[tommybeeasy]

i live in Philly and I've been hearing a lot lately about the city's plan to implement a wireless "net" over the entire metropolitan area. On the official site, they list a lot of best-case scenario plusses, but needless to say, this isn't exactly my area of expertise and i'm wondering what kind of possible drawbacks and security gaps could exist with such a network. Since it would be one of the first of its size in the nation, I don't exactly have something to refer to. Any and all knowledgeable insight is welcome and appreciated.

the official site is
www.phila.gov/wireless/

[Nova Dragoon]

tommybeeasy, on May 24 2005, 11:37 PM, said:

i'm wondering what kind of possible drawbacks ...

cancer, you'll all get cancer


We have the same type thing being set up in the town im from. There is an AP right outside of my house, but it hasnt been activated yet. The nearest one is like out of range, so I can only pick up beacon frames. So I really cant tell you the specifics of what the deal is yet.

But where I work we have free wireless set up. What we do is have the AP do dhcp in a little subnet jail. The only thing you can access is our VPN server. So you have to make an encrpyted VPN connection to use the interweb.

[Thorian]

The VPN connection method wouldent be all that bad as each stream is encrypted. By something that isnt broadcasting out the Key to decrypt it. However the more boxes that are using any perticular AP the performance will degrade as like a hub a ap only has so much bandwith and every PC that uses that AP halves the bandwith

For example for a 802.11n AP with 11Mbit 1 pc connects to it and recieves the whole 11Mb (actually 5.5 after the Radio overhead is removed fromthe equasion.) ass a second pc and if both of them are using the ap at the same time they are getting approximately 5.5Mbit adding a third or 4th it halves again after about 8 you start reaching the bottom of the barrel with each PC getting approximately 512Kbit after the raido overhead is stripped out.


I use a 802.11b wireless network at home and 2 pc's playing guild wars we need to have the laptop off for both of us to connect and even then depending on wich way the wind blows one Pc or the other is laggy as hell. ( usually the wifes as I turn down her transmitter power. I know Im evil )

[MarkoDaGeek]

The thing about the philly project is that Verizion is running the show, and even know they may go ahead with the project, ( according to recent news they might not ) they have made it so no other city in PA can have a network like it unless its done by verizion ( thanks to a nice little contract made with state officials ) so everyone else outsite Philly will likely never see this technology in a wide scale.

[RobotChicken73]

I am looking for a program that will help me to access the wireless networks in my area, not to hack mind you, just for accessing the net. Untill I get my finances ballanced out and can order my own wireless subscription. Post here or email your info to [email protected]