[wplug] Wi-Fi Mapping in the Press

Bill Moran wmoran at potentialtech.com
Fri Feb 18 16:30:44 EST 2005


"Drew from Zhrodague" <drew at zhrodague.net> wrote:

>     Bill, why are you sending blank messages with attachments? I'm
> confused...

So am I.  What are you talking about?  I didn't send any blank messages
(to my knowledge).  Can you forward me a copy or something so I can
see what's going on.

> > Have you ever actually done this?
> 
>     Nope! I have not actually done this, but lots of people have, with
> pretty good results.

I think a lot of it has to do with what people consider "pretty good"
results.  We had wireless Internet here at the office for a while, and
it was certainly better than dialup, but it still suffered the problems
I described: erratic ping times, lots of dropped packets.  But, in
our case, it was either wireless or dialup, and the wireless was far
better than dialup.  Finally, the cable company made cable Internet
available, and we jumped on board with that, because it's almost a
big an improvement from wireless to cable as dialup to wireless was!

> > Wifi is horribly unreliable for last-mile connections.  Latency is wildly
> > variable and unpredictabe, packet loss is high ... it just sucks.  I've
> > got multiple experiences with this to prove it.
> 
>     Hm. I don't think the other wireless groups would have even bothered, if
> this were the case. What kind of equipment were you using? How did you have
> it setup? Did you do a writeup?

No writeups ... I should have.

Once did a project with a lot of high-end equipment.  Orinoco gold cards and
base units.  Lots of fancy amplifiers and antennas (dish antennas and other
directional equipment)  It was a point-to-point setup over very long
distance (several miles)  Some of the antennas were just barely legal (if
an antenna is over a certain height, you have to have a permit)

We learned some interesting things about how weather messes with 802.11.
Snow, rain, and other atmospheric stuff adds to the packet loss and
high latency that's already there.  Most of the claims of antenna and
amplifier manufacturers are exagerated.

On a shorter distance, I was involved with a link across Greensburg, much
shorter distance, and much more reliable, but still experienced wild
ping times and uncomfortable packet loss.  (keep in mind that largely
variant ping times and ~5% packet loss are expected when things are
working _correctly_!)

Add to that the 9 months where we had wireless Internet locally (which we
didn't have much control over, just used it ... but we noticed the same
kinds of problems).

>     Also, I suggest a shootout here in Pittsburgh -- those interested should
> contact me offlist, and we'll get together to try to test some of these
> things. I'd do it myself, but I can't be on both sides of the river at the
> same time =_)

That would be fun.  Its been a few years since I've done any large-scale
wireless stuff, and I'd be curious to see how the equipment has improved!

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com
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