Wireless In Bellingham

Bellingham Washington, while a very pleasant place to live, is the one of the most low tech cities in Northwest Washington. Seriously, you can count the wireless hotspots on one hand - it’s pathetic.

Now don’t get me wrong, trying to drive around in Seattle for me is like trying to walk a tightrope after eating the world’s biggest serving of killer nachos. It’s just not happening. But the fact remains that there is a hardcore shortage of hotspots in this little town of mine.

What’s a geek to do? Well, if I had a venue picked out already, I might consider rolling out my own wireless hotspot! OK, that sounds insanely expensive. However, what if I told you that you could in fact make it happen for next to nothing compared to other options out there? Check this out: Enter Sputnik, an easy to implement and apparently, quite secure way to create and manage a WiFi hotspot of your very own.

For the budget conscious, a brand new hotspot can be deployed for a cost of about $160 (not counting ISP charges). Yup, making the magic of wireless is as easy as buying the welcome kit and then locating a friendly ISP that is willing to not go postal on ya for sharing your signal.

So what does Sputnik offer?

• Branding. You can ‘brand out’ your own entrance point for your hot spot, take Paypal, credit cards or even just let people sign-in for free. The important thing is that you create the entrance page the way you want it to look.
• Control. You are always in control. Set the security policies that you want. Keep an eye on specific trends, make sure you are kept up to date on the latest happenings and even manage the whole scene from your home if you prefer.
• Let it grow. Use a setup that is truly scalable. It has to be the one thing that impressed me the most. The ability to add or subtract APs with such unbelievable ease.
• Run on your box or theirs. Don’t limit yourself to their hardware. With these guys, you can run things on your own box if that is better for you. Once again, they are all about choices.

As I kept checking out the Website, I had to keep shaking my head in disbelief. I mean, man these guys do offer great documentation. And with that, I think that I am going to take their ‘Welcome Kit’ for a spin. The price is right and I would be interested in the support they offer as well. Will you be kept in the loop? Of course! After all,.this is Lockergnome, right?

[tags]mobility,wifi,access points,bellingham washington[/tags]