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Queens
On the Wireless
‘Net
By
Shams
Tarek and
aaron rutkoff Imagine
surfing the Internet on your laptop or handheld computer without wires, at
speeds 10 times faster than your old telephone modem. Then
imagine doing it for free. Then
imagine doing it while sitting in a park in Astoria, during lunch in
Flushing or while walking down a street in Queens Village. It’s all reality, thanks to a burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi and the communal spirit of a few friendly computer gurus from the borough who want to share it.
The Wi-Fi wireless networking standard, also known as 802.11, allows computers and other devices to share data using antennas, just like radios receiving sound.
The
technology has taken the computing world by storm over the last few years,
allowing people to surf the Internet wirelessly in places private and
public, from backyards to office buildings to coffee shops. While
it’s most popular in tech-dependent commercial areas like downtown San
Francisco or midtown Manhattan, there’s a lot of Wi-Fi action in
residential areas, too, including all over Queens. The
biggest single Wi-Fi network in the borough may be in Queens College.
Ten separate buildings on the Flushing school’s campus are (un?)wired
for Wi-Fi Internet and network access, as is the entire open-air quad.
The problem with the network from a public viewpoint, though, is that
there isn’t one—only Queens College staff and students may use it. The
most consistent and ubiquitous public Wi-Fi network in Queens is maintained
by wireless voice and data company T-Mobile. T-Mobile
has installed wireless infrastructure in each of the nine street-level
Starbucks coffee shops in the borough, as well as in one LaGuardia and two
J.F.K. Airport shops. Another company, Boingo, has set up two Wi-Fi
“hotspots” at LaGuardia. Both
companies offer the luxury of downloading music, sending emails and watching
live video from news websites while you drink your cappuccino.
Both also offer professional technical support and consistent
uptimes, but these conveniences don’t come cheap.
Prices range from about $25 per month to $4 per day to $6 per hour.
Cappuccino not included. The
real joy in Wi-Fi computing in Queens—where the grassroots, data-sharing
spirit of the Internet really shines—is in the borough’s many public
community-based hotspots.
Kirk Watson, the 30-year-old president and founder of the Flushing Community Access Network, wants to bring high-speed wireless access to every square inch of his neighborhood. He imagines a future in which downtown Flushing and nearby areas will be permeated by an invisible soup of Internet connectivity, allowing individuals to check their email while sunbathing at Queens Botanical Gardens or read online newspapers while waiting at a Main Street bus stop.
This
campaign is not just cutting edge, it is revolutionary: Watson wants small
businesses and residents in Flushing to have high-speed Internet access for
free, something which will likely be opposed by the telephone and cable
companies profiting on the sale of the same service. “I
started this network to provide a service,” Watson explained.
“As a resident of the Flushing community, I found I needed this
service.” The
cyber seedling of the Flushing Community Access Network has already been
planted.
The wireless network has been up and running for about a month,
although it is only available in a six block area around Watson’s
headquarters at Cyber Oasis Wireless, near the intersection of Northern
Boulevard and Union Street.
“It
was a somewhat costly endeavor, but I used my own funds because I believe it
is important for the community,” said Watson, who pays $80 per month for
the DSL access he shares. Now,
through a burgeoning partnership with City Councilman John Liu and State
Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik, Watson believes a modest infusion of public
funds and the cooperation of tall building owners in Flushing can help bring
additional connection nodes to the entire area soon, amplifying and
spreading the wireless signal. Watson
wants to add access nodes along Main Street, at a cost of $500 to $1,000
each. They
will transmit a signal with a five-block radius for users with $80 wireless
cards, and one to two miles for users with external antennas (a $200
investment). Liu
said, “We are looking for people to get excited about this.
We need people to volunteer and give us space at the top of tall
buildings to place more nodes,”
which are small in size and relatively inexpensive. Grodenchik
expressed enthusiasm for the ease with which a wireless infrastructure could
expand, and suggested that the Flushing network will serve as a model for
the rest of the city.
“The beauty of this is that there are no wires and nobody’s being
interfered with,” he said, in stark contrast to near chaos created by most
urban infrastructure changes. Mindful
of the entrenched skepticism of New Yorkers, Liu seemed certain that
Watson’s network will spread as people become aware of it. Right
now, people can sign up by emailing Watson at info@wifi-newyork.com. “Part
of bringing technology to new places like New York is that you have to show
people it works,” Liu said.
“And I guarantee that once it catches on here, it’ll spread like
wildfire.” Watson,
who works as a computer network consultant for local businesses, remembers
his first experience with Wi-Fi with child-like awe. He
bought his first wireless network cards, based on the popular
11-megabit-per-second 802.11b protocol, in August 2002.
He connected a desktop and laptop computer to each other wirelessly
and walked out the door, laptop in hand. “I
went downstairs and I went across the street and said, ‘Wait a second
I’m still on the network,’” Watson recalled.
“I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is unbelievable!
This is very cool.’” Even
though Watson sets up networks for a living, he’s adamant about promoting
his “Community” network. “I
really want to make it available to the community,” Watson said.
“I don’t want to target companies.
I want to target individuals.”
Despite
the exclusivity of the CUNY and some private networks, and the cost of the
T-Mobile and Boingo networks, there are many people in Queens who are
pursuing the purest form of community-based Wi-Fi: completely open,
permission-free networks. Vicente
Grillo, vice president of the non-profit New York LAN (local area network)
Association, has set up a Wi-Fi network in his Queens Village home.
Like the 141 such sites throughout New York City and about 10 in
Queens, all anyone needs to do to use Grillo’s high-speed Internet
connection is type “www.nycwireless.net” into their Wi-Fi software and
be within his signal area. With
a range of about one and a half blocks, Grillo is currently serving up a
wireless high-speed Internet connection to seven of his neighbors, in
addition to whoever else cares to walk or drive by with their Wi-Fi gear. At
the other end of the borough, in Astoria’s Ditmars Park, there’s more of
the same. Nearby
resident Matt Mills has set up a Wi-Fi access point in his home, allowing
people in the park to ride his Internet pipe with their portable computers
while their kids play with simpler toys. “I
do it as a way of giving back to my local community,” Mills said.
“Really I’m just a normal guy who wants to do something for my
community, and this is one way I can.” A
survey of Web sites attempting to track all the public Wi-Fi hotspots in the
city shows that there are at least a dozen people in Queens who want you to
surf the Internet wirelessly and for free using their hardware. Some
of them, like 26-year-old Jackson Lee of Rego Park’s Summit apartment
building and Kirk Watson require users to contact them and get permission
before logging on. Lee
does it, he said, just to keep tabs on his network. He asks users to email
him, after which he gives them an encrypted code that allows them to surf
the Internet via his high-speed connection.
He
said he’s gotten about 25 requests since starting the network in early
2000, and has a range of about one block, including the public park below
his apartment. What
You Need To Surf The Wi-Fi Internet
A
properly installed Wi-Fi (also known as 802.11b or 802.11g)-compliant
network adapter for your computer or portable device. Some
Public Wi-Fi Internet
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