ARTICLE: DCU in AirSpeed Telecom WiMax trial

monument

From The Irish Times today:


DCU in AirSpeed Telecom WiMax trial

"A TRIAL of WiMax is currently under way in Dublin City University as part of a HEAnet strategy to develop Irish colleges’ broadband networks. The trial of the wireless technology has been running since October 2009 and is being supported by AirSpeed Telecom, with 60 users from the college’s staff and students."

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0108/1224261885543.html

shanedownfall

Sounds good. Anyone know if you get a signal in Shanowen Sq. apartments?

thusspakeblixa

shanedownfall wrote: »

Sounds good. Anyone know if you get a signal in Shanowen Sq. apartments?

Nope you don't (I was near there today and no signal), they have their own broadband (wired) which you have to pay for

Doesn't work on any operating system other than Windows, and I've heard of problems with people getting it to work on 7.

My USB dongle is just sitting on my shelf. Maybe I should give it back.

Cy_Revenant

Deleted User wrote: »

Doesn't work on any operating system other than Windows, and I've heard of problems with people getting it to work on 7.

My USB dongle is just sitting on my shelf. Maybe I should give it back.

32bit Windows.

Didn't work on my x64 machine.

thusspakeblixa

Deleted User wrote: »

Doesn't work on any operating system other than Windows

Ah balls. Surely if its the new DCU network it'd have to work with Mac (in Henry Grattan) and Linux (in Computer Building) though?

monument

shanedownfall wrote: »

Sounds good. Anyone know if you get a signal in Shanowen Sq. apartments?

Shanowen Square is well within the range given in the article (1.2km from the base). In that direction in theory it could reach Omni (about twice the distance from DCU than Shanowen Square is). But that would depend on a few things, including where on campus the base station is, how strong the signal actually is, if there's interference etc...

thusspakeblixa wrote: »

Nope you don't (I was near there today and no signal), they have their own broadband (wired) which you have to pay for

Maybe the signal was off when you tried? Or maybe there's interference, blockage or something? Or was it a problem with you PC?

thusspakeblixa wrote: »

Ah balls. Surely if its the new DCU network it'd have to work with Mac (in Henry Grattan) and Linux (in Computer Building) though?

It's only a trial. And they only have a temporary licence by ComReg to run it.

As the article says, WiMax spectrum is expected to be auctioned off like 3G spectrum was in the past. But even if DCU took up WiMax it would (or at least should) have to still run WiFi for some time given the tech is new and nobody has modems while almost all users have WiFi built in. And, in any case for some time, it may be seen as a supplement rather than a replacement.

Deleted User wrote: »

Doesn't work on any operating system other than Windows, and I've heard of problems with people getting it to work on 7.

My USB dongle is just sitting on my shelf. Maybe I should give it back.

Sounds like it is software limitation relating to the trial. Same think I think happened with some of the first 3G dongles.

thusspakeblixa

monument wrote: »

Shanowen Square is well within the range given in the article (1.2km from the base). In that direction in theory it could reach Omni (about twice the distance from DCU than Shanowen Square is). But that would depend on a few things, including where on campus the base station is, how strong the signal actually is, if there's interference etc...



Maybe the signal was off when you tried? Or maybe there's interference, blockage or something? Or was it a problem with you PC?

There's never been DCU wifi signal in Shanowen though

monument

thusspakeblixa wrote: »

There's never been DCU wifi signal in Shanowen though

Yeah, normal WiFi would not reach that far, but WiMax can and is designed to do so. It can reach up to a massive distance of 40-50km, but works best around or under 1km.

As quoted in the article: James Healy, network manager at DCU - “However many students live in accommodation off campus – and it’s fair to assume many are within 1½ kilometres of the college – they are now able to pick up coverage and work from the college network.” [I'm guessing this is for people on the trial, or is the network open once you have WiMax? Also the article elsewhere says the range of the base station at DCU is 1.2km rather than 1.5km]

john.needham

Works for me just about half a kilometer away towards onmi. I recall someone saying the base station is in (or on) the science building.

Im surprised it doesnt work in Shanowen, I get that as only being .7 km from the science end (and furthest end) of campus. Although I'd say they'd be happy if it doesn't work, the internet there was a good bit slower (when i lived there) than wimax is for me. Im also curious how this will work with on campus accommodation, your not meant to use to use the wireless there afaik (if you can get it) and that must bring in a decent bit of money, makes me wonder if anyone who wants to use wimax will have to pay a similar charge.

andrew163

It works for me, I'm about 1.5km away from campus Makes a nice backup for when the NTL connection decides to stop working.

As someone else said, it's not Wifi, you need the trial USB dongle to access it at the moment. The issues with OS X/Linux/64-bit Windows 7 are to do with the hardware vendor, hopefully by the time a full scale system is set up they'll be at least partially resolved. And I can't imagine the standard WiFi ever really being switched off, they're two different systems with two different purposes. Although the WiMax is a useful substitute when the Wifi is choked with users.

monument

What kind of speeds are people getting with WiMax both on and off campus?

andrew163

I'm getting 400KB/sec (around 4megabit/sec) from home, downloading a big ISO from HEAnet. Haven't had a chance really to download anything big from inside DCU, so not sure, but heard someone mention 7mbit/sec around the start of the trial.

Pings are good (60-80ms from home), SSH is perfectly usable.