The Voice of Business and Community In Central New York

          In communities across the country, free high speed wireless internet access is being made available through cooperation of technically savvy individuals interested in putting fast internet access within reach of almost everyone in the community. They have formed groups in many cites, Seattle WA, New York NY, Portland OR, Austin TX, and the San Francisco Bay Area, just to name a few. Residents, ( or passersby ) with inexpensive attachments to their computers, can access the internet at very high speeds free of any charges.
          According to Dick Kelsey, in an article at newsbytes.com "Wireless communities, based on the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard 802.11b, are springing up in cities around the U.S. and abroad. These local area networks (LANs) are a lot like those found in offices, airports, schools and restaurants, except they're set up by computer geeks for next to nothing."
           "This guerilla networking movement costs little to set up and provides high-bandwidth wireless Internet access to anyone in the immediate area with a laptop or personal digital assistant (PDA) equipped with a relatively inexpensive 802.11 plug-in card. The cards, which cost as little as $75, must be WiFi-(wireless fidelity) compatible." (The complete article can be seen at the 'Freenetwork' link on www.anysaver.com.)
          All the information needed to set up a network by yourself, or as an organized group, can be found on the internet. Setting up a freenetwork is completely legal, not very expensive, and only requires some basic technical knowledge.
           "A freenetwork is an exercise in telecommunications freedom. A network created by those who use it rather than brought to consumers by business. It is not necessarily 'free' as in cost, but more to the point, autonomous and self governing."
          "Freenetworks.org is a group of individuals and organizations that are committed to facing the social, political and technical issues that occur in the creation of these networks. We believe that through global communication and collaboration, we can work through these issues in a more efficient manner."
          Another group: "Personal Telco (personaltelco.net) is a grass roots effort to empower people to build the infrastructure through which their data flows. By creating, packaging and disseminating Open Source tools, documentation and community support we are building city wide networks which are open to, and maintained by, the public."           If funds are in short supply, and you want to make some of the equipment yourself, there are web sites with instructions for building components such as directional antennas from Pringles cans, and weatherproof POE (Power Over Ethernet) modules from commonly available materials. Many sites offer advice on the best and least expensive components and where they are available.
          Go to the "Freenetworks" link on www.anysaver.com, you will find more complete information, links to many of the established wireless groups, and resource pages with answers to your questions. When people work together and learn about technology and the Internet, they can then decide to join together to create the services that address their communities needs. Making an effort to include those who are traditionally left out of community decisions in general, and technology decisions in particular (eg., elderly, low income, less educated,), would allow more citizens fast, low cost access to the world wide web. This internet access would offer them information, communication, education, and participation within their community, their country, and the world at large.

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