[Noisebridge-discuss] Slow internet access at 83c

jim jim at well.com
Wed Nov 26 19:00:00 UTC 2008


at the risk of clogging the nb email stream: 

* wifi devices i've used (including those at cafes 
and other small businesses) go down regularly and 
are not well-documented or managed with respect to 
access (wep vs wpa and which variant thereof...). 
   larger "corporate" enterprise wifi LANs have 
the benefits of a trained IT staff. 

* soho wifi installations are subject to cracking 
(vs "hacking"). 

* wifi bandwidth does not allow a large number of 
separate nodes--performance degrades as user 
activity increases. 

* because the medium is radio waves, it's subject 
to radio wave disturbances (reflections, noise...). 

* although theoretically the same as a wired LAN, 
a wifi LAN allows greater risk of node-to-node 
cracking--someone "over there" getting into the 
machine you're using "over here". 
   the increased risk is due to the fact that 
it's easier to vet users of a wired LAN and also 
that it's easier to monitor activities on a wired 
LAN. easier not so much as a matter of features 
(one could set up monitoring and vetting for a 
wifi LAN) as a matter of neglect and ignorance 
(similar to the causes of more risk on windows 
machines). 
   seems to me possible to effect, just a greater 
pain in the ass (because the wifi machines go 
down frequently) and with the requisite of fairly 
constant attention by some trained personage. 

   cables need not add clutter, at least not as 
much as is often seen. 
   rj45 jacks can be presented in on-the-wall 
boxes that are wired through raceways or troughs. 
   rj45 jacks can be distributed around the 
perimeters of the main room and upstairs room. 
   it's possible to rig a structure over the 
center table that delivers not only ethernet 
cables but electricity and task lighting as well. 
in that case, people working at the center table 
might connect to the LAN (or AC power or a task 
light) through a raceway running down the center 
of the table or through boxes just under the 
center table that are tied to a raceway on the 
undersurface of the table that connects to the 
"bus" coming down from the rig. 




On Wed, 2008-11-26 at 10:16 -0800, Chris Palmer wrote:
> jim writes:
> 
> > on a separate note, i my self dislike wifi.
> 
> Why?
> 
> Cables will add clutter.
> 
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