A Revolutionary Advancement in Technology
Portage County Public Library installs innovative Wireless Ethernet Bridges for fast and cost effective Internet access

The Portage County Public Library in collaboration with the University Library of the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point becomes the first public library in Wisconsin to use wireless technology to gain access to the Internet. The net result will be a tremendous increase data transfer speed from the library’s current modem speed of 28 kilobits per second to 4.5 megabits per second.

Three direct -sequence spread spectrum wireless Ethernet transceivers have been purchased.. The three units have been installed: one at the University Library, one at the Charles M. White Library Building, Stevens Point and the third unit is installed at the Plover Branch Library. Each unit has a range of approximately seven miles. As the technology advances and the range of the units increase, the library plans on installing such units at its outlying Almond and Rosholt branches.

The Ethernet bridges were purchased from Wi-LAN, Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Wi-LAN's Hopper Plus wireless Ethernet bridges provide simple "plug-and-play" LAN-to-LAN connectivity at rates of 4.5 megabits per second, rates that are comparable to more costly T1 connections and 133 times faster than today's 33.6 kilobits per second commercial modems. Available in both 902-928 MHz and 2.4 GHz versions, the Hopper Plus can connect any number of remote Ethernet networks using the company's proprietary point-to-multipoint radio protocol. The Hopper Plus offers robust network security features including unique spreading codes, irregular data packet transmission, and a unique customer access code to ensure that no one can intercept and de-scramble a Hopper Plus radio signal. The Hopper Plus is an ideal solution for building an infrastructure of creating wide area networks, providing high-speed Internet access, and other wireless networking applications.