Category: WiFi

By the reading of today’s Kilkenny Advertiser, moves are being made by Kilkenny Borough Council to make Kilkenny “the first city in Ireland to provide universal free wireless internet access” in and around the city itself. Given Kilkenny’s positioning as the “creative capital” of Ireland and the success of recent events like PodCamp Ireland, a “free wireless” city would be a massive boost for Kilkenny.

Of course, this is already rolled out in Carlow so it looks like Kilkenny don’t want to be left playing catchup to the neighbours.

A notice of motion was passed at this month’s meeting of Kilkenny Borough Council calling for the council to undertake to examine the possibility of Kilkenny becoming the first city in Ireland to provide universal free wireless internet access throughout the city area.

Cllr Sean O’ hArgain asked that a working group of councillors and officials be established with a view to progressing the project this year.

“This would allow the use of modern technology to visitors to the city, business people and our own citizens. The county manager has already assisted Carlow with this project successfully and Dublin city centre is also considering the option. Starbucks cafes around the world provide free wireless access as do many hotels, however, it’s not that available in Kilkenny,” he said.

Read the article in full via the Kilkenny Advertiser.

Last night myself and the others at at KilkennyMusic.com sat down late (say 9:30pm) in Studio A for a short meeting followed by the recording of the 19th Sound System Podcast. Internet access was a must before the recording – some last minute research, checking of dates, sampling of music etc. Ross was flying away on his Powerbook on the studio network while I wound up forking out for a 30 minute Eircom voucher to allow me get my work done.

It turns out, as I was informed later, that my inability to connect to the network is that the WiFi connection is now being serviced by an AirPort Extreme base station, my MacBook Pro currently living in a/b/g land. Well now, its living in a/b/g/n land and should have no problem in the studio next week.

AirPort Extreme Base Station

So how does one enable 802.11n WiFi access on their MacBook Pro? Well, you do it via a download from the Apple Store, retailing at US$1.95 or €1.95 if you’re shopping out of the Irish store. You must have the AirPort Extreme update installed from earlier this year if you haven’t done so already.

Via the Apple Store

How to install the AirPort Extreme 802.11n Enabler:

1. Add the AirPort Extreme 802.11n Enabler to your shopping cart and complete your order.
2. On the Order Confirmation page and email, you’ll receive instructions and a URL for downloading the Enabler software.
3. Click the download link, then locate the disk image (.dmg) file on your computer and double-click it.
4. Double-click the 802.11n Enabler file and follow the onscreen steps to update your Mac.

Where do you get the AirPort Extreme update? Right here.

If you haven’t installed the AirPort extreme update and you find that your MacBook Pro won’t allow you to do it, I suggest you read this page (click here). It tells you how to extract the application via the ‘Show Package Contents’ context menu feature in OSX, allowing you to first install the AirPort Extreme application and then upgrade is through the normal process.

The process from start to finish, including purchase from Apple Store, should take you all of five minutes and will require a system restart when finished.

Talking to Bernie in Kilkenny earlier today mentioned the FON routers in conversations, something I’ve looked at before – primarily as a cheap means to getting a wireless router into the house so I don’t have to worry about drilling through walls and doing a bit of wiring…

So at the price they are – €39 odd plus shipping, are they worth it? I’ve read all about the service behind it, sharing your wifi connection, picking up free wifi in places in return, but has anyone had any problems quality-wise? Signal drops? Routers just going on the fritz, exploding, dying for no apparent reason, replacing them a few times?

Any bad points on them before I click purchase?

The “world’s largest wifi community”, FON, celebrates its first birthday (via Vecosys). Though I haven’t taken any part in the sharing of WiFi (namely as I still don’t have a wireless setup at home – update: that is an FON setup) I’m fully behind the idea of FON and think its a great movement for web users.

And for only EUR29.95 its not a bad price to start the sharing process. La Fonera can be split with a public (for sharing) and private (personal) channel for access so even if you’re up for a cheap wireless router, there’s a good place to begin.