pghwireless

Hi All,

Native Burgher living down here in Delray Beach, FL. and wanted to chime in on some stuff that may interest some people...

I wrote a white paper about the future of municipal broadband wireless and it has been picked up by GovTech. http://www.govtech.com/dc under 'Special Focus', article 'Broadband Future'

It talks about 3.65 WiMax (coming soon to Delray using AirSpan), but mainly about how the FCC screwed up the 2.5GHz rules and the 700MHz auction.

Hope all is well up er' and GO PENS!

Brad
http://www.accessdelray.org/Broadband+Future.html
http://www.accessdelray.org/Local+Governments.html

More weirdness from Alaska, reported by boingboing. This time, someone was using a free wireless network provided by a library from his car, which got the laptop confiscated, and the man charged with theft of services. There's also a few links about other recent stories of misinformed authorities. Additionally, CNET has an article about WiFi Mooching and the Law, which does a good job of explaining about how the related (yet unrelated) laws work: Y

dorkbotpgh has been attracting a bit of attention in the local news recently (Trib, PopCity, Citypaper).

Looks like Pittsburgh finally activated the city-wide Wi-Fi network yesterday. Two hours for free per user per day.

Post Gazette: City Launches Downtown WiFi, offering two free hours of access daily

I find it rather silly that with today's security hype, protecting PCs against viruses and other malware, many people don't bother to place some degree of security on their wireless networks. I have a super-cheap CompUSA labeled router/AP, which I purchased for $18 a year or so ago, and even it supports WEP. I know, WEP is weak, but so is a deadbolt lock in a wooden door frame, just kick it in. Any type of security/encryption can and should be viewed as a "Private - Do Not Enter" sign, signaling strangers to request entry, or keep out.

That said, I am somewhat two sided on the idea of "borrowing" access via a random, insecure WLAN. Yes, it can be seen as an invitation to share access. But, let me make an analogy. On a warm, comfortable spring day, you may open your house or apartment windows and door(s) to let in the breeze. Now is this an invitation for a stranger to come in and sit on your living room couch and "borrow" access to HBO or your DVD collection? IMO, even though you can detect and access an insecure WLAN, it should be viewed as someone's private property. Unless of course, a sign is posted in their window that says something like "Get your free WiFI access here, SSID = AccessForAll".

Yahoo is running a story about Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Approves Agreement to Allow Duquesne Broadband Wireless Internet Pilot in Monroeville. From the article: PUC approval enables Duquesne Broadband, a joint venture between BPL Global and DQE Communications Network Services, a subsidiary of Duquesne Light Holdings, to expand its BPL offer throughout the Duquesne Light service area in the coming months. Bandwidth over power-lines is a neat technology, and I'm happy to see that being used to distribute Wi-