sean's place

Annoyed, wirelessly.

Over the past few months, I’ve hyped the awesome wireless network connection we (the combined efforts of two Murray Station apartments) setup here. Last quarter, we put in lots of time and energy (and in Shane’s case, money) into a project that brought a solid 11mbit connection between our two apartments. Now, it’s dead. It was awesome while it lasted.

So, why did it die you might ask?

It all started before Winter break. Two independent decisions were reached regarding the fate of the wireless during the break. It was decided that both ends would shutdown to plug up a security hole, save power, etc. When everyone started filling into town, the wireless base station at my apartment turned right back on – to service the wireless link, and the wireless clients that live/visit here. Unfortunately, the guys in #61 thought something different. Shane explicitly told me he would drag his feet on the wireless to prevent abusive use (he phrased it to mean excessive bandwidth use, and I think his words were directed at Matt – one of his housemates). His argument notwithstanding (because it couldn’t stand, the wireless was there for exactly what Matt wanted to use it for). It’s been a few weeks and now I get the word that it won’t be coming up – because nobody there wants to use it.

What?! Did I not just notice a mondo megabyte (somewhere >100MB from what I can deduce) transfer going from my network to theirs (via the DSL no less?) Was I just dreaming when I yelled and screamed about it? Historically, demand for the connection came in spurts. An influx of new data on either end usually caused a higher demand for bandwidth. Not to mention, the lack of gamebility now.

Suffice it to say, I’m annoyed. Very annoyed. I’m annoyed that people were sending files to each other via the DSL instead of the much faster and more reliable wireless. I’m annoyed that despite this, they maintain they don’t need the wireless. Well screw you guys. Thanks for ruining my internet connection so you can be stupid together. Oh, and thanks for wasting my time and energy on a dead-end project.

I guess it’s back to CD’s, guys. Enjoy.