shezams
My Other Car Is A Zamboni
Premium
join:2001-08-14
Hyattsville, MD
 ·Comcast
1 edit | I like the idea of Municipal Broadband
And Hermosa Beach is a nice little beach town that is a bit nicer for having it. Not that I could afford to do anything but visit...I think that high speed internet access is important enough to have it free in libraries and if you can do a whole town that is even better. Realistically these folks pay for it with taxes, but I can see where Verizon, Comcast, etc are fighting this. If I had access to something like this I'd be all over it. So now in Hermosa you can surf here »www.eatgoodstuff.com/sc-index.html
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Simple rules - no offsides, no intent to maim, everything else is all good! |
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furlonium
Computer Over? Virus equals Very Yes?
join:2002-05-08
Bethlehem, PA
| 5x faster?....
Than what? I hate how these cable, whatever companies always say "So and so times faster than DSL". What kind of DSL? 768/128? Come on now, how far do these companies think everyone lives from the CO? 
Cool that you can chill on the beach with WiFi though. I'd have to say I would prefer a Corona than checking my email (cue me throwing laptop into water, Corona-commercial style) lol |
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KoolMoe
Aw Man
Premium
join:2001-02-14
Annapolis, MD
clubs:
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Speakeasy
| silly comparisons
Um, I have DSL at 6.0 (4.9 effective) down. Folks who make such silly comparisons show themselves more the fool. Maybe it doesn't matter, though, since most folks simply buy into the hype? Such comparisons should put 'basic' in front of the DSL (or cable) comparison.
Maybe I'm just being picky.
Regardless, glad to see yet another free WiFi system! If it draws more people to your area (beaches, shopping centers, whatever), resulting in more 'consumer spending' - rock on.
When my power went out last week due to a storm at 9pm, I realized I didn't know where to go to get online if I needed to. Ack! Every town should have free, public WiFi access somewhere! darnit... 
KM |
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Bill
Light Up The Halo
Premium,VIP
join:2001-12-09
clubs:
1 edit | Cool.
It looks like they're finally done with testing, since some of the APs have been up for a while (at least since 1-18-05)
WiFiHermosa (LA Unplugged MF1)
WiFiHermosa (LA Unplugged ZF11)
WiFiHermosa (LA Unplugged Z7)
WiFiHermosa (LA Unplugged A11)
WiFiHermosa (LA Unplugged AF4))
WiFiHermosa (LA Unplugged M4)
I wondered what those were when we came across them.. |
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ganky
 from:
dadkins 
| Been up for a while
I lived there over a year ago and this has been up in running for a while now.
»www.wifihermosabeach.com/
It went live on aug. 11th 2004 |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
3 edits | reply to furlonium
Re: 5x faster?....
said by furlonium :Than what? I hate how these cable, whatever companies always say "So and so times faster than DSL". What kind of DSL? 768/128? Come on now, how far do these companies think everyone lives from the CO? Cool that you can chill on the beach with WiFi though. I'd have to say I would prefer a Corona than checking my email (cue me throwing laptop into water, Corona-commercial style) lol I'm within "Acceptable Distance" for DSL, yet the fastest DSL that can be delivered to this house is 384k. And it costs more that what I'm paying for my Comcast connection! Pass!
BTW, 6mbps / 5 = 1.2mbps.
Not everyone lives next door to the CO.
Long Beach has had something similar for a while downtown:
»www.longbeachportals.com/ |
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Gio7
Cynical
join:2000-08-19 | reply to ganky
Re: Been up for a while
Well the release says, " All Press Releases for August 5, 2004" |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA | reply to KoolMoe
Re: silly comparisons
Uhh... MD is it?
»www.wififreespot.com/mary.html |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| reply to ganky
Re: Been up for a while
Yep! »www.wifihermosabeach.com/Hermosa···unch.pdf
"On August 11th, 2004, the beach town of 21,000 will launch Phase 1 of
the Citywide Plan that will cover approximately 35% of the City, providing free wireless Internet service
to the Downtown, City Hall, and adjacent neighborhoods. Residents will now have free Internet access
available in their homes, at their favorite restaurant, or even while watching the sunset." |
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KoolMoe
Aw Man
Premium
join:2001-02-14
Annapolis, MD
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
·Speakeasy
| reply to dadkins
Re: silly comparisons
Thanks! I already found my backup plan as soon as my power was restored (the next day)! Wasn't letting myself be put in that situation again
But I didn't know about the wififreespot website - it listed a couple others I didn't know about. Thanks!
