Gossip

Observer story suggests wireless law-breaking?

Wonderful to see that the Observer has discovered wireless networking; but can James Naughton really be recommending law-breaking?

With an ordinary base-station, wireless networking is possible within a range of about 75 metres," he reports. True, true; Sniffer can confirm this. Quite enough for any house, frankly; and the garden.

"But if I put a simple antenna on my roof the range increases considerably - certainly to 500m, and maybe more. I know people who are making repeater antennae out of coffee tins and extending the range of Wi-Fi transmissions to several kilometres."

Sniffer recommends that Mr Naughton makes it clear, in future bulletins, that this practice quite possibly breaks the law. It's also bloody anti-social; if three of your neighbours have got WiFi access points, and all of them put antenna enhancers up, nobody else in the neighbourhood will have a free channel to use for their own network.