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Statewide Wi-Fi Network

CtownMikey

By CtownMikey
in Rhode Island

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PVDJack Whistle-Stop

PVDJack

Posted
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Does anyone know if it would definitely be Wi-Fi or is WiMax being considered? Given WiMax's huge coverage and bandwidth advantages, it would seem a natural choice to me. I would hate to see us spend $20m only to find that we've built an already obsolete network.

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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From what I understand, this is going to be an emergency management system first. Brown is putting computers in their cruisers, so I think they may be joining it. Once it's up and running for emergency management, it will be expanded and rolled out for the public. I wouldn't be surprised to see the technology mature and evolve over that time.

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JJK5 Hamlet

JJK5

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Does anyone know if it would definitely be Wi-Fi or is WiMax being considered? Given WiMax's huge coverage and bandwidth advantages, it would seem a natural choice to me. I would hate to see us spend $20m only to find that we've built an already obsolete network.

I would think WiMax would be most cost effective, no? I mean in Providence they could have antennas every block for WiFi, but in rural areas WiMax would have to be part of the equation if they really want "Statewide" wireless connectivity.

Does anyone have any experience with TowerStream? I believe they offer WiMax here in RI.

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matt Hamlet

matt

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I would think WiMax would be most cost effective, no? I mean in Providence they could have antennas every block for WiFi, but in rural areas WiMax would have to be part of the equation if they really want "Statewide" wireless connectivity.

Does anyone have any experience with TowerStream? I believe they offer WiMax here in RI.

Yeah, we've had tower stream here at my office. I can't really rave about it. Here's the deal: our landlord has an account, and then all the tenants share the bandwidth. Now, there really aren't a lot of tenants, and none of us really crank that much data through. So, given that and giving the benefit of the doubt to our landlord (probably a bad idea), we had a lot of down time. When it worked it was great, but our experience was very inconsistant.

A good friend of mine has Verizon broadband wireless on his laptop, and he's been very happy with it.

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JJK5 Hamlet

JJK5

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Use of the wireless network will probably not be free, Panoff said, though several business models are under consideration. He said the project seeks to market itself to a number of Rhode Island businesses and organizations.

The project is "targeting organizations because there are already networks that service the needs of consumers," he said. The network will be most advantageous to "organizations whose operating footprint is most consistent with the state's borders," Panoff said, citing as an example the state government, especially public safety agencies, which have operations in currently disconnected areas such as lakes and rivers.

Hmm. As if data security isn't a big enough issue these days, they want state government and public safety broadcasting sensitive information through the air?

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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Public Safety already does broadcast through the air. How do you think those in car computers work?

don't they use a secure network? if they're gonna start using the same network as the average user, that would be a serious security issue... wireless is still a pretty insecure method of data transfer, throw the average joe on the network and i wouldn't be surprised if public safety traffic ends up being intercepted.

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citybuilder Unincorporated Area

citybuilder

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This was picked up on cnn.com; I clicked on the link on their front page:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/05/0...reut/index.html

Yeah the Reuters story got picked up by a lot of outlets. Business Innovation Factory, which is sponsoring and sheperding RI-WINS, has a whole section on the coverage.

I don't think the architecture for the statewide rollout has been completed, so discussion as to whether it is ultimately WiFi or WiMax is probably premature. Especially since nothing will happen unless it makes it past the legislature in some form of funding.

Pretty sure the pilot sites in Providence and Newport are WiFi. They were commissioned and online last week. Don't expect this to hit the public for a while, the approach to this is definitely different than the municipal networks of SanFran, Philly, Pittburgh, etc. which are for public access. The plan for this network is meant as a platform to enable new business models based on ubiquitous connectivity...without endangering the economics of the traditional wireless access models already provided by Verizon and other carriers.

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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better make sure you aren't sharing any files once this is up and going, or I can see a lot of problems with that. Unless they set something up where it blocks sharing it seems like a huge issue to me.

it's only a problem if you don't protect yourself. the problem is people not knowing anything about comptuers and getting spyware and viruses and leaving shares wide open. you can't blame someone for looking at someone else's wide open shares.

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dgreco City

dgreco

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it's only a problem if you don't protect yourself. the problem is people not knowing anything about comptuers and getting spyware and viruses and leaving shares wide open. you can't blame someone for looking at someone else's wide open shares.

Well I know that, but I mean you also can't blame people who don't know that by not getting rid of spyware or not checking their ports, that bad things can happen, if anything they should have some kind of learn this before you use it type thing. I don't know how that would work, but i seem some kind of warning instructional thing happening... or atleast should be considered.

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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Well I know that, but I mean you also can't blame people who don't know that by not getting rid of spyware or not checking their ports, that bad things can happen, if anything they should have some kind of learn this before you use it type thing. I don't know how that would work, but i seem some kind of warning instructional thing happening... or atleast should be considered.

spyware has been an issue for long enough, the general public just doesn't consider keeping their computers protected to be necessary. i deal with these types of people on a daily basis. people want everything as easy to use as possible. with spyware and virus protection and personal firewalls, that just doesn't happen. a little thing pops up for everything they try to do. pretty soon, they just allow everything anytime it pops up to make it easier. little do they know that they end up allowing spyware applications. there's no real easy solution to the problem. MS is trying to make security the important thing in vista, but that makes for more annoyances to the end user. there's a thin line between useability and security. apple has it down for the most part, but they're also not as common as windows, so they haven't seen the full arsenal of attacks.

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Frankie811 City

Frankie811

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I love it when people fall for things like "click here to find out more about information security" or "click here to remove spyware from your computer"....

I had this thing called Virtumundo on my computer which for some reason would not go away when I scanned my system and removed it. Several times my system actually crashed when I tried to do it, as if this spyware didn't want to leave :angry: Finanly I found a free software program called FixVundo which did the trick. :thumbsup: The worst browser that I used which allowed these spywares in was IE. Surprised!?

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damus Burg

damus

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I had this thing called Virtumundo on my computer which for some reason would not go away when I scanned my system and removed it. Several times my system actually crashed when I tried to do it, as if this spyware didn't want to leave :angry: Finanly I found a free software program called FixVundo which did the trick. :thumbsup: The worst browser that I used which allowed these spywares in was IE. Surprised!?

My brother has the same thing ... thanks for the info i'll pas it along

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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do a search for fixvundo. there's one that's not the symantec tool. i've seen many instances where the symantec tool does not work.

ad-aware is a great program, but in order to really clean your system, you cannot rely on one anti-spyware program. i suggest also using spybot search and destroy and microsoft's windows defender. they're all free programs.

but vundo/virtumondo is a royal beotch to get rid of. the file i suggested has worked everytime for me (i do this for a living).

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Garris Town

Garris

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It's just the rural pilot site. This was interesting:

"Providence and Newport have been operating on Wi-Fi for nearly two months."

That's great!

- Garris

PS: Remind me again... This is a governmental and business network, not a consumer one, correct?

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