No, not at all! This is because Wireless LAN designed for the standards 802.11a,b,g,n & s use a part of the radio spectrum which is free to be used by anyone, provided the radiated power is controlled.
Called the “Public Park Concept” it is relatively unregulated by the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) who allow all users the same rights regardless of who they are - business, telecommunications carriers, government departments or private citizens.
Firstly the membership of $50 per year is not the cost for a connection, it is a membership fee for joining the association, without any guarantees other than your right to have a say how the group is run. Nevertheless, membership does allow you to get great discounts from suppliers off most Wireless LAN Equipment you need, which if your starting scratch you will save you more than the cost of membership.
However, the cost of equipment does depend on a number of factors but as a rough guide from scratch with discounts around $350 for a full client system that allows the routing of 30 IP's in our local address space. Would looks like this:
1) Grid Parabolic Antenna with a gain of 19dbi or more.
Air-Stream Wireless is a membership managed and run group setup by like-minded people who share a common interest in telecommunications using wireless LAN technologies over distance.
Membership is only for those who share this interest and is not about physical access or access to services made available by members. By joining Air-Stream Wireless you not only have a say in how the group is run and planned, but also talk to people with real hands-on experience, access to shared assets, discounts and other services our members make available.
The short answer is "No" however anything can be shared over a distributed WAN , including Internet access.
Networks set-up by groups like Air-Stream Wireless are not about provisioning Internet Services. Although there are multihomed and internet services accessible on the network it is important to note that membership is not a fee-for-service and any service that is available has been volunteered freely by a member or a participate community groups.
Community Wireless Networks (CWN) like Air-stream Wireless are in essence a technology interest group where like-minded people share an interest in telecommunications using wireless LAN technologies over distance. Members run and managed the group and all funds raised are solely used to purchase shared assets or fund costs of member activities as a whole.
Some core activities include:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is a list of questions received from people interested in Air-Stream Wireless asked most frequently and are accompanied by a corresponding set of answers. If after reading the following FAQs your still not clear, please contact us and we will try to answer them.
So I've been thinking about what services I need to put up on my node(s).
You know there is the now old saying, "Content is King", there are references
on wikipedia, that describes what this means. In a nutshell its, people come back
to you web site if there is interesting or relevant content.
There is also the community factor to, maybe its not just the content but the
community that contributes the content.
Anyhow, so I've been scribbling down ideas for services to put up on the
server attached to the node. Obviously a web server, Jabber, VoIP ... erm ...
What else do folks use on their nodes and use from other peoples nodes?
Wireless equipment deployed by Community Wireless groups such as Air-Stream use part of the radio spectrum which is free to be used by anyone, provided the radiated power is controlled. This radio spectrum includes 915–928Mhz, 2400–2483Mhz and 5150–5725Mhz.
Called the “Public Park Concept” it is relatively unregulated by the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) who allow all users the same rights regardless of who they are - business, telecommunications carriers, government departments or private citizens.
It is often misunderstood what the role, purpose and who the committee is, however the principle of the committee is quite simple.
Air-Stream Wireless Incorporated is a group of committed people who have pooled their resources (eg: time, membership fees, donations and equipment) in order to build connect to and use wireless networking technologies.
The committee are members who are voted by other members each year to perform the following on their behalf:
Incorporation is a system of registration that gives an association certain legal advantages in return for accepting certain legal responsibilities.
The most obvious advantage of incorporation is that the Air-Stream itself has a legal existence. This means it can as an entity:
One of the principal reasons for incorporation is to gain the benefits of limited liability. Section 27 of the Act provides as follows:
'A member of an incorporated association is not liable, except as provided in the rules of the association, to contribute towards the payment of the debts and liabilities of the association or the costs, charges and expenses of a winding up of the association.'
An incorporated association may not be formed for the purposes of trading or earning profit for members. If the association earns a profit from commercial activity, this profit may not be distributed amongst the members. It must be used for activities carried on by the association.
