Obviously, this is a new blog, created with grand intentions. Most blogs are. The blogger will attempt to remain third person, and through editing fix the discrepencies over time.
The big purpose of this blog is to search for and illustrate how technology utilizing Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standards can be used in a wire free environment. This Blogger will spell out some acronynms then follow with upper case abbreviation (UCA). By wire free, it is meant no wired broadband. Wifi, 3G, 4G (LTE) and some local networking (LAN), not connected to the wide area network (WAN).
Getting up to speed on the terminology. The Wifi revolution happened so fast, some users are conflating the terms into one big metaphor for internet. That is all the terms get used as metaphors for one another. You may hear people call the electricity bill "the light bill" we know we power more than lights and we know they mean the whole bill. Similiarly someone was asked by a visitor "Do you have WiFi"? To which she assured him she did. She knew she had broadband through Comcast. However, she did not know her modem was not also a router, and her PC was connected to the modem by a cable. Also, she had no WiFi devices, or did not know they had the capability. In remote parts of the USA rural areas are getting wired for broadband. Eagerly the locals tell me they will be getting Wi-Fi soon.
This blog is about the opposite. Wi-Fi without an internet connection. Perhaps through a mobile hotspot, but the network described here will be what can be described as a walled garden. It is an Intranet, self contained within its own office. These were very common before nearly every office had internet access at every desk. When a user printed off their machine, and the printer across the room started printing, they were using their LAN as a printer network.
Workers in call centers would have dumb terminals wired to some mysterious megalyth somewhere else but when they hit the keys necessary the megalyth responded, due to networking.
Even Windows, dating back to Windows 3.1's baby, Windows for Workgroups (3.11) Had file sharing.
At its very basic level, the internet, the intranet, the printer net, the LAN is all just sharing files between machines.
When a user types into their field, k7nwj.blogspot.com and hits enter, her machine tells another machine what it is lookling for. The desired website is found on Google's servers. A server is simply a specialized computer, sometimes not much more than a pentium class. That specialized computer gets the request for the file "index.htm" (or whatever the home page is for the site) in the directory /k7nwj/ and sends its contents to the requester. This blog shows up on her computer and she may think, "Get to the point already".
The point being, file sharing locally through your router. Most users know how to log into a strange Wi-Fi hotspot or a friend's house. The device scans the available channels for wifi signals, and produces a list. A Public hot spot may be obvious PUBLIC CITY WIFI, some may never have been changed from the factory settings BELKIN344 and others may have been cute JONNYANDJENNY. These all caps identifiers can be thought of like call letters on TV or Radio. Since TV and Wi-Fi- are essentially radio, radio it is. They are called SSIDs when a user chooses one, if it is secure, the user is prompted for a Network Key. This is often refered to as the "Wi-Fi password". Once in, the user can use the network as the settings in the router allow. Most often, routed straight through to the WAN.
DLNA and the associated Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices use the LAN within the SSID to share files. This is how Chromcast works, smart TVs and AppleTV that can show pictures off your phone. Once DLNA file sharing is enabled on each device, the user of an iPhone can "send" a song to his brother upstairs even if his brother is just on a PC. As long as all the permissions are in place, the brother can search for files from all the devices in the house and play them on his monitor, or smart TV, or Blu-Ray (BD) player, or tablet or etc.
Camp DLNA is about being able to do this off the grid. Why not harvest an outdated Motorola Droid with its long battery life, and load a 32GB card, and fill it with media files. Then all your stuff is on one place and accessible. No internet required, because all the files are local.
Future issues.
The big purpose of this blog is to search for and illustrate how technology utilizing Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standards can be used in a wire free environment. This Blogger will spell out some acronynms then follow with upper case abbreviation (UCA). By wire free, it is meant no wired broadband. Wifi, 3G, 4G (LTE) and some local networking (LAN), not connected to the wide area network (WAN).
Getting up to speed on the terminology. The Wifi revolution happened so fast, some users are conflating the terms into one big metaphor for internet. That is all the terms get used as metaphors for one another. You may hear people call the electricity bill "the light bill" we know we power more than lights and we know they mean the whole bill. Similiarly someone was asked by a visitor "Do you have WiFi"? To which she assured him she did. She knew she had broadband through Comcast. However, she did not know her modem was not also a router, and her PC was connected to the modem by a cable. Also, she had no WiFi devices, or did not know they had the capability. In remote parts of the USA rural areas are getting wired for broadband. Eagerly the locals tell me they will be getting Wi-Fi soon.
This blog is about the opposite. Wi-Fi without an internet connection. Perhaps through a mobile hotspot, but the network described here will be what can be described as a walled garden. It is an Intranet, self contained within its own office. These were very common before nearly every office had internet access at every desk. When a user printed off their machine, and the printer across the room started printing, they were using their LAN as a printer network.
Workers in call centers would have dumb terminals wired to some mysterious megalyth somewhere else but when they hit the keys necessary the megalyth responded, due to networking.
Even Windows, dating back to Windows 3.1's baby, Windows for Workgroups (3.11) Had file sharing.
At its very basic level, the internet, the intranet, the printer net, the LAN is all just sharing files between machines.
When a user types into their field, k7nwj.blogspot.com and hits enter, her machine tells another machine what it is lookling for. The desired website is found on Google's servers. A server is simply a specialized computer, sometimes not much more than a pentium class. That specialized computer gets the request for the file "index.htm" (or whatever the home page is for the site) in the directory /k7nwj/ and sends its contents to the requester. This blog shows up on her computer and she may think, "Get to the point already".
The point being, file sharing locally through your router. Most users know how to log into a strange Wi-Fi hotspot or a friend's house. The device scans the available channels for wifi signals, and produces a list. A Public hot spot may be obvious PUBLIC CITY WIFI, some may never have been changed from the factory settings BELKIN344 and others may have been cute JONNYANDJENNY. These all caps identifiers can be thought of like call letters on TV or Radio. Since TV and Wi-Fi- are essentially radio, radio it is. They are called SSIDs when a user chooses one, if it is secure, the user is prompted for a Network Key. This is often refered to as the "Wi-Fi password". Once in, the user can use the network as the settings in the router allow. Most often, routed straight through to the WAN.
DLNA and the associated Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices use the LAN within the SSID to share files. This is how Chromcast works, smart TVs and AppleTV that can show pictures off your phone. Once DLNA file sharing is enabled on each device, the user of an iPhone can "send" a song to his brother upstairs even if his brother is just on a PC. As long as all the permissions are in place, the brother can search for files from all the devices in the house and play them on his monitor, or smart TV, or Blu-Ray (BD) player, or tablet or etc.
Camp DLNA is about being able to do this off the grid. Why not harvest an outdated Motorola Droid with its long battery life, and load a 32GB card, and fill it with media files. Then all your stuff is on one place and accessible. No internet required, because all the files are local.
Future issues.
- Power. PPoE and maybe more
- Limitations in programming that require a "live" (WAN) network.
