CAI Wireless Internet

[mdulcey at pryder.pn.com (Mark J. Dulcey)]

Some of you may have noticed ads in the Business section of the Globe
recently from a company called CAI Wireless Internet. Basically, they
promise internet connectivity that's "faster than ISDN" for $49.95/month
(for home users). They're currently offering to install it for $49.95 as
well, though they say this will go up to $299 after the introductory
period is over.

Living, as I do, in a city where the cable company (Cablevision of
Boston) is clueless, I decided to check it out. They made an appointment
to come by and install it about a week after I called.

Last Tuesday, the first set of installers came out. These guys did the RF
installation (that is, the antenna and so forth, but not the PC part). It
turned out that they had to put the antenna on a 25' roof tripod to clear
the trees here. (It's still covered by the $49.95 install fee, though!) 
That means, alas, no easy takedown to play with the thing at the
installfest :-( The central antenna is in downtown Boston, so a lot
depends on how clear a view of Boston your house has. They also have other
sites in Needham and Peabody.

Two days later, the PC installer showed up. (It could have been the next
day; he was available, but I wasn't.) He came with an internal cable
modem, but when he discovered that I already had a LAN, went back to the
truck for an external one instead. Much better: the internal needs special
drivers, so it wouldn't have worked with Linux. They're using Surfboards
from Next Level Systems/General Instruments.

Anyway, after calling CAI to get an IP address for me (if you have the
external modem, you get a static address!), he set it up on my Windows 95
machine. Naturally, as soon as he left, I moved over to Linux and got
things going there. I had to change the primary IP address of my Linux box
to the new one in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-eth0, change the
nameserver addresses in resolv.conf, and add an IP alias and host route
for my old LAN address (so the other computers here at The Buttery can
still communicate with my shared printer). Within half an hour, I was
happily surfing from Linux.

The system is currently one-way. That is, the microwave link is only used
for data from them to you; the packets in the other direction go over your
phone line. (The Surfboard has a phone port; you don't use your
existing modem.) Alas, this means that you still have to tie up the phone
when you're online. CAI claims that they will go two-way "in a couple of
months"; I don't know whether this will require switching to a different
modem.

You prod the Surfboard into taking you online by going to its web page
with your favorite browser, and pressing the Connect button. So you don't
need to fuss with any odd software to get online.

Anyhow, it's fast. Very fast. So far, the fastest downloads I have seen
ran at about 50K bytes/second, or the equivalent of about a 500Kbps modem,
or about 20 times as fast as dialup. (It doesn't always go that fast,
probably because of upstream congestion.) This isn't fast as a MediaOne
cable modem (the limiting factor is probably how fast you can send the
ACKs over the slow return link), but it's noticeably quicker (for
receiving; slower for sending) than having an ISDN link all to yourself.

In summary, I think it's well worth a look for anybody that can't get a
cable-company internet connection. And make sure to specify that you want
the external modem; install a 10BaseT Ethernet card in advance if you
don't already have one.

Advantages of the external, quickly:

1.  If you already have a LAN, you don't even have to open the computer.
2.  Works with any kind of networkable computer, not just a Windows PC.
3.  Conflicts with stuff already in your PC are much less likely.
4.  You get a static IP address:
    a.  If the link goes down, you can bring it back up and pick up where
	you left off.
    b.  Once they go two-way, so you can stay online all the time, you can
	run a server! Low-volume, please, though, or they will hate you,
	or at least try to charge business rates.