Free wireless network shows strong growth

wugs do not provide internet
wug are not businesses, they are non-commercial, non-profit community networks
 
Though all traffic within the WUG is free and uncapped. There is shaping though more to make everything work together than to block anything
 
protzkrog said:
wug are not businesses, they are non-commercial, non-profit community networks
Click to expand...

I am missing something here ..... while I unreservedly applaud the initiatives and efforts of WUGgers, how do the groups fund their operations?
The spend on hi-sights, solar panels, etc., must be significant. And I guess there is some ongoing infrastructure maintenance that needs to be paid for?

So, where does the $$$ come from?
 
atomcrusher said:
I am missing something here ..... while I unreservedly applaud the initiatives and efforts of WUGgers, how do the groups fund their operations?
The spend on hi-sights, solar panels, etc., must be significant. And I guess there is some ongoing infrastructure maintenance that needs to be paid for?

So, where does the $$$ come from?
Click to expand...

Donations from wug members : http://www.ptawug.co.za/content_list_29
MyBroadband.co.za has donated R8348 in total in the past as well
Rebate from suppliers, miro and scoop
 
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Good luck WUG people.
I see some value you here for sure.
On the counter I guess Internet Access prices coming down hurts you all.
I am one of the 4MB "Fair Usage" DSL guys so this really has little appeal to me, except the ;lure of low ping games.
But all the best
 
Curtix2 said:
Good luck WUG people.
I see some value you here for sure.
On the counter I guess Internet Access prices coming down hurts you all.
I am one of the 4MB "Fair Usage" DSL guys so this really has little appeal to me, except the ;lure of low ping games.
But all the best
Click to expand...

Thanks chief, your approval is important to us :p

What is a "fair usage" user though, is that a heavy or a light user?

Actually the Internet pricing has very little to do with us. Perhaps you could say it helps us as the abusers tend to just get uncapped and hammer someone else's network. Overall though, it doesn't make much difference. Once again, Internet and WUG and two totally separate concepts. If only people would stop painting them with the same brush.. *sigh*
 
gripen said:
Thanks chief, your approval is important to us :p

What is a "fair usage" user though, is that a heavy or a light user?

Actually the Internet pricing has very little to do with us. Perhaps you could say it helps us as the abusers tend to just get uncapped and hammer someone else's network. Overall though, it doesn't make much difference. Once again, Internet and WUG and two totally separate concepts. If only people would stop painting them with the same brush.. *sigh*
Click to expand...

LOL - Chief.
Fair Usage is what some ppl call uncapped.
And I think that is the point - the price of the internet - if people can get all they need form the internet and at a price they are happy with why WUG?
No reason.
 
eish

Curtix2 said:
LOL - Chief.
Fair Usage is what some ppl call uncapped.
And I think that is the point - the price of the internet - if people can get all they need form the internet and at a price they are happy with why WUG?
No reason.
Click to expand...

Wug is much nicer than the internet. Its just one of hose things, you will not be able to see why if you dont have it, theres much more to the network than file sharing. People on the wug help each other, heck a wugger even gave me a free pc to use as a print server here at work, another wugger helped his fellow wugger to get a job.
 
saa044 said:
Wug is much nicer than the internet. Its just one of hose things, you will not be able to see why if you dont have it, theres much more to the network than file sharing. People on the wug help each other, heck a wugger even gave me a free pc to use as a print server here at work, another wugger helped his fellow wugger to get a job.
Click to expand...

I got my job on the wug. Still at the company and very happy. Most of my friends now come from the wug. AND, i found my girlfriend on the wug :D
 
Curtix2 said:
Fair Usage is what some ppl call uncapped.
And I think that is the point - the price of the internet - if people can get all they need form the internet and at a price they are happy with why WUG?
No reason.
Click to expand...

lol

You cannot really compare teh interwebs with a wug. For me the wug is more than just the content available on it. It is the technical side of it that intrigues me. It is just downright cool and a boatload of fun imo. With a great community built around it to boot! If you want to give back to the community you just set up a repeater or even donate one to the wug - whatever takes your fancy. If you don't want to, then you don't have to. So no worrying about cap or monthly dues, nada.
 
Ok, I may be stepping into something that needs not, nor wants dissemination... I have asked quite some time back, why we don't link up all the wugs and then link to a central point for international.

