Ashburn Farm WiFi...

Are you guys familiar with this site, http://www.wbs-wireless.com/? It looks like their T1 line will be up August 8 and they are charging under $50! They appear to be a couple of guys going together in the entrepeneurial spirit. I have noticed a couple more WiFi's in the area that are starting up as well. All of this begs the question, "what's going to be the benefit of signing an exclusive contract with CWC for the whole community?" Won't this limit our choices down the road? I know everyone has worked really hard on this but might the marketplace be actually starting to address our dilemma? I certainly don't want to rain on anyone's parade - just a thought...<img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle>

 

Yeah, I believe this is the same guy Eric and I went and met and talked to at a meeting over there. Nice guy, knows what he's doing and has access to some nice hardware.

There are a bunch of reasons why actually. For one, the wireless roaming with laptops. Depending on signal strength, CWC may need to install wireless CANNs around the community. This will give us a huge advantage that no other WISP can offer. Signal strengths are very important. Down the road as more WISPs pop up, the airwaves are going to get crowded. By having CWC on site, they can insure that the Broadlands will have the strongest signal levels to us. Secondly, CWC has a very solid business plan, financial backing and a future business outlook that we think will be very successful long into the future. For instance, they will be moving their backbone and our service to 802.11g in the future. They also return a portion of profits back into our community once we reach a certain subscriber base. Anyhow there are more plusses than this, but thats a brief reason rundown.

John

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Got Broadband?

 

John,

The laptop roaming capability has been mentioned several times, but really, how many people need that capability? That shouldn't be a requirement that drives our wireless capability unless the majority of homeowners need/want that capability. I for one don't want the cost of service to be higher in order to provide this capability.

I certainly don't believe the roaming capability was the driving force to get CWC, but it also shouldn't be a reason not to consider other alternatives.

Greg

 

The roaming capability is nice, yes, and no I don't know how many people will use it. I don't think the abilty to roam increases our prices much.

CWCs prices are very good with the level of service they will be providing. From what I have seen, if we want to do a comparions, WBS does not:

1. Have different levels of service
2. Have any service level guarantees at all

From what I gather by looking over their site, they are allowing anyone on the wireless system full access to the T1. I'm sure they have asked themselves (and answered somewhere):

"What will happen and what will we do if 3-4 people hog the T1 line? What will we do if several people install Kazaa, for example, and have 'Supernode' checked and bring the T1 to its knees?"

What happens when their T1 line is oversubscribed? Our agreement with CWC has service level guarantees in place that they will increase our pipe to the internet once it hits a certain level.

I'm not trying to bash their network, what they are doing is great and is needed. I'm just saying what we have is better, especially in the long run.

John

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Got Broadband?

Edited by - hornerjo on 07/30/2002 12:57:25

 

These are all great things you're mentioning. I feel much better informed about the decision to go forward with a "preferred" vendor. Now, we all need to know just when it's going to be available. I know - we're very close. I'm just so anxious, given Adelphia's failure to provide a reliable high-speed solution.

 

I'm new to the forum. I found it while looking for broadband options other then Adelphia. I have a few questions, hope you don't mind. I'm assuming that CWC is some sort of wireless provider. Is there a URL I can check out some info? Also, where are they providing access? I live in Ashburn Village, I know this forum is for Ashburn Farm and I've seen other for Broadlands. I'm hoping it might reach my area. And if not, I'd be willing to talk to someone about helping to expand it, let me know.

Thanks

 

CWC is our wireless provider that we selected for the Broadlands. They do plan on extending their coverage, but I don't know to what areas or when. You can view their web page (in beta still) at http://www.my-cwc.com/

Hope that helps. Do you have an HOA in Ashburn Village? If so, you may want to get with them and form a committee or join one if it is already there and try and get as many people as you can to join in or fill out a survey that they want high speed access. Then you can take those numbers to CWC (or another provider) and show there is a market for them in Ashburn Village.

John

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Got Broadband?

 

Interesting article today in the Washington Post about WiFi in Loudoun (although it focuses on Leesburg)...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23917-2002Jul30.html

 

hornerjo:

I think I am going to take this to my HOA and see about dong the samething. What type of info did you need to gather in order to do this? Did you have to write up a proposal or did you just throw the idea out there and the HOA took it from there. Any info you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Well I approached the Broadlands Web Committee, thinking they would be the only ones on the HOA that would know anything about what I was talking about (I was right). They had been looking into trying to get any form of Broadband for some time. I joined the committee, and with lots of help began the process. We talked to a lot about technolgy and what we would do, chose wireless as the answer, drafted up a broadband survey (http://hoa.broadlands.org/survey/default.asp) and gave that to the reisdents. We collected those results and talked to local ISPs. We drafted up an RFP (Request for Proposal) and had the interested ISPs respond to that in writing. We voted then on best one, which of course was CWC.

Quite a process, it's been around year now!

John

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Got Broadband?

 

I know adelphia wasn't offering service at that time, no one was, but what about the fact that they are offering service now? Do you think people will go with them over the wireless service? And if so, will that affect the rates of those who stick with the wireless, ie price increase.

 

hornerjo
I wanted to know if you were the one who created the survey that is at http://hoa.broadlands.org/survey/default.asp? If not, do you know who did? The reason I ask is I wanted to know if I could "borrow" the code and just make some changes to it. I don't know how to create a site like this. I want to do a survey to take to my HOA to show them how many people would like this service. They don't seem to interested in helping, so I hope by showing them there is a lot of interest they might change their mind.

Thanks for any info

 

Thanks in advance for the code I live in Ashburn Village. I have spoken with the Assistant GM of the HOA here and she didn't seem like she was very interested in helping out. Have you spoken to anyone here in Ashburn Village? Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

Anyone -

Looked at CWC's website and saw the different levels they are offering. Does anyone have an idea what the pricing will be like for us?

Also, a config question ..... I will use a bridge running into a netgear WAP/router and hub. My question is .....can I roam with my laptop in other parts of Broadlands using a WAC (I guess this would be seperate from my LAN that I have setup in my house)?. I am unclear if this would work or am I limited to using my LAN and its wireless capability? Hope the question(s) makes sense.

Thanks.

Scott Davis

 

I think Im missing something on your network design. Is your bridge a wireless bridge that will be using the MAC address to CWC? Then you connect to your WAP then a hub? Is this correct? If so you can run your wireless on your laptop as far away as you can get from your WAP-this of course means your connection to cwc is via the bridge only and your WAP is the connection to your laptop.
If the question is if you can have CWC provide service to your bridge and laptops, the answer is yes, but not as a standard service. From what I understand they will create your account with 1 MAC address, whether this is a laptop or bridge makes no differnce. Any more than that, which sounds like what you are looking for, will cost more. I know they offer 1 to 4 MAC address connections.
I hope this helps some.

Here is a snip from their webpage:
.....
Family Package up to 4 users/devices - $90.00/month - 1 year minimum subscription.

This package entitles members to the same level of service as the single user package but enables users to have multiple, up to 4, simultaneous network connections for the household. This is a competitive advantage to many ISPs that will allow multiple users but only one User can be on-line at a time from the “shared” account. Uses for this package could include PDA’s laptops, desktops for on-the-go people and families.

Need More Info? Email us with your questions/comments at: info@my-cwc.com

......


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