About Us - Why Us!

See the BLOG for progress reports.

The project was started by John T and Harvey, both keen Internet users and were fed up with waiting for BT to rollout broadband to our villages. So we took the matter into our own hands and created a bit of a hobby for ourselves!

The first meeting was in early summer 2002 at the Swan pub in Bures and we thrashed out our ideas for a wireless network in Bures that would connect to the Internet in Sudbury; the plan being to use cheap off the shelf wireless equipment to create a link to high speed Internet in Sudbury and then distribute it through the village.

Starting with a few bits of equipment borrowed from friends and with some help from other friends Ben, Lyle and John B (thanks for the cantenna), we naively thought we could have it built by Christmas 2002.

Cue lots of wandering round the area testing various bits of radio and wireless computer kit getting bemused looks from locals. Initial testing was very encouraging, the high point being setting up a temporary high speed wireless network between the water tower in Sudbury and the Lamarsh Lion pub, a distance of some 6 km To do this we had 2 parabolic dish antennas (40 cm dia.) 2 laptops and 2 poles.

Then the wall was hit: we could not create a link between Sudbury and Bures directly. The signal was degraded too much by trees and buildings - only the erection of a 9m tower on top of a 3 storey building in Sudbury would make it work- too expensive, too unsafe and a project in its self. We did however get permission off a very kind resident of Lamarsh to put an antenna on a their building to act as a repeater station. This link would be possible but not from the starting point in Sudbury we had hoped to use.

See the Diary for further progress reports.

Why are we now offering the network for anybody to subscribe to? Bures is getting ADSL in November 2003 and this will enable many people within range of Bures telephone exchange to get Broadband. There are many people who will still be too far from Bures or find ADSL too costly or just want to join the fun.

The wireless network in Bures is faster than even BT broadband (ADSL) and can provide a backup connection too. We have found BT are happy to lend you a mobile phone when your land line is down for any length of time, but try getting them to enable it for data, it is like speaking a different language to them! Very frustrating.

The more people subscribe the better, the monthly subscription could go down or we may decide to expand the network coverage or help disadvantaged members of the community get connected with discount equipment / subscription, we will consult with existing subscribers about this.

As we are not a multinational secretive commercial organisation; our knowledge is your knowledge, hence the web site. It allows anyone to get as involved and learn about the network and help it remain part of our community. Our children may learn about computers at school but they don't really learn how the Internet is built and SVW is an extension of the Internet after all; maybe its even educational!

Last update Wednesday, March 14, 2007 2:24 PM