Stellenbosch Wireless User Group

"Stellenbosch Community Network" - a joint effort between the University of Stellenbosch and the Municipality, has contacted us about peering. Since their aim (to create a wireless network covering Stellenbosch) is related to ours they have requested a meeting to discuss the possibility of working together.

They have not given us any information about the status of their project, their plans on implementing it or the financial model they choose to base it on. We hope to discuss these and other things with them as soon as they are able to give us a date for a meeting. Other questions that were not answered is the role of the Municipality in all this - do they provide funding or access to buildings? As well as the ways in which the community will really benefit from this project, i.e. what type of services will be available and what can people expect to pay? (Seeing that even students pay R180 a year for a wireless connection, I think we can expect a similar or even higher rate for the public - but I am open for correction.)

Some of you who own wireless equipment might have noticed the new SSID "SCN". There is a total of 12 new Access Points using the R52 radio and Routerboards. It seems like anyone can connect to these although only the university's main website (www.sun.ac.za) can be reached. Students who are registered with the wireless VPN can connect through these AP's as usual. The signals of these AP's are also much stronger than the AP's with SSID MatiesWifi. It seems like they are located on Helshoogte but that's something else I was not able to confirm.