Ok, here we are in Spain installing the Los Romanes network, and would you adamneve it, it´s colder here than UK! I am sitting here in a big fur coat, in a welding workshop. Today has been a reminder of how jobs are done in Spain with everyone nipping off to lunch just as you want to install the antenna, the ever-present power cuts just because 2 drops of rain have fallen, etc.
But, it´s slowly coming together and we haven´t been here a day yet. We´re near Malaga in the mountains, overlooking Lake Viñuela - great views and staying right above the bar has its benefits! The first 5 MeshBoxes are all registered and working fine, and the first antenna is up and working. One of the benefits of being in a welding workshop is that when you need brackets to fix the MeshBox to the wall, they miraculously appear in a couple of minutes.
There´s a 2 year waiting list for a phone line here from Telefonica so it looks like RucaNet should take off fairly fast, especially now VoIP works on the MeshBoxes. And ADSL, were it available here, starts at 80euros a month for a 50:1 contention which is pretty steep. Seem to recall that one of the largest shareholders or partners or something in Telefonica is BT - say no more!
The RucaNet website has been built this morning with the aid of many cups of tea, and now we just need to config the Aramiska ARC boxes to do the right thang with email and site hosting.
We brought everything required to set up a core mesh and connect 20 people as baggage and we seem to have a slightly unexpected version of ethernet cable as one of the moggies took up residence in a suitcase next to the RJ45 plugs!!!
Off next to survey round and through the olive trees which litter the place.
