Key Post: Neighbourhood Area Networks/802.11

Has anyone ever had an interest in setting up a Neighbourhood Area Network (NAN)? I'd be interested in hearing any stories particularly of those based on 802.11 (WiFi) or any other solutions that don't necessitate dirty big aerials.

Re: Network Area Neighbourhoods/802.11

Do you mean a wireless LAN giving local access only or one that ultimately gives wireless access to the internet? If it's the latter you're talking about then the sticking point is likely to be the high cost of suitable connectivity to the internet - i.e. unless you can pool together internet access (or find some generous benefactor) to buy suitable (e.g. DSL) from an ISP whose terms and conditions don't explicitly disallow such shared access as WiFi enables then you're stuck with a LAN disconnected from the internet (which is not useless but probably not what most people want either).

Re: Network Area Neighbourhoods/802.11

Well the idea at this stage is just to set up a private LAN between myself and a neighbour but when certain providers get their broadband finger out of where it shouldn't be, it would be something I'd be interested in developing. Sharing a DSL connection would seem to be a reasonable starting point. Splitting the cost of hardware and line rental between subscribers. As you say, existing restrictions wouldn't allow me to do that but it would be a while before I get around to doing something like that.

The idea isn't new and there are plenty of areas that have already implemented this type of thing (e.g. [broken link removed], [broken link removed]). Who knows, you might be able to get sponsorship for such a project.

For now though, I'm just interested in a private LAN. So if anybody's had an experience with wireless networking on this sort of scale (or maybe campus-wide on a college for example) it'd be good to hear about it.

Re: Network Area Neighbourhoods/802.11

I've set up a simple (peer to peer) WiFi network for a
bunch of flat mates. 802.11b in this mode doesn't
require a base station and if you've any experience of
setting up an ordinary wired ethernet network, it is
pretty trivial to set up.

Actually all the trouble I had was getting the PC Card
adapter working on the non-laptop PCs though I believe
that this will have improved greatly since. Nearly all
WiFi hardware is PC Card based.

Once over that hurdle, the wireless aspect was pretty
much plug and play (on Windows 2000 and Linux)
especially with well known cards - for example the
ORiNOCOs. After that it's exactly like configuring an
ordinary ethernet network. You assign IP addresses to
the machines and away you go (or have one machine act
as a DHCP master). If you want to share an internet
connection or whatever, you'll need to know how to set
up default gateways, etc.

This is a very cheap and flexible way of setting up
wireless - the individual cards ware about 100 euro
each and there is no shared infrastruture required so
people can go their own way afterwards and hold onto
their WiFi cards.

The next step up is to use an access point which acts as
a wireless hub and in fact many manufacturers will try
to push one of these on you. I personally couldn't see
any use at all in having one for a small (four machine)
network and they cost 200-500 euro.

Re: Network Area Neighbourhoods/802.11

Well, I was involved in a minimal WiFi setup - one access point and two stations (laptops with PC cards) which also connects to a corporate LAN and via that to the internet. The WiFi gear is D-Link and was bought cheap on a business trip to the US. The setup/configuration was fairly straightforward (other than on one laptop on which PGP prevented the configuration tool running correctly until disabled) requiring only minimal reference to the manuals. With this setup it allows the two laptops (and visitors if allowed) to access the network wirelessly. However, we are in an old Georgian building in which the walls are quite thick so we definitely get nothing near the nominal range of c. 300 feet! Although not really secure we enabled WEP to give some form of protection. Other than that I'm not sure what there is to be said....?

Re: Network Area Neighbourhoods/802.11

Oops - post crossed with darag's. I should have said that our setup was totally Windows 2000 based.

Re: Network Area Neighbourhoods/802.11

Thanks guys. That's the sort of thing I'm after. But I'd be really interested in hearing about implementing 802.11 on a larger scale. The estate we are moving too is still being built but the other network member would probably be about 150m away - not necessarily line-of-sight - and I might need to involve an antenna of some sort. I'd imagine that there shouldn't be any problem erecting one of these. Or is there (because it's transmitting and receiving).

Anyway, thanks for the stories so far.

Re: Network Area Neighbourhoods/802.11

Well, our setup was definitely not large scale! As I mentioned above, my experience with range was very poor albeit due to the structure of the building in which we are based. I wanted to try it in a more open environment just out of curiousity but never got the chance yet. Isn't there a possibility of planning issues for any sort of booster antenna? You might find more information about this sort of thing on Boards.ie.

Re: Neighbourhood Area Networks/802.11

Quite a lot of useful information to be found here: www.irishwan.org/

Re: Neighbourhood Area Networks/802.11

Bang on binp45! That's exactly the community I'm looking for. It seems that there's already some sort of network in the area I'm moving too.

Thanks for the tip.

Re: Neighbourhood Area Networks/802.11

Have you seen the wireless broadband service available (in limited areas of Dublin) from

Re: Neighbourhood Area Networks/802.11

rainyday,
Thanks yes. I found a few wireless broadband providers but I'll probably stick with the IrishWAN crowd. They seem to be a nice enough. They appear to have local meetings and provide lots of support to newbies.

Thanks anyway

Hi,

I'm sorry that this response has been a bit long in coming to you. I have only just discovered your enquiry.

I co-created "Redbricks Online"

I think it's the first NAN, or "Neighbourhood Area Network", in the world, that we created in Manchester, UK, back in January 1998.

I used Cat5 802.11 cable, out of my spare bedroom window to other flats, and installed a 64k, very high quality leased line, a gateway, and a few servers.

Others around the "social housing" estate helped install Cat5 cable, hubs, etc. Other still, introduced new users to old computers, and the wonders of the World Wide Web and email.

We had several very useful email services, and even created a "community film show" on our intranet. We used materials from the "eco & kids party" that afternoon, and finished the day by projecting "clips from today" on the big wall of the apartment building, outdoors.

If well structured and developed, NAN's can be very cost-effective, socially and economically.

I linked the NAN development to Multi-LETSystems development; which greatly multiplies the positive outcomes.

If you want more details, or have specific questions, please contact me.

All the best to all,

Nigel Stewart
now living in Brussels, Belgium