Hi Folks, Back in the early 2000's, when Internet access in my Little Ouse/Brandon Creek area was limited to painfully slow dialup (not to mention many other remote places throughout East Cambs and North/West Norfolk), I remember discussing with fellow nutters in the Anglia Linux Users Group the feasibility (as I wrote at the time, Feb 2002) of the following:

Come to think of it, ALUG should be a damn good place to ask this question ...

A friend of mine, much knowledgeable, tells me that with directional antennae a line-of sight range of 10-15 miles should be attainable for wireless LAN. But it's equally a question of finding hospitality at the far end.

Well, out here in the midst of optically flat nowhere, line of sight to almost anywhere is no problem. Problem is, almost everywhere is uninhabited. Nearest place which might have an accommodating college or such is Ely (10 miles, but on a nice mountain which boosts line-of-sight visibility).

So there you are. I'm groping. But there must be some of you who've at least thought about this in similar terrain; so if anyone has any comments or suggestions I'd be most interested to hear!

It might lead to an improvement on my current 33.6K bit rate ... and, come to think of it, converting Ely Cathedral to a LAN hub is a tempting notion.

Best wishes to all, Ted.

Well, the Broadband Revolution has rendered such thoughts obsolete at the Brandon Creek exchange, of course. But a news story this morning revives the notion, and has inspired me with a new twist to the idea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-14734574

Inquiry into Norfolk church WiSpire scheme

Plans to use church towers in Norfolk to transmit wireless broadband signals to provide better internet access for rural areas have stalled.

[...]

The scheme is a venture by the diocese and internet service provider Freeclix.

Wireless receivers would be installed on church spires, acting as high spots, to give nearby businesses and homes access to high-speed broadband.

Wi-fi hot spots would also be created in churches.

So it seems there is still scope for my original concept out there in Norfolk. But I have a bigger concept now.

These days, most people have Wireless Internet enabled mobile phones, so can be in contact wherever there is a signal. Not forgetting all those home computers.

Which prompts me to think that we no longer have a need for priests and parsons to communicate with the Almighty.

And the proposal that "Wi-fi hot spots would also be created in churches" is based on a narrow and outdated vision.

I do not believe that God is so obsolete that he can't fill the Universe with WiFi signals, and receive any that are transmitted. He created all this stuff in the first place, and has been ahead of us ever since (though we may be starting to catch up).

So, from now on, if you want to communicate with Him, just switch on your mobile and dial the Divine Number (which is not "666" -- that connects you to a different Infernet Service Provider). Then the ancient channels of Priest and Parson (whose information transmission rate has been stuck at about 0.001 bits/sec for millennia) can be closed down, and their infrastructure put to better uses (as seems to have been the idea behind the WiSpire idea in that news item, though still based on backward thinking).

Then you can talk directly to God, and He can talk directly to you.

If you pray ever so nicely, perhaps He will favour you by setting up a cosmic Internet hub, which will route all wireless communications from anywhere in the world to anywhere else in the world. All He needs to do is to will it, and it will happen.

Onward! Ted.

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