04.13.2008 1:34 pm
Wi-Fi hotspots or hype?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
On Saturday, we reported that AT&T has turned on its outdoor Wi-Fi network in downtown St. Louis. Have you tried using it, yet? Or have you tried out the Wi-Fi network that Network 1 Communications has set up in O’Fallon, Mo.? Let us know what your experience has been like.
Network 1, aka O’Fallon Wireless, recently implemented O’Fallon, Missouri’s wireless network. The initial coverage is in north O’Fallon, MO.
The services are fee based offering a maximum of 6 MBPS down link coverage. Pricing ranges from $19.95 to $34.95. That is a bit pricey for such speeds.
Irregardless, the main point of the entry is of a disturbing issue. Being on the north side of O’Fallon has allowed me to monitor the wireless access points. The immediate concern that I see is the weakening of signals of residential based networks.
There is one wireless repeater and one access point my personal computer is picking up. A repeater takes a weak signal, on the outer edge, and regenerates the signal to further extend the network.
The two devices that are interfering with residential networks in my immediate area are as follows:
* ofallonwireless-k-est-034-24 - This access point is using channel eight.
* ofallonwireless-repeater-47-24 - This repeater is using channel four.
I configured my residential wireless network to channel eight a couple of years ago. However, since O’Fallon Wireless has gone live channel eight is no longer available for use. The same is true when using channel four, the channel used by the O’Fallon Wireless repeater.
This means the O’Fallon Wireless pretty well now owns the publicly free channels due to their signals being much stronger than mine. This is very disturbing. The FCC released these signals for free use without requiring any license. Out of the the channels available, O’Fallon Wireless virtually has lowered the number of available channels.
I will continue to monitor this issue.