Frequently Asked Questions
1. About this FAQThis FAQ is posted at http://www.radiolink.net/consume-brighton/faq.html or can be reached via a mirror site at http://pirsig.dyn.dhs.org/~thomasfl/faq.html
and is maintained by Duncan Jauncey (please drop me an email if you find any mistakes, or have a question that is not on this list).
See the footer of this document for the date that it was last updated.
Best see www.consume.net for yourself. :) Loosely put, it's a group of private individuals that believe in sharing their internet access among the community for free. Most use wireless LAN cards that use the 802.11 wireless networking standard. The frequencies that these cards use is unrestricted in most countries, so you do not need a licence in order to use one.
Apart from the social gathering aspect, there should be real benefit in sharing your connection. Many people have broadband connections to the internet (e.g. ADSL), but do not use them all of the time. Therefore, by having access to other broadband connections as well as your own, you can increase your connection speed. (The maximum of the 802.11 standard is 11Mbps, which is 20 times as fast as a BT Openworld 500kbps ADSL home connection, and 200x the speed of a normal 56k modem).
In theory, if the network performs well, it should make your connection more resistant to failure, so that you won't lose your internet access for a few days just because *your* ISP has a network fault.
There is also the potential for mobile use if a large enough area is covered. Laptops can access the network too, so you could surf the net while sitting in your favourite cafe, or on the beach, for example. :)
This depends on what other people are using, but the Lucent Orinoco cards are definitely good value for money, high quality, and have an all-important external aerial socket. (Be aware of name changes, Lucent became Agere, and Orinoco is the card series that replaced the WaveLAN - they are mostly but not entirely compatible)
Currently (December 2001), the Lucent Orinoco (silver) card costs around £85. It is vital to get a
card with an external aerial socket (which all Orinoco cards have). They can be obtained from
eBay UK,
eBay (US),
un-wired.co.uk
etc. Please let me know if you can add to this list.
See the hardware notes page for more information.
5. What kind of range can I get?
For most 802.11 cards, the box will quote ranges of around 100m if there are few obstructions, using the in-built antenna. The range you get will depend on your antenna and position, and you will want to use an external antenna to increase the range. 1km-2km is apparently possible with an omnidirection antenna (equal coverage in all directions), and 5km or more is possible with a good directional antenna. Antennae in high places apparently work well, and line-of-sight is very important. See the hardware notes page for more information.
Most wireless LAN cards come with WEP encryption, which has recently been shown to be insecure. Generally, you should not use a wireless LAN for anything that you wouldn't send over the internet, but some protocols have encryption built-in, or a secure VPN system is possible (both ends encrypt their data and the link between them may go via many computers, but it still looks like a single direct connection between both ends).
To protect your own LAN from potential intrusion, it is wise to set up a firewall from a cheap 486/low-pentium that could also handle your broadband connection and wireless network card, running something like Linux or OpenBSD. Several people have had remarkable success using the Smoothwall distribution as a secure firewall for their LANs. (Note that it works really well with a BT Openworld ADSL connection.)
There is a good discussion of wireless security at www.extremetech.com - protocols could also be tunnelled using ssl, and using ssh etc (in preferance to telnet) is highly recommended.
7. What network speeds/throughput might I get?
The 802.11 standard has a maximum theoretical throughput of 11Mbps (approximately ethernet speed). If a signal is weaker, or is affected by interference, then the network speed will reduce. This is why good antennae are important for long distances. The networking protocols used bring the actual realistic speed down to around 6.5Mbps, which is still extremely fast.
8. Do I need a lightning protector?
Probably not, unless you live in a very exposed area. Most aerials work quite well indoors, anyway. (However, you make that decision at your own risk.)
9. What other community wireless networks exist?
Apart from consume.net, there are networks in many different countries. See the links page, and http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/WirelessCommunities for a list.
10. Is consume.net restricted to wireless 802.11 cards?
No. The philosophy is to extend the network in any way possible - via radio, long ethernet cables, or even optical laser links. (Which can apparently be made from cheap laser pointers/pens). Having said that, of course, the easiest option appears to be 802.11 cards for the time being.
11. How many people are connected?
12 Dec 2001 - several people are experimenting with cards and different antennae, but there is no proper established network yet. See the nodes page for a list of people.
12. I'm interested - what do I do now?
First of all, create an entry in the consume.net node database, with the "Speculative" status (this means you haven't necessarily got any kit yet, but you might be thinking about it. Then, the best thing to do is to find someone (either from that database, or from this site's nodes page that lives near you and let them know you are interested. Get hold of a wireless LAN card (make sure you get a good one - see the rest of this FAQ). Join the brighton-consume mailing list (see the contact page) and go along to one of the Brighton Linux Users Group meetings.
13. Do I need a gateway/base station?
No, you only need a wireless LAN card. The gateway/base station is for office use, where you would probably locate the server. The consume.net network is peer-to-peer, so no base station is needed. Anyway, where would you put it? :)
14. How much would it cost to set up a node?
It depends on what you have available, whether you're prepared to build your own antenna, etc.
Basically, the wireless cards are around £100, the antennae cost next to nothing to build, plus
you'll need some spare PC, some decent antenna cable (£50?), possibly a ISA/PCI to PCMCIA converter
card (£50ish) and a 'pigtail' connector (£40?). The thing that you will have to invest most
is time.
Is it worth it? See Why join the network?
15. How is routing going to work?
16. Where can I find the latest version of this FAQ?
From the consume-brighton website at http://www.radiolink.net/consume-brighton/
17. Where can I find more information?
Other FAQs/sources of information: