The Three Corners of Wray Without Wires

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." ~ Søren Kierkegaard
This is the end of the page, updates are posted here at the top as they happen. Scroll down to read about how it has all happened and see photos of the village corners.
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March 2007 The online centre at the institute is available Monday, Wednesday and Friday, anyone who would like to use it is more than welcome. Please leave the room tidy and switch off the computers when you have finished. The outage the other night was caused by one of the relay stations which brings the signal to Melling mast. The problem was resolved and normal service resumed before morning. If you wish to be added to our mailing list please use the contact button on the top of this page, all users with gmail addresses are notified of outages and updates. February 2007 Thanks to everyone who has limited their daytime usage to under 50meg per hour, the network is now very stable and connections available for all. We have up to a hundred different users a day according to University statistics. Requests from parents for guidance about safe surfing have been received, so this is a good link for any who would like more information: http://www.wiredsafety.org/resources/pdf/socialnetworktips.pdf and one for those who like Bebo: http://www.bebo.com/SafetyTips.jsp and one for youtube: http://www.wiredsafety.org/resources/pdf/I%20Tube.pdf if these aren't enough and you are still concerned please contact us and we will try to help.

This is a link to the company who hosts the village website. If you would like your own domain name just click on it and type in the name and hit search. Domains cost £5 a year and you get 20 email aliases which can be re-directed to your gmail or hotmail accounts. Easily...

August

The Online centre which has served the village well for many years has closed. It used to be in the New Inn, but new owners are re-furbishing it and sadly all the equipment had to be removed. Howard and Janine who ran the centre kindly donated the kit to the village, and it is currently stored at the institute. We hope to have it operational very soon.

The channel changes are settling in and more people have got a good connection. Work will continue until we are happy the mesh is running to its full potential.

A malfunction in the backhaul feed was discovered and fixed, and upload speeds have increased.

July 2006

Work continued during July to figure out why mesh boxes at the school kept going to sleep, we were initially blaming the hot weather.  Finally it was decided by the university to change the channel we use in the hope there would be less interference from other network traffic in the village.

This strategy seems to be working, although some areas report low speeds.

June 2006

12th June

Slight problems with the network over the weekend resulting in outages for some users. www.wrayvillage.blogspot.com has a post where you can put comments if you were affected or get updates. One of the meshboxes went to sleep and Deb had to redirect the traffic, we think it is fixed temporarily but expect slight outages until it is back online.

8th June

The Institute committee approved of plans to install a digital notice board in the doctor's waiting room. It is proposed to use it to run a slide show of scarecrow and old wray photos.

2nd June

The university researchers were very pleased with the data collected by the volunteers, and are proposing to install a digital notice board in the waiting room at the institute around August time if the Committee are in approval. The next meeting of the institute is Thursday 8th June so we will see if they want one. They propose to show photos of the scarecrow festival and pictures of old Wray. It should be very interesting and could lead to further boards being deployed and interactive notice boards too. Watch this space.

May

The final probe packs/cameras will be collected by the university at the last club meeting on 18th May (7pm at Institute). The club will then finish for the summer and start again in September. A meeting is planned for 30th May in the pub to analyse and chat about the data collected by club members. We have found a 'mac' man to repair and maintain your equipment, reasonable rates, details on blogspot

The maddest month in the Wray calendar with the scarecrows taking over the village. All the photos are now online on the blogspots. We also have a series of 360 panoramas thanks to Tony Quinn, which you can see online if you have a broadband connection. http://www.vrwray.com

The University camera project will finish at the next computer club meeting on 18th May, so please bring in your scrapbooks. The tiny video cameras were great fun, and the polaroids fit into the scrapbooks to give a pictorial archive of the fair.

The computer club is not meeting during June/July/August but meetings will commence again in September, when we hope to have some lessons sorted for ECDL and digital photography.

April

The University want to run a project in the village making scrapbooks of events leading up to the Scarecrow festival, full details on the blogspot wrayvillage.blogspot.com use the contact button if you want to take part, it should be a lot of fun and provide some historic data for the future generations.

Next Computer Club meeting Thurs 6th April at the Institute Subs £2.00 - every 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month.

March 2006

Next club night is March16th.
New meshboxes installed at the Institute and the Post Office have resulted in more people being able to connect. All the equipment bought with the funding from Lancaster City Council has now been deployed for end user kit. Anyone wishing to connect from now on is welcome to contact us and 'try before they buy', we can help and advise you so you don't buy the wrong equipment.

Computer club meeting March 2nd consisted of discussions on music downloads from Amazon to collect mp3s (legally) and to copy them on to CDs. More blogging. Configuring wireless access points, and utilising the benefits of free storage on gmail.

February 2006

The George and Dragon got wifi'd. Now we have two hotspot public houses in our village.

