bri0802-T1 line

8:02 PM

Tricks of the Transmission Trade
ISDN is Fine, but T1 Takes the Cake!

Cables and computers....
Reporters and photographers.....

Is any of this getting out there?

words by Louis Brill
photos: Synapse (left), Carla King (right)

As the Digital be-In (DBN) presented itself as a live event, so was it presented simultaneously on the Net as a netcast event. Getting it to the Net, however was a whole different ball of wax that involved servers, a couple of wireless T1 microwave dish transmission links, and eventually, at some point, a direct connection to the Net. The intricacies of setting the event-to-Net linkage are somewhat complex and explained by Wayne Correia of Domain Net who in collaboration with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), designed and built the wireless T1 transmission set-up.

"There's a new breed of wireless ethernet adopters now available for connecting either a notebook computer, a desktop computer or an entire network-to-network over a wireless connection. In our case, it was a situation of connecting the Digital Be-In netcast (Network # 1) to the Internet (Network # 2), which was done by transmitting it over our wireless ethernet connection. The netcasts from the DBN can be thought of as data packets that are sent from point to point to eventually seen on the screens of web surfers as they 'tune-in' to the DBN activities.

The transmission link is a high-gain directional antenna installed from the top of the SOMAR Gallery's roof. From there we have a microwave transmission shot across town in a direct line-of-sight to the top of my building. From there we had a line from my roof to my office into my computer network at the EFF Once the netcast data packets come over to our site at the EFF, which is several blocks from the Digital Be-In at the SOMAR Gallery," Correia observes, "we have a major connection to UUNET, which is probably one of the major backbones of the Internet. The data packets from the netcast go out over this link through UUNET where it eventually reaches Graham Technology Solutions and is rebroadcast out to several proxy servers around the country and overseas."

"I installed the wireless ethernet connection and then provided an ethernet cable that the DBN techies connected right into their uplink hub that all their internal infrastructure (the command center for composing and transmitting web pages) is plugged into. " The wireless T1 connection set-up at the Digital Be-In is perhaps the most important part of making the netcast an Internet-connect success.

Right now, according to Correia, to get a hard wired T1 connection from Pacific Bell takes a 2 to 3 month wait. To avoid the bottleneck waiting period, Correia, using his T1 wireless set-up was able to substitute a wireless connect for a Pacific Bell landline. This allowed us to set up in only one day - you can do it too - just link your server to a microwave antenna, strategically aim it to makek the connection, and boom! - you're on line.

So web surfers can rest assured as they park on the DBN netcast that the services of EEF, Domain Net and Graham Technology Solutions teamed up and put the DBN out to the world, allowing them to enjoy tonight's events from the comfort of their local computer. So whether you're 'finger walking' or mouse-surfing the web (in this case the Digital be-In), the world is truly at your finger tips.