Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Internet Connectivity

[Philip Semanchuk (philip]

> On Jan 26, 2024, at 3:02 PM, Edwin Simmers <edwinsimmers [at] bellcoho.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> While it’s impossible to precisely predict future Internet technology 
> advances, some lessons of the past 20 years can be helpful. The main lesson 
> is how Internet connectivity has been switching from physical wiring to 
> wireless technology. 
> 
> Once a provider supplies Internet connectivity to a central location in your 
> community, plan to distribute the Internet connection to your units and 
> devices by wireless equipment. 
> 
> Phones, tablets, computers, TVs, and automated equipment are now universally 
> WiFi-based to the degree that there may be little or no need to use 
> hard-wired Ethernet cabling in your units. Use the money that you would 
> otherwise spend on wires to ensure you have a robust wireless system 
> throughout your community.

What our community found is that as more and more devices appeared on our 
community-wide wireless network, all those conversations started interfering 
with each other and network quality degraded to where the network was sometimes 
unusable. It’s like trying to cram more and more people into the same room at a 
party. Eventually no one can hear anyone else. We also had a lot of trouble 
with our wireless base stations (which were outdoors on poles so they could 
serve multiple households) getting zapped in electrical storms. 

We’re in the process of digging trenches to run Ethernet to everyone’s home. 
Our community is dense; for very spread out communities wireless may make more 
sense. 

For new builds, I would not recommend anything other than wires (Ethernet or 
fiber) to everyone’s home. 



Cheers
Philip
Pacifica Cohousing, Carrboro, NC



>> Message: 2
>> Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2024 11:33:48 +0200
>> From: Pare Gerou <paregerou [at] gmail.com>
>> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
>> Subject: [C-L]_ Internet system and fiber optic info. appreciated
>> 
>> Hope everyone is having a good day,
>> 
>> Greek Village Cohousing is breaking ground for preliminary excavation next
>> week.  We need to be vigilant about our remote professional's needs, and
>> thus I put together talks with the developer and the Greek provider of
>> fiber optics for next week.
>> 
>> I would like to be better informed to advocate for our needs.  At this
>> point, all I have done is negotiate for and obtain a guarantee of fiber
>> optics all the way into the homes, as opposed to any other option.   Now
>> that I accomplished this, I am out of my element with all else.
>> 
>> What are the details I should know and advocate for or be aware of?  The
>> fiber optic cables are 3 kms away, and we are talking about how they will
>> put in the lines and supply the fiber optics into our homes.
>> 
>> With Appreciation,
>> Pare Gerou
>> www.GreekVillageCohousing.com