bv wireless - who are they?
There's a relatively new computer wireless service in Northbridge. It's called BV Wireless. We think it's owned or primarily operated by a Patrick Smith. Though we have not been able to find record of the business' being registered, the Planning Board President said Mr. Smith is running it out of his home. The Town of Northbridge has some pretty strict rules on business registration, and I'm sure Mr. Smith is abiding by all of them, though we've been unable to find proof by talking to town officials.
At any rate, there's a group of wireless providers whose mission is providing free and open networks to foster widespread use and free speech. BV Wireless is listed as one of the free providers, though BV Wireless says there will be a monthly charge once out of beta testing.
Some unanswered questions on this service are:
- is it secure?
- can the host or others use the network to take personal information from our home computers?
- if BV Wireless is a member of the group promoting free and open use, why do they plan to charge?
- what kinds of regulations are needed for this kind of business?
- if BV Wireless is a business partner of Shining Rock Development, LLC, does this mean they can break the rules of the association, like putting up antennae, door to door soliciting, etc.?
- wonder what kind of benefit Shining Rock Development, LLC gets from the distribution of wireless?
As usual, more questions than answers.
At any rate, there's a group of wireless providers whose mission is providing free and open networks to foster widespread use and free speech. BV Wireless is listed as one of the free providers, though BV Wireless says there will be a monthly charge once out of beta testing.
Some unanswered questions on this service are:
- is it secure?
- can the host or others use the network to take personal information from our home computers?
- if BV Wireless is a member of the group promoting free and open use, why do they plan to charge?
- what kinds of regulations are needed for this kind of business?
- if BV Wireless is a business partner of Shining Rock Development, LLC, does this mean they can break the rules of the association, like putting up antennae, door to door soliciting, etc.?
- wonder what kind of benefit Shining Rock Development, LLC gets from the distribution of wireless?
As usual, more questions than answers.
posted by SR Fan Club President @ 12:19 PM
1 Comments:
At 7:07 AM,
Anonymous said…
To answer some of your questions:
Yes Patrick originally came up w/ the idea and he lives in the neighborhood.
As far as we know we're abiding by all business rules. We are officially BVWireless, LLC.
We never registered as a free provider anywhere because we plan to charge for service. If someone listed us as free, they should have read our web page more closely. We can't control what these lists of free providers are posting about us but we'll continue to try and make them realize we won't be free after beta.
Is it Secure?
We provide internet connectivity just like anyone else. If you connect to us, you should use a firewall just the same as with cable, DSL, or any other form of internet access. If you plug your computer into a cable modem on a segment of charter's network w/ 1000 other users (typical per segment cable plant setup), you're just as vulnerable to intruders as you would be on wireless or anything else. If we were providing a point to point service to connect a business' private network between a couple of buildings, then we would encrypt the entire stream. When providing public internet access, we do the same as other providers -- we make sure only known customers can get on the network, and provide them unlimited connectivity to the public internet. It's up to the customer to protect what's behind the cable modem / DSL modem / wireless bridge and the risks for the end user are identical regardless of (for example) the 3 medias listed above.
can the host or others use the network to take personal information from our home computers?
Again -- it's no different than being connected to any other network. You have an IP address on the internet whether wireless, cable, DSL, dialup, satellite, etc. The person up the street on a cable modem can attack people on other cable modems, DSL, wireless etc. Most of the time it's malicious software that people put out there that attacks computers. That malicious software doesn't care whether you're on wireless etc. Every internet user should protect themself with a firewall or encryption on their own personal wireless network. We the host don't attack any computers and we're not at any advantage being the host -- no more that Charter Cable is being the host and owner of their huge cable plant.
if BV Wireless is a member of the group promoting free and open use, why do they plan to charge?
We're not a free/open wireless group promoter. I don't know why the free promoters list us. It's pretty clear on our site the free part was only for beta testing to work kinks out of the network.
what kinds of regulations are needed for this kind of business?
We are abiding by all regulations that we know of / have researched. I prefer not to go into detail on a public space such as this blog.
if BV Wireless is a business partner of Shining Rock Development, LLC, does this mean they can break the rules of the association, like putting up antennae, door to door soliciting, etc.?
We are not a partner of shining rock development. We have a relationship w/ them because they approached us about doing wireless in the neighborhood. We thought it was a neat project, something technologically interesting / a good service to provide as an alternative to high priced big companies like cable and phone. It would put northbridge on the map as a small town w/ some smart people to build things like this that other towns don't typically have. We sent out notices just like the cable company did -- internet is a service people want just like TV and phone. Our competition benefits the consumer.
We've only placed antennas on places we've gotten permission to place them. In all cases the property antennas have been placed on is owned by prviate residents, shining rock, whitman homes, or other private entities we have gotten explicit permission from to use. We never intended to break any rules, don't want to break rules, we always ask for permission, and we never move w/o permission.
wonder what kind of benefit Shining Rock Development, LLC gets from the distribution of wireless?
This I can't answer because I am not shining rock development. They casually thought it would be innovative to have wireless internet service in the neighborhood and we built it for them.
I'm getting a negative feeling from the post about BVWireless on this blog -- I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing because you initially thought we were part of shining rock development and I can see your various worries about what they are doing posted here.
We're our own thing trying to do something neat / innovative / and beneficial to end users w/ our spare time. We are doing it legally, correctly w/ regards to FCC regualtions, and we are keep aesthetics in mind -- we don't want ugly antennas all over the place. The antennas at the clubhouse trailer are temporary and will not be visible when they migrate to their permanent location. All other antennas are not visible or tough to notice / they blend in. DSS or DirectTv dishes are an order of magnitude larger and less eye pleasing than the equipment we install and they need line of site to the southern sky. We want the place to continue to look nice and we will not pepper the place w/ permanently mounted ugly antennas.
We never intended to be adversarial ... So I hope you'll take another look at us as a peer / friend / someone with a neat idea as opposed to portraying us as a negative entity. Don't beat up your mail carrier when the the bank makes a mistake on of your bills. Don't beat up BVWireless just because you think we're part of shiningrock development. There's a lot more to BVWireless than it's relationship w/ shining rock development.
Send e-mail anytime to info@bvwireless.net
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