Wireless network FCC regs, organization, etc.

[Sheldon T. Hall]

 Nitin Gadia writes ...

> Once we were going to have a model working, we were going to go door
> to door soliciting donations. We're thinking that many people would be
> willing, as they would pay less for a community wireless network,
> especially landlords.

IMHO, SeattleWireless ultimately wasn't that interesting because it was
mostly self-contained.  Although some individual nodes had Internet
connectivity, the "mesh" as a whole didn't.  

> We were thinking of broadcasting a signal across the neighborhood
> below approximately 800 meters. Is this within the legal FCC limits?

AFAIK, the FCC regs don't limit range, just power.  Specifically, radiated
power, which takes into effect antenna gain.  However, as a practical
matter, it's unenforced.  As long as your signal doesn't interfere with
someone else's, and you use off-the-shelf radio gear, you should be OK.

Just as a point of interest, even a 100 mW PCMCIA card will get a solid
connection over several miles with a good antenna.  Even with the built-in
antenna in my laptop, I can sometimes "see" WiFi providers across Puget
Sound from my house.  That's about 7 miles.
 
> As for the legal entity, you're thinking of a nonprofit?

Probably, but, profit or no, it would probably be prudent to have a legal
entity (corporation, LLC, whatever) own the stuff, provide the access, and,
most importantly, assume the liabilities.  This would afford the organizers
some level of protection.

> Do you know of anyone who has such a free wireless arrangement that we
> could communicate with?

Not really.  I'm sure there are numerous similar "community WiFi" efforts,
but I haven't kept up.

> What does SeattleWireless do?

Judging from the activity on the mailing lists, nothing.

The original idea, as I understand it, was to provide a WiFi mesh network
with connectivity over a wide area of Seattle and environs.  They managed to
have some coverage in some areas, but never enough to gain what I'd think of
as "critical mass."  Without organized Internet access, it wasn't very
useful.

Nowadays, in Seattle, there are thousands and thousands of open WiFi nodes.
You don't need a "wardriving" setup to find one.  You can just skewer a
frankfurter on your car antenna and drive until it starts smoking.

As a result of the multitude of open WiFi nodes, you can get hooked up from
almost anywhere in town.

> Also, did i not use an appropriate subject heading...?

Not really, but I fixed it.

-Shel