“In geek havens like the Bay Area, so-called wireless Internet hot spots have started sprouting up faster than Starbucks.
In the past two years, hundreds of hotels, airports and cafes (Starbucks included) nationwide have started offering superfast wireless Net access along with lattes and scones — employing a technology standard officially dubbed 802.11b, but more popularly known as Wi-Fi, for wireless fidelity.
Wi-Fi typically offers speeds faster than DSL over a couple hundred feet, but a Palo Alto startup recently set up wireless clouds covering 10 square blocks each in Palo Alto and San Jose by using multiple transmitters. Wi-Fi Metro plans to set more in San Francisco and other cities in the coming months.
But Daniel Augustine is dreaming of more ambitious plans: Creating a free wireless network that blankets nearly all of San Francisco — and possibly much of the region.
‘Personally, I would like to see a ubiquitous network across the city and across the bay,’ said Augustine, co-founder of SF Wireless.
Sound fanciful? You bet. Even Augustine calls his vision utopian. But computer hobbyists are furiously working on the building blocks.
In recent months, Augustine and other SF Wireless members have built a free wireless network covering sections of San Francisco’s Sunset District. The group is now training other techies to build similar public community networks, which could ultimately be linked into a citywide network. (SFLan, another free Wi-Fi network has been quietly running for nearly five years in the Presidio.)
Separately, another small band of wireless enthusiasts has started planting Wi-Fi antennas on hilltops to create a wireless “backbone” network that could eventually stretch from Marin County to San Jose and help power hundreds of neighborhood networks across the region. By using special directional antennas,
shaped like dishes, several members of the Bay Area Wireless Users Group have already zapped signals 20 miles across the bay, far beyond Wi-Fi’s typical range.
Bay Area wireless hobbyists aren’t alone. A group called Seattle Wireless is trying to create a free community Wi-Fi network covering the Emerald City. NYCwireless is busy setting up free hot spots in public parks, cafes and lobbies across the New York metropolis.
Nationwide, countless Internet subscribers are already using their home wireless networks to share their DSL and cable modem access with neighbors. By some estimates, the minimum cost of setting up a wireless base station has dropped to as little as $200, though hobbyists often spend $500 or more.”
More of this San Francisco Chronicle article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/06/30/BU161955.DTL&type=printable