Re: TECH: Little Black Boxes

my inner geek (geek@ifeden.com)
Sat, 3 Jul 1999 16:22:27 -0700

<color><param>0100,0100,0100</param>Eugene Leitl <<eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

<color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>> One word: Bluetooth. (Though already obsolete before deployment due to

> imminent advent of digital pulse radio).

</color>Michael S. Lorrey <<mike@lorrey.com> writes:

The primary question is: How many seats? How many simultaneous laptop

users are expected? My personal recommendation is to use a WebRamp...

http://www.3com.com/promotions/wireless/index.html

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2255041,00.html

http://www.webramp.com/products/index.html

Why not something like a 3com Airconnect made with digital pulse radio with the ability to scale and share bandwitdch among up up to 128 users in a "Personal Area Network". Addressing both the corporate user with their 11Mbps wireless ethernetlike connection, and the cafe/restaurant/other business with a Webramp Firewall/Proxy service and a DHCP server.

A juice bar or coffee cafe visitor doesn't need the whole 11Mbps connection. In fact, the owner may only have a DSL connection with maybe 7Mbs downstream and 1.5Mbps upstream bandwidth.

In a plausible scenario, 15 laptop users slam a Starbucks cafe at lunch time. The cafe only has one DSL connection connected to a single black box with AirConnect type annena. Assuming they all have PCMCIA Airconnect modems, can the black box efficiently share bandwidth, assign i.p. addresses, and provide proxy/firewall functions?

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