Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common House Technology Cost Savings

[Tim Mensch (tim-coho-l]

Stuart Joseph wrote:
> I have been getting quotes in our area, but cable doesn't get to where 
> our property is located and DSL might also be a problem.
>   
You might look around to see if there are any wireless 
providers--there's one in our area with a node on top the local mountain 
(Mt. Diablo) that offered us a 5Mbps symmetric (both ways!) connection 
for around $200/month. So if there are any mountains or really tall 
radio towers in line-of-sight, that might be an option. If I recall, a 
full T1 line gives you a 1.5Mbps symmetric connection.
> We feel wireless is the way to go since there are no problems or costs 
> for running the wires and it is an easy hookup to do and it would be 
> available all over the property. It would be secure so nonmembers can't 
> access it.
>   
Good luck with that. Here are some things to watch out for:

1. Older computers/cards will frequently not support modern secure 
connections (WPA-PSK).
2. The older encryption format (WEP) is so broken/ineffective that 
someone with the correct software can break in in under 30 seconds.
3. Even if you decide WEP is good enough for you, I've seen 
incompatibilities between older systems that prevent the WEP connection 
from working correctly no matter what you try, and configuring each 
initial system is a lot of work.
4. Make sure you buy your hardware from someone with a good return 
policy: I've read terrible reviews of some brands' ability to actually 
forward wireless links across several hops. As I mention in another 
email, they tried to do something like that here before I joined, and it 
never worked well.
> I have had a wireless network in our house for years and have not had 
> any problems with it, except when the cable modem goes down.
All the wireless boxes do a reasonable job of sharing a wired Internet 
connection with local users. It seems like most of the problems come 
when you tried to use the relay capabilities of the boxes.

Good luck, though,

Tim

--
Tim Mensch

Currently in Pleasant Hill Cohousing (CA): phch.org

Member of Tumblerock, a Boulder, CO area community
in its forming stages: http://tumblerock.org