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Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

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Re: Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

#51

Post by anotherhue »

ash wrote: post #38

Some speculations: I suspect FCC simply allowed Raytheon to use whatever frequency its "Radarange" oven used. After all, Raytheon was the main radar producer for the US military. Presumably the military had a strong influence on FCC. Remember, it all happened in 1947, just 2 years after World War II. http://www.raytheon.com/ourcompany/history/leadership/

Indeed, I strongly suspect the answer will be something along these lines. I have tried to research the operating frequency of the radarange, but have come up empty. If you click the 'contact us' link on the page you've referenced, you find this section:

Academic Research Assistance

We do not entertain requests for academic research assistance. Our web site is rich in both historic company information and current product material. Explore the links from our home page, Our Company, History, and search engine.

Which is disappointing, but perhaps I can reach an ex employee.

Re: Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

#52

Post by jonknee »

sliverstorm wrote: post #20
jaytaylor wrote: post #12

Given that the FCC is funded by the taxpayers I find it frustrating that the FCC document archive is sitting behind a paywall-esque system. Is there a good reason for this? With all the money it costs to physically store and maintain the documents, I would imagine that they could instead scan and index them, and then put them up online and make them available to taxpayers for free, since we (the taxpayers) have effec…

document archive is sitting behind a paywall-esque system. Is there a good reason for this? Traditionally the reason is it requires somebody to go find the physical copy, scan it, and send it to you. I would imagine that they could instead scan and index them, and then put them up online Physical archival, once archived, is pretty low-maintenance. They could scan and index them, but that costs something. Yes, the inf…

They should have the policy that once someone requests a document it is made public (just the document, no the request). Bootstrap the digital index with the most interesting documents as suggested by public demand.

Re: Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

#53

Post by anotherhue »

jonknee wrote: post #52
sliverstorm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

document archive is sitting behind a paywall-esque system. Is there a good reason for this? Traditionally the reason is it requires somebody to go find the physical copy, scan it, and send it to you. I would imagine that they could instead scan and index them, and then put them up online Physical archival, once archived, is pretty low-maintenance. They could scan and index them, but that costs something. Yes, the inf…

They should have the policy that once someone requests a document it is made public (just the document, no the request). Bootstrap the digital index with the most interesting documents as suggested by public demand.

I don't know why these documents have been scanned, but this is where I've gotten all the online references so far. And no, there is no index :(

These can only be found by crawling through the top level directory, which I only found through Google. It's just not a priority for the FCC.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases/docum...

http://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/OSEC/library/legislative_h...

Re: Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

#54

Post by rythie »

rogerbinns wrote: post #50
anotherhue wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? That sort of thing actually is part of my research. Could you possibly forward a screenshot of what it looks like? Netstumbler or the OS's wifi control panel. If you could also describe the urban environment (apartments or houses, how many occupants, etc) that would be amazing. Thank you!

Lots of networks is pretty common everywhere I look. In commercial buildings with lots of tenants it is even worse. I live in suburbia (detached houses) and can see between 5 and 10 networks depending on which corner of the house I am in. Only my own AP was on 5GHz, but discovered someone else has finally started using that range too. It also looks like several of my neighbours turn their wifi off when they are not a…

A lot of phones don't support 5Ghz though - so you would have to account for that in your results.

Re: Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

#55

Post by rogerbinns »

rythie wrote: post #54
rogerbinns wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of networks is pretty common everywhere I look. In commercial buildings with lots of tenants it is even worse. I live in suburbia (detached houses) and can see between 5 and 10 networks depending on which corner of the house I am in. Only my own AP was on 5GHz, but discovered someone else has finally started using that range too. It also looks like several of my neighbours turn their wifi off when they are not a…

A lot of phones don't support 5Ghz though - so you would have to account for that in your results.

It is surprising to me just how many devices shipped today do. Quite why they do it I don't understand since I never see it mentioned in feature lists.

Re: Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

#56

Post by rythie »

rogerbinns wrote: post #55
rythie wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of phones don't support 5Ghz though - so you would have to account for that in your results.

It is surprising to me just how many devices shipped today do. Quite why they do it I don't understand since I never see it mentioned in feature lists.

All Apple's laptops have for quite a while, however with the iPhone they still didn't have 5 Ghz on the 4s and only added it on the 5 - not that Apple let you run a WiFi analyzer on it anyway.

Re: Why 2.4GHz? Chasing wireless history

#57

Post by rogerbinns »

rythie wrote: post #56
rogerbinns wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is surprising to me just how many devices shipped today do. Quite why they do it I don't understand since I never see it mentioned in feature lists.

All Apple's laptops have for quite a while, however with the iPhone they still didn't have 5 Ghz on the 4s and only added it on the 5 - not that Apple let you run a WiFi analyzer on it anyway.

The Android Wifi Analyzer app shows what access points are detected and their signal strengths, channel usage, encryption etc. It is not a traffic sniffer - some screenshots at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wi... I couldn't find anything similar in the app store. I did find several apps that scan your local network (eg Fing).

No one mentions 5GHz in their specs. You can't tell from Google's Nexus pages which devices support it. Apple's older pages (eg Mac Mini) similarly don't say anything but newer pages (eg iPhone 5 and iPad) do. For any vendor about the only clue is they sometimes mention 802.11a support.

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