Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community wide Wifi

[Shari Hirst (sharihirst13]

Bryan-

What do you mean by coated windows and radiant barriers?

Thank you-
Shari Hirst
Sand River Cohousing

-----Original Message----- 
From: Fred-List manager 
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 6:03 AM 
To: Cohousing-L mailing list 
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Community wide Wifi 


Bryan Syverson <bryan.syverson [at] fresnocohousing.org>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting quoted digest.
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
1.  I agree: wise words from Daniel about how we know things.
> - Folks who "know" that wifi is totally harmless
> - Folks who "know" that the evidence to look at is peer reviewed science
> - Folks who "know" that wifi is extremely dangerous, and exposure should
be limited.
> - Folks who "know" that the evidence to use is the stories they hear from
friends and their own experience
Put me in the rationalist camp on this one (the "right" side, of course!)
Our community had some heated discussions early on about the adverse
effects of WiFi.  These were just as our community was moving in, so we
didn't have the perspective for dealing with contention then that we do now
(that Daniel so wisely summarized).  It doesn't help to point out to fellow
community members that their fears are irrational.  Telling them to "just
relax" seldom results in them relaxing.  Let's just say I was not helpful
in my approach at the time!  Hopefully, I'm better now.

2.  That said, we did implement community-wide WiFi 5 years ago at
move-in.  It has been nothing but a bother.  It seemed a great idea and
probably helped a bit with marketing.  However, our homes are so
energy-efficient with coated windows and radiant barriers that each home is
basically a Faraday cage.  The community WiFi really only gives decent
signal outside.  So performance is mediocre and, with our expectations so
high, disappointing.  So most folks have a WiFi router in their home, too.
It has been most convenient in the common house, especially for overnight
guests in the guest room.  As portable devices proliferate, however, it is
(finally!) becoming increasingly useful for us when we are out of doors.
We have six D-Link DWL-7700AP exterior-grade access points placed every
80-100 ft along our 500 ft central walkway.  I hope to eventually upgrade
these to something that allows more centralized control (looking at either
DWC-6600AP or DAP-3520 right now).

-Bryan Syverson
La Querencia Fresno (CA) Cohousing

PS On an unrelated note: if any fellow geek knows how to configure VLANs on
D-Link L3/L2 managed switches (DGS-3612G and DGS-3000-10TC), please drop me
a line!  I've been chasing my tail for 5 years on that one!
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