all-
here are the notes from the meeting to the best of my recollection,
errors and omissions are quite possible and if i did miss something or
get something wrong (my apologies) please let me know and update the
group.
points of administravia
-----------------------
- prior to the meeting i'd sent out some newsletters from oreilly and
associates. of note was a drawing, to be entered into a final
drawing for a pass to the mac os x conference in santa clara sometime
in september.
hats were not readily available and we weren't in a position to write
names on slips of paper for a drawing out of another recepticle. i
offered to cull a list of names from the postings and use a program
to slurp a random name from the listing. using this as the
submission. lacking any thoughts otherwise i opted to go this route.
note: as of this writing our candidate submittee is matthew genelin.
- list server discussion - there was some brief discussion regarding
the current status of the mailing list server and the duress that it
appears to be under. some suggestions to improve the performance of
the list server were made and a brief update on the status of the
server was given by carl wilhelm soderstrom.
note: as of this writing there has been some conversation regarding
the status of the server and implementing some performance enhancing
tweaks to the operation of the lists. confirmation of whether or not
these tweaks would be utilized has not been achieved but the issue
can be addressed as necessary.
new items
---------
1 - ben kochie and matthew genelin from the university of minnesota
have been researching the options available to the group utilizing
moos tower at the university of minnesota. the u of m's ham club is
shrinking in numbers - graduating away and there is a fair amount of
synergy between tcwug and the u amateur radio group.
this set off a considerable amount of discussion regarding the use of
the potential moos tower node to build out to other locations in a
point to point fashion. there are several other locations which may
be candidates for connections to this node location.
installation of the moos tower node will require doing some tests to
determine the feasibility and impact of doing such an installation. a
study to determine the range and locations accessible to the moos
tower location will be required as well. this will help to determine
the optimum antenna type for the location as well as determine
potential candidate locations. (see todos at the bottom of these
notes)
additionally, there was some discussion regarding adding wireless
connectivity to the loring area and the establishment of ptp links
between some of the south minneapolis nodes.
2 - the moos tower discussion sparked a lively discussion regarding
the types of network buildouts that are possible and where we were
with the hotspot vs. overlay debate.
if i might glibly summarize ... the discussion is pretty much moot.
there's a tremendous amount of interest in overlay in much the same
fashion as seattle wireless and personaltelco. however, the two
models are very complimentary. additionally, the group will want to
work to help people setup hotspots and to augment connectivity to
accessible hotspots via the overlay network. this sparked a
discussion of several different outreach type programs that the group
would want to support. those discussed include:
(in the spirit of the installfests i've "fested" all of these)
- securefest - a primer on basic setup and configuration of WEP on
common acess points.
- firewallfest - a primer for the setup and configuration of basic
firewalls for home networks and wireless access points.
- rebelfest - a primer on how to engage in civil disobedience using
tunneling protocols to an access concentrator to obviate AUPs.
3 - carl brought up the use of some project tracking software to log
the activity that's being given to the different projects and let
people know what needs to be done and where help would be needed.
4 - speakers for the next meetings. there's an interest in having
some more formalized discussions regarding widely varied topics of
relevance to wireless technology.
note: as of this writing i've been working with various individuals
to come up with a range of topics for discussion at the next few
meetings, ranging from wardriving primers, to radio basics and
geographic positioning tools. i'll be working to get a list of these
sessions put together. if folks are really interested in some of
these topics we can see about holding some class type sessions
independently of our usual monthly meetings.
5 - usernames for maps.tcwug.org - matthew hallacy has reminded us
to please contact him to get your authentication squared away for
managing your node entries on the maps.tcwug.org server. this will
enable you to control the status of your node w/i the database and
limit the visibility of information you're not cool with sharing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- misc. items referenced during the course of the meeting which -
- could very well turn into field trips / projects for interested -
- parties or are just neat. -
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - a field trip to moos tower to determine physical position and to
engage in a study of the coverage that can be achieved by placing a
node on moos tower.
2 - project management software (bugzilla / jitterbug / twig)
3 - newbie documentation - creation of recommended hardware lists as
tested and approved by local members. how-tos for some of the hotspot
setup elements
4 - some notes from curt at the meeting regarding useful tools for
mapping and understanding what's going on from a regulatory
perspective.
fcc part 15.247
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=47&PART=15&SECTION=247&YEAR=2001&TYPE=TEXT
- radio mobile deluxe - http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html
- global mapper - http://www.globalmapper.com
- ydi page - http://www.ydi.com/calc.php
curt has also graciously offered to assist with coverage plots and
path studies for the group as time permits.
5 - authentication and sharing - for folks that are interested in
setting up hotspots creation of an authentication infrastructure
would go a long ways towards helping folks from a cooperative
perspective.
--
steve ulrich sulrich at botwerks.org
PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7 AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC