[Hidden-tech] Helping others without broadband

[Jonathan Dill]

Hi folks,

I have come across a couple more potential technical solutions to 
getting faster Internet access from areas were broadband is not 
available--not necessarily cheap, but might work for somebody:

The Junxion box is a firewall / router that you plug in a wireless cell 
PCMCIA card.  Faster, EVDO cards are also supported if EVDO is available 
in your area.  The MSRP for the WiFi model is $699, $599 for the wired 
ethernet box.  Also, you had better make sure it falls within the terms 
of service for your carrier, there might be some legal issues, but that 
is not my expertise.

http://www.junxion.com/product/

Another thought I had is that if you have several people clustered 
together, you could get something like SDSL or a T1 and set up a WiFi 
"mesh network" to allow people to share the connection, maybe set up 
some type of neighborhood "co-op."  Granted, a T1 is going to be 
$400-500/month and up for 1.5 Mb/s access plus set up charges, but it 
works well even over very poor quality lines and should be available in 
many areas where other types of broadband are not.  I suppose it might 
be worth the investment if higher bandwidth was critical to your business.

There is experimental third-party firmware available for some Linksys 
devices that supports setting up mesh networks--could be a very cool 
project, but would probably take someone with solid network knowledge to 
set it up.  I have the Linksys WRT54G at home and use the Sveasoft 
firmware to add Quality of Service (QoS) support which makes my 
broadband Voice Over IP service work great.

http://www.sveasoft.com

Jonathan