KM |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| No prob friend! I like to visit The City(S.F.), we have ALOT of free Wi-Fi here in The Bay Area. Hell, I got a coffee shop down the street with free Wi-Fi! Starbucks too, but it isn't free.
Enjoy!  |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
1 edit | reply to Gio7
Re: Been up for a while
Don't go pointing out bad fact checking. It just gets them mad.
Good for Hermosa Beach, though.
Not so good for the news geeks here. |
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richardpor
Fur it up
join:2003-04-19
Portland, OR
| Free ???????????????????
How is the city paying for the bills? A taxpayer-funded system is not free.
In addition, where are the antitrust left on this? This is a monopoly design to drive out legitimate private business. If one is so worried about competition, why not oppose this. Who can compete with a government that can forcefully tax people to supply a service? Why should one buy service from a private government when the government ca steal their money and use it to provide me WiFI? What if one does not want to use government funded WiFI/ Tough you still going to pay for it? |
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freebacon
@167.191.x.x | we are cooking from inside out
sounds like more RF signals in a place that you should be doing everything but using a computer. |
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Wireless Major
@adelphia.net | reply to richardpor
Re: Free ???????????????????
Personally, I wouldnt give two shits about paying to use the wifi. And who says its from the tax payer? You had better believe that this installed system will improve tourism. |
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cgw123
join:2002-09-13
Moraga, CA
| reply to richardpor
The notion of what public services a community should offer evolves with time, e.g., we did not always have free public schools, and I pay for them whether I have kids that attend or not. Public libraries clearly take business away from bookstores, but since they have been around for a long time, no one thinks that they are improper. As with schools, I pay for free libraries whether I use them or not. Communities with good public schools and public libraries are seen as good places to live, relative to communities with crummy schools and no libraries. People will pay more to live in a good community, and my guess is that free wifi adds value to property compared to nearby beach towns without it. The increased property values in turn adds to property tax revenues. Looks like a win-win proposition to me. |
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Rob850
join:2003-04-11
Mary Esther, FL
| A perfect spot to set up servers (im sure ports are blocked)
This is not a bad idea.
Rob
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Join our fourm: »abigsecret.proboards39.com/ (Tell your friends too) |
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splicesite
join:2005-04-06
Rochester, NY | so who is liable for downloading pirated material, in this scenario? and bandwidth abusers? does each person have to register for a userid to login or is it an open network? |
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MsGeek
We Jam Econo On This Ship, Sailor
join:2001-06-06
Panorama City, CA
·DSL EXTREME
| Now to get this in Los Angeles...
LA has been slowly but surely opening up free access points. The closest one to me is run by aiirmesh (no, that is not a typo, that's what they call themselves) and is located in the Van Nuys Civic Center. There's also some in select LA Public Library buildings, and one in Pershing Square. The latter should be quite useful for those staying at the Biltmore Downtown.
I don't mind one bit if LA City gets into the Broadband business. It would be good to light a fire under the butts of monopolists like the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (SBC or VZ depending on where you are in LA) and the cable companies with the threat of ubiquitous 802.11b/g bandwidth. It would also be a plus for tourists and people coming here on business trips or for conventions.
The ILECs and the Cable Companies hate this, and that's why they are whining to their buddies in the Senate and House to "Ban this! P-P-P-PlEEEze!" (Think Roger Rabbit when you read that last line.)
Yeah, we'll pay for it somehow or another. But it might light a fire under VZ to get more FiOS installations in LA County, and SBC to get their fiber-to-the-premises thing going. It might also force whoever's taking over from Adelphia to upgrade cable systems.
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Online since 1987, thinking different since 1995, Linux-friendly since 1997, Broadband since 1999. Where do I want to go today? Wherever I want! |
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mollien
join:2003-03-10
Miami, FL
| How id this done??
Now, I love the idea of 'free' municipal broadband.. But does anybody know how this is done? As splicesite noted earlier on, is it done by slitting bandwidth evenly across nodes?
I can imagine, that when one or two users are doing some major (usenet) downloading, the connection will slow down considerably for the remaining users. Or what about VoIP-softphones or other apps that use a continued data stream?
Serving WiFi, with a maximum (current) speed of 54Mbps, of which almost half is overhead, to a community of thousands?
Do you have to sign up or is it 'wide open'? Anybody care to explain how this is done, technologically? |
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