[WXBH-Discuss] ISDN and DSL and 802 as microwave link

[topdog at woofer.com]

Hi Cory,

ISDN is an Integrated Subscriber Digital Network.  It could be used to get to
the internet - but it is actually a digital line provided by the telephone
company.  As I understand it, it is not a "dedicated" line (you still have to
dial a phone number (or SPID) but once a connection is 3established, it will be
linked at that speed indefinitely.

The 802.11 link would not be any faster than microwave.  Both are moving at the
speed of light.  The main advantage is that the equipment would be much cheaper
(and safer) than microwaves.  We could build our own antennas for that part of
it too.  Some people have modified Pringles cans.  But that link is only going
to work Line of Sight - and you can't try to stop anyone who is building
something in your way.  I think that the Kentucky Towers across the street is
the only feasible way to do line of sight communications.  It is possible that
Ky Towers might have a view of the "flashcube" building but not likely given
their distance apart and heights.  Even if they did, we would have to get
permission from the Tower to use it as a "hop" point. No sense in paying 2
places for rent.

I still think that ISDN would be our best (and cheapest) bet for now. If you
can, use your talents to find some ISDN modems and a codec algorithm.  ISDN is
very slow next to DSL so a high compression algorithm is need to code and
decode.  I hear that MP4 is quite nice but I don't know if it needs to be
commecially licensed for use...  If you could find out, that would be great.

Paul