[CLUG] Thursday Night and Wireless LANs

[adam beecher]

> From what I have read, this wireless LAN technology is really only
> effective to 300 metres at 11Mbs. Above that and it drops
> significantly as far as> 1Mbs. Still very useable though even at 1Mbs.
> I looked into this technology when looking into PocketPCs such as the
> Jornada and iPaq, which I reckon will benefit most from the technology.
>
At this stage I'm not really bothered about speed. I'm happy to wait a
little while for broadband, no matter what the application. It's always-on
I'd kill for, even at 56k.

> On Chorus, we have been pushing them on when Powernet is going to be
> available, but from being told once upon a time that it was available, it
> now seems that it won't be available for yonks. This seems to work by
> beaming your signal with a mini dish. Whether it requires line of sight I
> dunno.
>
It does. There was some confusion about where the base station was going -
first they said it was up by the airport, then up by telecom tower, and then
they went back to the airport. I'm in a dodgy spot here, I don't know if I'd
be able to get it from either, although I think I'd have a better chance
with the airport. The salesman didn't seem to really care, he just wanted a
signature, probably just for demand figures. That reminds me actually, I
must give him a ring, since it looks like LLU is going to be a while yet.

> The 802.11b would be a serious hack risk if you were beaming around the
> city I would think. I mean couldn't you just listen out with your laptop
> for a signal and try and latch on? I suppose with a decent firewall, etc
> its no different to anything connected to the Internet.
>
Errah, everything's a hack risk. I think I sent a link to an article about
this a while back, about a guy cruising around California in his Saturn with
a rake of wireless gear and a laptop scanning ports. Apparently he pisked up
a load of open wireless networks. The new phreak.

adam