George Rebane

In this day of internet and broadband, it is really frustrating to sit somewhere in the built-up areas of Nevada County and not be able to get online.  Last I looked this is the 21st century, and we all agree that more than less connectivity is better.  And the kind I am recommending is really the low hanging fruit that bypasses all the ongoing county efforts to get more antennas and towers and internet service providers up here into the mountains.  Don’t get me wrong, all that should still go on, but what I’m talking about here is wi-fi access for ourselves and visitors to our county as we’re out and about.

I was at a couple of meetings at a local professional organization’s building this week.  But when I whipped out my iPhone and tried to go online, I saw three ‘locked’ or password protected networks, and there I sat fuming.  More of us go through this daily experience as we do our work and errands in Grass Valley, Nevada City, Truckee, Penn Valley, divers shopping centers and malls, etc.  Our county’s most visited areas are covered by private wi-fi nets, but almost all of them are locked. 

It occurred to me that the solution to the problem is simple and inexpensive.  Namely, retailers, hotels, restaurants, government offices, etc already having internet could make their establishments more friendly and convenient by installing an open (password-less) network for anyone in range of their wi-fi router.  And adding another wi-fi router in a daisy chain between your ‘locked’ network router and the internet access point (e.g. modem) is duck soup, and costs about as much as a big bag of duck food.  My hat’s off to the few  places, like the Brunswick Safeway, that are already providing this kind service to the public.

I think that the local chambers of commerce, ERC, downtown organizations, and even our local governments could get behind this and get the word out.  People would be naturally drawn to establishments that advertise that theirs is a ‘wi-fi hotspot’.  And it wouldn’t take too many people signing on until all of our built-up commercial areas are covered inside and out with open access wi-fi.

I checked this out with my neighbor Tom Borman who’s a pro at this stuff, and he added that the $40-50 wi-fi router costs could be reduced further if they could be bought in quantity as part of a coordinated community-wide program.  I modestly offer a working name for this program – Net Access Nevada County or NANC (pronounced Nancy, and recognizing the Bushmiller graphic dates you).  Establishments offering NANC would display a nifty poster or sign near their entrances, and soon almost all of the county would be ‘hot’ and so advertised to attract tourists and brag about our quality of life.

In any event, as a county resident I call upon our Supervisors and County Information Officer Steve Monaghan to take NANC under advisement.  This upgrade to county connectivity is just too valuable and easy to pass up.  (And Readers from more distant parts will recognize that this is a movable feast that can be set up with equal ease in your local communities.)

[update] Re the comment by Russ Steele, I talked to Russ tonight and it seems that a couple of years or so ago Russ tried to push a similar idea.  Apparently it got stuck in some buerocrateze between local governments and internet service providers wanting exclusivity in the towns before they would come in, and then they would want to make it a controlled access subscriber system which would go completely against the open access concept of NANC.  Russ and I both feel that if NANC is implemented, then its benefit to locals, county visitors/tourists, and PR value as a ‘hot county’ would be enormous.  Russ also sent along a list ( download here ) he had compiled of the establishments that offered free and ‘semi’ free access thus corroborating the point that such services are already scattered around the county.  It’s probably dated, but it makes the point.  A hat tip to Russ has been duly registered.

[20apr09 update] – Nevada County’s head of  all things IT just emailed me with the following information.  Implementing NANC should now be a cinch.

From: Steve Monaghan [mailto:Steve.Monaghan@co.nevada.ca.us]
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 4:04 PM
To: rebane@
Subject: GuestGate HotSpot Gateway

There’s a product for everything…..
 
$160.00  –  add a $35.00 wireless access point and your done.
• Provides configuration-free guest access to the Internet
• Protects your private network from guests
• Initial setup performed by IT administrator using web-based user Interface
• Guest protection through Layer 3 Client Isolation technology (patent pending)
• No additional setup for new guests
• Plug and Play experience for your guests
• Lifetime Warranty

http://assets.icintracom.com.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads/274/523240_datasheet.pdf
 
http://www.intellinet-network.com/en-US/products/5316-guestgate-hotspot-gateway