[Galemp]

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20040901/D84R3KCO0.html

Like, whoa. The future is now.

[Taristin]

Verizon would complain.  Heaven forbid we take a step forward and move away from petty money makings. If Verizon wants to compete with the wifi, they should offer an even faster internet connection, with 500Mb Web Storage, and charge $20.00/mo for it.

Otherwise, they should shut up and embrace the future.

[Rictor]

"If you're out on your front porch with a laptop, you could dial in, register at no charge, and be able to access a high speed connection," Neff said.

yeah, 'nuff said indeed.

[redmenace]

Hackers Paradise.
Just to be honest, a city wide network. I am sure security is going to be a concern but THERE WILL BE problems.

[Gloriano]

Wow

[Hippo]

*sigh*


There's places that don't even HAVE broadband... its not at all fair to them...

[SadisticSid]

As it stands, a typical Wi-Fi transmitter like those used in homes, coffee bars and airports is at least several times faster than the broadband connection provided by high-speed cable or DSL over a phone line.

Doubtful. Each individual transmitter might be able to provide up to say 50Mbit but a reasonable capacity network isn't going to have much more than maybe 10000Mbit (total) for the money they'll be willing to pay. There is no way you can currently provide the same QoS under high-use conditions over any wide-area wireless network as you can with wired ones. It's definitely a step in the right direction though.

[Stealth]

UT, Austin, has the largest wifi network in the world.  it's also the largest university in the country, with 50,000+ students

[Setekh]

Talk about ambitious. I hope they don't get totally hacked open, 'cos that's a really cool initiative.

[Kamikaze]

Originally posted by redmenace
Hackers Paradise.
Just to be honest, a city wide network. I am sure security is going to be a concern but THERE WILL BE problems.

What security is worth breaching on a free network? The concern about wireless security is when you have a connection you pay for and are responsible for.

Now if the city actually implements a pay service like it hints at in the article, then they'd have a problem.

I wonder if there will be a packet injetion problem though. (Like this: http://www.evilscheme.org/defcon/)

[übermetroid]

dang.  where I live they would need to make the trees use wifi for all 3 of us to get online......

[Ford Prefect]

Well I think we all know what this means. Philadelphia is about to become the piracy capital of the nation. :thepimp:

[JR2000Z]

It's going to be like 5 nanobytes per second.

[Falcon]

Originally posted by JR2000Z
It's going to be like 5 nanobytes per second.

*imagines someone trying to download a version of Eve Online*
"Only 1000 years to go! Yay!"

[karajorma]

Originally posted by JR2000Z
It's going to be like 5 nanobytes per second.

That would be a neat trick since I can't see how you can have less than 1/8th of a byte and it not be nothing