I just wanted to share a few thoughts with everyone on the list, if I may.
As many of you know, I've been in Milpitas, CA (that's near San Jose, for those not familiar with the left coast of the US) since Wednesday evening, attending a very informative 2-day workshop on deploying large scale Wi-Fi networks. This workshop was sponsored by Moonblink (http://www.moonblink.com), smartBridges (http://www.smartbridges.com), and Sputnik, Inc (http://www.sputnik.com). Moonblink is a supplier of Wi-Fi equipment; smartBridges is a manufacturer of carrier-class Wi-Fi hardware (amazing stuff). Many of you have heard me speak of Sputnik, as that's the company whose captive portal technology we use for Hautspot.
Speaking during the first day of the workshop was Jack Unger, of Ask-Wi.com. I met Jack in the spring of 2005, at ISPCON in Baltimore. He is extremely knowledgeable and an excellent speaker. I'll have some great tips to share with everyone at Warpstock, including how to run two Wi-Fi networks on the same channel without them interfering with each other (ponder that for a few days, won't you?). :-)
I also made several new acquaintances, and even sold a license for eCS to one of the tech-heads here (how's that?). I am amazed at the growing number of applications for wireless technology, and the number of expanding business models for large scale deployments, beyond the typical "last mile" solution. Some of these guys actively compete with DSL and cable providers, and are able to not only keep their heads above water, but excel (no, not that spreadsheet product from a small company in Redmond, WA) at what they're doing.
We had a couple attendees from Nigeria here, someone from Costa Rica, and others from various parts of the globe. I heard tales of profitable Wi-Fi installations in Iraq, and we even talked about how to deal with interference from sandstorms. We talked about doing thorough site surveys using a spectrum analyzer, and about the typical amount of noise we have to overcome to provide good quality of service over long wireless links (several miles).
Today, we had some hands-on stuff with Naveen Chhangani of smartBridges, and got to see some of their latest line of integrated AP/router/bridge/antennas. These things are simply amazing, considering where the technology was when this mailing list started. It truly boggles the mind how far we've come in just a few short years, and how affordable some of this equipment is becoming (that's not to say that we're dealing with a couple hundred dollars per AP, but when I started doing satellite telecom stuff ten+ years ago, we would talk about startup equipment cost approximating $100K, contrasted to $10-$20K for a startup WISP operation).
Anyway, it's been some real fun out here, even though I didn't get a chance to enjoy the California sunshine, and have to catch an early flight back east tomorrow. Just thought I'd throw some of these electrons out before I grabbed some dinner.
If you do visit any of the links I've listed here (and Jack has a good review of Wi-Fi books I recommend everyone should check out), please be sure to mention that I pointed you in that direction. ;-)
Cheers, everyone.
PS - There is still time to register for Warpstock next month, and I promise to do my best to not disappoint in the Wi-Fi workshop.
--
Lewis
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Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA, CLP, CLE
Rosenthal & Rosenthal, LLC
Accountants / Network Consultants
New York / Northern Virginia www.2rosenthals.com
eComStation Consultants www.ecomstation.com
Novell Users Int'l www.novell.com/openenterpriseserver
Need a managed Wi-Fi hotspot? www.hautspot.com
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