe it’s the character, not the actress, which is frustrating because Rachel is a pivotal character. The film,...
1 comment
Read more

John Wick: Chapter 4

No sense in playing coy, this is a great film. I’ve seen it twice and while I don’t quite love it in the way I love the first, original John Wick , it’s my #2. It’s a little overlong, has some wasted space and time, has one absolutely pointless and useless character, and generally ignores the realities of firefights, falling, getting shot, hit, etc. All that notwithstanding, it’s a great action flick, has a genuine emotional core, and is well worth your time if you’re into that sort of thing. Like I am. Summary: John Wick (Keanu Reeves), last seen saying he was fed up with the High Table, goes to war to obtain his freedom. Some of the most incredible action scenes ever filmed ensue, culminating in a very satisfactory finale and a devastating post-credit scene. The first Wick film was a surprise hit. It was a simple, straight-forward tale of vengeance told in a simple, straight-forward manner. Where it stood out was its devotion to human stunt work, on exploiting long camera shots that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

We pause now for a minor rant…

“My car has a flat tire.” “You should buy a new car.” Every time I hear President Obama and other Democrats talking about “health care reform,” that’s what the conversation sounds like. A health care crisis is declared and the only solution is to replace the entire system. At most, around 15% of the American population is without health care insurance. Ignoring the fact that for most of them, this is a matter of choice, it also means that 85% are insured. And of that 85%, something like 70+% like their current coverage and don’t want the government to touch it. So for the vast majority, the current system works and works great. Yet, because of the minority for whom it allegedly does not...toss it all, start again. Admittedly, regardless of insurance coverage, it all costs too much, but again, the only accepted approach to controlling costs are to throw out everything and turn it all over to the government. Tactics that are proposed to address specific cost issues are not consid...
Post a Comment
Read more