Place: Great Britain (London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Sheffield)
Date: 22.7.2004 - 27.7.2004
Participants: Vít Jedlička, Cyril Strejc
Sponzor: British council

Community wireless networks based on wifi technology are noticing great boom all around the world, but especially in Czech Republic . Community wireless network is basically a group of enthusiasts, who are from their resources building networks to connect their computers or to share internet connectivity. Members of these networks are gaining multiple benefits from community like independence on commercial providers or IT knowledge that they can later use in their jobs. We are members of such a community in Hradec Kralove in Czech Republic and we were interested how similar networks work in UK , what problems are they experiencing and what technology they use. We were also interested to personally meet people organizing these groups. To give something in return for spending time with us we brought Ronja optical device with us. Ronja is project developed in Czech Republic that enables to connect two computers together using visible light. We were also interested in commercial application of wifi in GNER trains. GNER was probably the first company in the world offering continuous internet connection on its trains.

Komunitní bezdrátové počítačové sítě založené na technologii wifi zažívají v posledních letech veliký rozmach, jak ve světě, tak zejména v naší republice. Komunitní síť je v podstatě skupina nadšenců, kteří si vlastními náklady a invencí budují infrastrukturu k propojování počítačů a sdílení internetu. Členové těchto komunit se tak stávají nezávislými na komerčních firmách a zároveň tak získávají cenné zkušenosti v IT. Jelikož jsme členy takové sítě v Hradci Králové, zajímalo nás, jak podobné sítě fungují v Anglii, jaké mají problémy, na jakých technologiích jsou postaveny, a též jsme se těšili na setkání s tamějšími nadšenci. Na oplátku jsme na ukázku vezli odlehčenou verzi optického pojítka Ronja, což je unikátní projekt vyvíjený v České republice, jenž umožňuje spojit dva počítače prostřednictvím světla. Zajímali jsme se též o komerční nasazení wifi ve vlacích společnosti GNER jenž drží prvenství nejen ve Velké Británii, ale také na světě.

Success of our project went behind our expectations. We visited London , Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh . We met numerous interesting and friendly people. We found out that communities in UK are more focused on experimenting and having fun from creating the network. In Czech Republic we are more focused on connecting computers to one internet gateway and having profit from sharing wholesale prices of internet. In Britain connection to internet is much cheaper for an individual therefore such effort would not make sense. That is why people in UK are building these networks rather for fun and experimenting. We found out that wifi connection in GNER trains is still under development and rather not functioning. But still we see that there is great chance to make trains more appealing to travelers which could then easily make they time of travel more useful. Presentation of Ronja was successful despite the fact that maximum distance we tested it were only few meters. Overall our project left best memories and new experience to us and hopefully to people we met.

• Exact timetable

This is Vítek after our arrival to Stansted airport. We were so enthusiastic about our project that we had to test all sorts of wifi connections right on the airport. With his backpack and notebook he caught attention of not only my Olympus camera, but also of people passing by and policemen with automatic guns. Unfortunately they were too shy to take a picture with us.

Cyril together with people interested in his antenna in Jubilee garden in London . We looked quite exotic so we got a lot of people coming and asking us what we are doing. Some of them weren't informed about wifi at all and some of them were quite into wireless networks. The people on the picture belong to the first category.

Presentation of Ronja optical device in London community. The back on the picture belong to the leader of London wireless community James Stevens. He is observing with an interest how fast and reliable Ronja is. There was a bad mass on his floor that we had to remove for the presentation; therefore the picture is not absolutely authentic.

Cyril looks at malfunctioning internet connection in Gner trains. However the internet connection on the trains was bad, stewards in the train were so nice that they let us go to the first class where we could try internet connection for free.

Vitek is calling home to his mum from Gareth's garden using wifi and skype software. Because the call goes through internet only it is for free. Quality of the sound was good therefore some misunderstanding between son and mother can not be assigned to bad connection :-).

Notebook is probably the largest mobile phone on the market but price of the call easily balances out the weight of notebook.

The roof party with friendly Scots. Enjoyment from sniffing (searching of wifi networks with antenna) was enhanced with good food and drink. The view was not that nice as the one we later saw in Edinburgh , but we got to see two fires. The person in the middle was very friendly father of two sons that let us stay in his flat for a night.

Vítek is deeply into his computer analyzing our journey. Photo is taken in a hostel in Stirling - beautiful medieval city. It was also the only time we stayed in hostel.

Martin Link is a leader of wifi community in Edinburgh . Here he is arranging video conference with his friends through the wifi network. The quality of the conference was not too amazing due to bad quality of the wifi links. Ronja - optical device that we brought for demonstration will be solving these problems soon in the future in Edinburgh .

Final session in pub with Martin Link and his friends accompanied with good live jazz. Martin was truly amazed by Ronja construction. Here he is looking at receiving module made by Vojta from Hradec Kralove community. We were talking in detail about ronja and community networks. And we were given some valuable advices.

Cyril was forced by Vitek to pose for British Council. Antenna and wire have no meaning in this situation however the graffiti on the wall has. It tells us that community networks are mainly about freedom and independence.

Screen of Cyril 's laptop shows bad condition of internet connection in Gner trains.

As shows photo 4.

Last day of our stay in Edinburgh Meadows we managed to get connected to to some institution 's network. This institution probably did not mean to be internet provider for the park we stayed in, but it in fact is.

Poslední den se snažíme k někomu “vloudit” na louce blízko Edinburghských Meadows. Asi to nebylo dotyčnou nejmenovanou institucí takto myšleno, ale de-facto poskytuje zdarma internetové připojení na místním paloučku a přilehlém okolí.

Vítek a Martin Link in one of the geeks' lairs. Martin is really one of the top class students on the university, therefore we weren't too surprised that his knowledge computer science was much higher then ours.

Monument is Stirling . View from castle. We also spent one day as tourist in Stirling and surroundings. Typical Scottish uplands and medieval architecture can really take ones heart forever.

Not only mathematical modelling always works. However Gordon's can antenna seemed to us absolutely unsuitable in size and material but it had better gain then our well calculated can.

Detailed view of our can antenna made of Jacobs coffee can. It was attached to the tripod from camera. This picture was taken from a tour boat going from Millennium docks to Greenwich .