Community based wireless LAN in Adelaide - interest?

[Jamie Lovick]

On Mon, 4 Mar 2002, Greg Lehey wrote:
> On Monday,  4 March 2002 at  8:10:14 +1030, Luke Schapel wrote:
> > Aristotle wrote:
> >>
> >> Has anyone seen www.sydneywireless.com.au?

It's actually www.sydneywireless.com, not .com.au.

> >> Any interest in getting a community based wireless LAN link going in
> >> Adelaide?
> >
> > I am extremely interested. I have grabbed three Galaxy antennae, and am
> > in the process of modding them for 2.4Gb. Also have a couple on cards
> > and have just loaded FreeBSD (sorry folks :)) to use as an AP and
> > router. Next is an Omni and I'm up. I have listed my node here -
> >
> > http://wansa.dhs.org/main.php
> >
> > but it doesn't look very active (been down for two weeks).
> >
> > I went to the last AUUG meeting and talked to a guy who knew of some
> > people who were interested, but failed to get any contacts :( (mea
> > culpa).
> 
> Hmm, that could have been me.
> 
> You should be aware of the wireless networking list at samba.org
> (copied).  See http://lists.samba.org/listinfo/wireless for further
> details.

The wireless list has been a good point to find out if others are
interested. Most people seem to atleast read the archive if they are
interested in wireless networking.

> There's been a fair amount of traffic on that list relating to setting
> up networks in Adelaide.  The current situation is:
> 
> 1.  There is nothing yet.

There are a few small groups around the place (even if it's just 2 or 3
people)

> 2.  There's a fair amount of interest.

There is indeed. I run the somewhat out-dated www.adelaide.air.net.au
site, and I have had alot of interest over the past month.

If you guy's are going to setup a regional mailing list, let me know and
I'll point them to it.

I am also willing to provide space and have someone help run the
www.adelaide.air.net.au site (I am in Sydney now myself, and involved with
www.sydneywireless.com).

> 3.  There are some somewhat unclear legal regulations.  Some point to
>     legislation requiring you to be a carrier in order to run a
>     wide-area network, others point to exemptions for the 2.4 GHz
>     band.  I'm not going to try to interpret the laws myself, but the
>     fact that nets exist in other Australian cities means that it
>     seems to be possible.

Technically, almost all of the public networks are operating illegally,
as a carrier licence is required. The ACA i unlikely to chase "small fry",
but is likely to do so once the networks grow in size.

There are indeed many legal issues to be overcome. There are a group of us
in Sydney who are looking into this, and will be sharing our findings and
oppinions with wireless groups around the country, as soon as we get it
nutted out.

If anyone is interested in helping with these efforts (some
telecommunications legals would be great :) ) all help is aprecieated.

We are hoping to interact with government over the current regulations and
issues which effect non-commercial wireless networking in Australia, with
a posative result for everyone.

Regards

Jamie

--
Jamie Lovick    <->  IT Consultant    <-> +614 1479 1681
Hobby   : Doof.org                     -> jalovick at doof.org
Director: Drastic Solutions Pty Ltd    -> jalovick at drasticsolutions.com.au