Linux reliability powers community Internet

Pro

1 April 2005

As if to prove that Linux’s community-based ethos has the potential to bring low-cost high-tech services to an audience that might otherwise not be able to afford them, a group of Linux enthusiasts are attempting to bring broadband wireless Internet access to homes and small businesses in the Cork area.

Called CorkWAN the service will operate as a non-profit-making entity and will deliver Internet access via WiFi (aka wireless networking standards 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11fh) to customers within a two-mile radius of a hub in central Cork. The hub itself will be connected to two telecoms carriers via a separate leased line to each. Customers, who will be a mixture of residential users and small business, should be able to achieve wireless data rates of at least 256kbit/s, according to one of the group’s protagonists, Ronan Kirby.

The hub will contain about 10 servers, he said, all of which will run Linux and open-source Internet applications. The reasons for going with Linux are many and its low cost is certainly one of its attractions. ‘Cost is a major factor,’ said Kirby, ‘because it is a community based service we have to adopt a shoe-string approach, and so we will be using standard hardware’.

‘Security is also a big issue,’ he added, ‘and Linux is more secure than Microsoft alternatives. It also gives us the flexibility to change and customise things as we need them.’ But perhaps the main selling point is its robustness. For a team of people who all have day jobs to go to and who will be operating this service effectively in their spare time, having the most reliable product they can afford is vital.

‘Linux is incredibly reliable,’ said Kirby. ‘Because of the nature of the service, we will have people administering the system in its entirety from a remote location. We don’t want to be rebooting servers regularly.’ He points out that Linux users have an adage: ‘I reboot my servers once a year whether they need it or not.’

Kirby also said that Open Source software will be used to provide a quality of service that would normally require very expensive hardware. ‘We have been able to write a utility using the NetFilter feature in the Linux 2.4 kernel which will dynamically allocate bandwidth to individual users,’ said Kirby. ‘Open source software allows us to do that.’

22/01/2003

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