Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


weatherman

99 posts

Master Geek


#11734 9-Feb-2007 08:22
Send private message

Greetings all! I've been a visitor to this great website for some time, and have now joined up. I'm a great tinkerer with all things geekish, and frequently break stuff, so these forums and info pages will be a great resource!

My main "claim to fame" is that I run a private weather station, which uploads local forecasts and data to the 'net, for the enlightenment of my lucky fellow Hawkes Bay-erans. If your interested, pay me a visit at:

www.hbweather.8m.com

The big whinge in my life is (yeah, you guessed it) my internet connection. Its sooo sloooow! When I log on to the Herald website, I get last week's news! We're on the wrong end of a very long, frayed, crappy copper wire here in the country, with litlle prospect of upgrade even to broadish band in the foreseeable future. Wireless? Yeah, right! The nearest VF cell tower is around 5km away, and signal is marginal for VMC or that funny white thing! I've shied away from forking out megabucks for modems and data plans, as I'd hate to make the investment then find the connection dropping out every time I sneeze. Thank heaven my P900 smartphone has a decent aerial, so no problems with cellphone connectivity. Sigh.

Well enough chatter, already, lets go break something................................


George

Create new topic
freitasm
BDFL - Memuneh
79253 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

#60212 9-Feb-2007 09:22
Send private message

"Ancient Geek"? Good one!

Welcome to Geekzone...






Please support Geekzone by subscribing, or using one of our referral links: Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies | Hatch | GoodSyncBackblaze backup




JAMMAN2110
871 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

  #60218 9-Feb-2007 09:51
Send private message

Mmm broken things.. Welcome.



raytaylor
4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #60406 11-Feb-2007 11:41
Send private message

Sorry - I started typing while the wuswug editor was still loading.
Anyhow Tonyhughes, that is halarious. Unfortunatly the ping times would be slow. Lol.


Also if your based in puketapu, I would be interested in running a long distance wifi link over there as a project. I dont think Airnet have any presence over there. Correct me if I am wrong.





Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here


weatherman

99 posts

Master Geek


  #60461 11-Feb-2007 20:05
Send private message

Hi Tony, yep, that was definitely a ROFLMAO! The whole thread was an absolute hoot - G-Pod, indeed! There'd need to be protection from SPAM (Slug Pellets and Mice), of course, if this were ever to....er....take off?!?

Hi Ray, nope, Airnet don't quite extend this far out. I'm in a rather tricksy area, with a lot of small but sudden hills. I'd be delighted to help out with any project that could bring better internet connectivity to me and my neighbours, so don't hesitate to get in touch.

Cheers,

George


[Moderator edit (tonyhughes): We generally try and anti-spam email addresses, and prevent the display of personal phone numbers on the forums. Feel free to use PMs / email to exchange phone numbers.]

raytaylor
4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #60469 11-Feb-2007 20:58
Send private message

Ok well to start off,
We need to know how many people are interested in subscribing and where they live, also how much they are interested in the way of capital to put towards the service. We can then work out the best places to put relay stations, and then approach the property owners and find out if they want some free internet in exchange for relaying the signal out to puketapu.

The project could end up as a non-profit organization as I am starting to wonder if telecom will ever get dsl service out there. If people could put forward some good starting capital, the monthly subscription would be about $15-25 per household for about 5gb of data.

So the question is, how many of your neighbors are interested?




Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here


weatherman

99 posts

Master Geek


#60572 12-Feb-2007 21:16
Send private message

Hmm....yes....you're right. it could end up unprofitable. The situation is that half of Puketapu village is supplied through a reasonably short copper feed from Taradale. These lucky souls can get "adsl" of a sort. I and two neighbours are on the extreme end of a looooong copper loop which hooks way out into the country before returning eventually to Taradale exchange via Poraiti!! Also on this cable would be an estimated 30 other households, but strung out along some 40km of wire!! To get wireless internet to these users would mean lots of repeater stations, and could well be impracticable. I know of at least one household that has opted for satellite, as the only way to get fast connectivity!

The other sticking point may be that folk will be unwilling to put up capital toward the project, bearing in mind that there'll be equipment costs, too. So whilst it's a great idea, I don't think it'll fly. But thanks a lot, anyway!  Smile



Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.