Although some wug members immediately shot down the idea, Jhb wug later mentioned linking up all wugs(with thoughts on international access introduced at some point...). This linking up seems relevant. When are we going to see the international access part? What's holding it up?

I'm bored. Let's fight the last few hurdles of freedom (of information) struggle.
 
International WUGs? Or what do you mean? If you mean Internet, that's not going to work for many reasons.. one being that we use private ANSs and RFC1918 IP addressing. Nevermind that the Internet does not necessarily want or need us to connect and vice versa. Another problem would be this "central point".. who decides where that is? What if your route to that point is bad?

Yup, I'm shooting down your idea if that's what you want to call it.. but linking the WUGs is a great idea and actually a good use of uncapped Internet access (provided we could get some symmetrical connection to do it i.e. ADSL2+M or something like that) for large distances where Wireless links are not feasible.
 
No. Local. All the wugs link up.

Then link to a central or even regional hub like teraco.

I get the feeling that wugs are completely removed from any access to the www. How is this possible? MWEB recently mentioned that a great deal of their uncapped "bandwidth" is "cached". So we know that the web, can be cached as per demand. What stops the wugs, from spreading this, as per any wireless company? Fetch what's required, but everyone thereafter, gets it from cache/12-24-36 hours.

For wugs to grow, the gates must open. Even if it means intricate re-licensing.
 
Lightscribe said:
why we don't link up all the wugs and then link to a central point for international.
Click to expand...
Because there is a fundimental architecture barrier related to the technology used.

Commercial (Internet access) networks are designed & built in a hierarchical manner, that is link capacity expands as you get closer to the core of the network to accomodate increasing aggregate throughput demands. WUGs are essentially meshed networks using similar wireless technology for both access and core links resulting in far higher levels of contention on aggregate traffic carrying links.

Bottom line, the WUG architecture cannot be made to scale in such a way as to maintain reasonable high-volume traffic performance to any major point(s) in the network.
 
Roman4604 said:
Because there is a fundimental architecture barrier related to the technology used.

Commercial (Internet access) networks are designed & built in a hierarchical manner, that is link capacity expands as you get closer to the core of the network to accomodate increasing aggregate throughput demands. WUGs are essentially meshed networks using similar wireless technology for both access and core links resulting in far higher levels of contention on aggregate traffic carrying links.

Bottom line, the WUG architecture cannot be made to scale in such a way as to maintain reasonable high-volume traffic performance to any major point(s) in the network.
Click to expand...

Honestly, the very best reply I've had so far. Thanks.
 
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Potchefstroom Community Network (PCN) Monoploy

Its all nice and good for people to buy equipment on this side (Johannesburg/Pretoria) and connrect if they have LOS, but its a completely differect story in Potchefstroom with PCN.
See my blog post on this http://jargon.hak.co.za/2010/07/pcn-monopoly/

I'm possibly moving back to Potch within this year or next year, so I haven't joined Jawug this side yet and did alot trying to get that side up and running first and then they control and lockup most of all the nodes with WPA/WPA2 encryption and force people to pay a connection fee and monthly fee and this after we spend alot of money buying our equipment! :(

I'm very dissapointed and sad as to the practices of some of the people of PCN.
Like Protzkrog said twice in this forum:
--
you pay for internet access
you don't pay for wug access
--
wugs do not provide internet
wug are not businesses, they are non-commercial, non-profit community networks
 
hackerjargon said:
Its all nice and good for people to buy equipment on this side (Johannesburg/Pretoria) and connrect if they have LOS, but its a completely differect story in Potchefstroom with PCN.
See my blog post on this http://jargon.hak.co.za/2010/07/pcn-monopoly/

I'm possibly moving back to Potch within this year or next year, so I haven't joined Jawug this side yet and did alot trying to get that side up and running first and then they control and lockup most of all the nodes with WPA/WPA2 encryption and force people to pay a connection fee and monthly fee and this after we spend alot of money buying our equipment! :(

I'm very dissapointed and sad as to the practices of some of the people of PCN.
Like Protzkrog said twice in this forum:
--
you pay for internet access
you don't pay for wug access
--
wugs do not provide internet
wug are not businesses, they are non-commercial, non-profit community networks
Click to expand...

I agree with you. The whole concept around the wug is that you do not have to pay to be on it.

PCN is not considered part of the wug community anymore, it is now a wisp.
 
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