Computer Club meeting Thurs 16th Feb at the Institute was mainly about digital photographs and updating webpages with contribute. Also a bit of voip.

Computer Club meeting Thurs 2nd Feb at the Institute consisted of more voip, weblog creation and dealing with security issues and virus protection.

Please fill in the Notspot survey if you are in a region with little or no access to a broadband connection, it will only take a minute and can be found here http://www.notspot.info and visit the cbn forum if you need help to get a connection in areas that BT cannot reach. http://broadband-uk.coop

January 2006

Digital Dales Broadband colloquium was held in Wray Saturday January 28th and was well attended by community groups from the region. It was followed by maggot racing in the dragon, which was a great success. £632 was raised for North West Air ambulance service, photos on Maggot page.

19th Jan Computer club, reporters updated web pages for scarecrows, new members used googletalk, discussed home networks, played with some wifi kit, more mail merge help from Simon. Discussion on Ram Cds and how to copy films. Downloaded photos from cameras and tried different card readers.

The Computer club was a great success and well attended by many members of the network as well as people on the adsl broadband, and people with no access at all. Lots of help was available for people who have only just started using computers, and a 'techie' corner for people who wanted to know more about mesh networks. Several people already using voip (free phone calls over broadband) installed the system for other people on their laptops and showed them how to use it. Google Earth was demo'd and everyone wanted to download that too, so luckily they could do it from the wifi institute and learn how to use it. Simon taught a bunch how to do a mail merge and print labels, and the 'techies' got into a corner and talked pda's and other Interesting Stuff. The next meeting was decided upon, 19th Jan at the Institute 7pm.

Computer club. Thursday 5th January, to be held in the Institute where wifi facilities are available so bring your laptops! Watch out for posters in the village. The new meshboxes installed in December have resulted in more users of the network. Please continue to report any problems using the contact button on this page, or to apply for a connection and we will contact you asap. Most areas of the village apart from round the spout now have a signal.

December 2005

Two new mesh boxes installed in the village at Gars End and Home Farm which we are hoping will provide coverage for all the blank spots, new users installed and existing connections improved. Photos on blogspot click here

Use the 'Contact' button if you want a connection to the network. A workaround for sending mail has been resolved for people wishing to carry on using their old email addresses with the Wray network, see Outlook Mail Fix for details. There is still some free kit available to enable your computer to connect so don't waste any time, contact us now to get on the list.

Wray won the Calor Village of the Year award for being the best ITC village in the North of England. Representatives from the Parish Council attended the ceremony in London and will shortly receive a cheque for £500.

(We didn't win the DPM award, but it was an honour to be shortlisted).

November 2005
Wray/Wennington projects have been short listed in the Deputy Prime Minister's office award for Sustainable Communities, and has also been chosen by the Lancashire Association of Town and Parish Councils to represent the county in the Calor Village of the Year IT section. Results expected soon.

October 2005
The new network near the village has continued to grow and is now a Ltd company. Connection costs £25 a month for a 2meg symmetrical feed and the businesses connected are delighted with the service. Both projects have featured in a film to promote the benefits of broadband in rural areas, it was made by the NWDA and is online at You Tube, Click here to watch the JFDI vid

On the Wray network October has seen speed tests start with the university research department, and the mesh in the village has performed very well. We are still trying to connect people to the service, but volunteer fatigue means we are struggling to find enough time to do all the work. Several team members have huge workloads but more volunteers are starting to come forward to offer their help. If we haven't got round to you and you still wish to be connected please use the contact button and leave your details, email address, phone number and name! If you would like to join us and help others then please let us know, the more the merrier!

The Rural Matrix project has finished and we would like to thank Dave Farr and Harry Rawlciffe for all their help since September 2003 when this whole network was first conceived. Their help and support, lessons and advice have kept us all going. Without them we would never have known what real broadband was, and would have been unable to help other communities. Thanks to them we have been able to have lessons on DTP, Web pages and Databases. We wish them well in whatever new projects they undertake. With a bit of luck they will get further funding and help other villages the way they have helped ours.

September 2005
The whole new network we built in July went 'live' officially on 1st September after completion of beta tests through August. A 2meg symmetrical feed is being used through the mesh and the people involved are trying out voip phones and webcams. They are reporting back on the uses they can be put to. They are enjoying being able to download and upload files which they couldn't do before on the old dial up connections they had. Several have started weblogs, details of which will be published on the Wray blogspot as they go live.

August 2005
The second phase of the new network was finished with an outdoor mesh installation to bring broadband to an area out of sight of the Wray network. Final configuration of the mesh is almost complete and a workaround for sending mail has been resolved for people wishing to carry on using their old email addresses, see Outlook Mail Fix for details.

Google Earth has gripped a lot of people and wasted many hours searching for interesting places. Try it out at your peril.(Free download) Zoom in from space and see your house, then zoom out to where you went on holiday. Find local sites of interest (even plumbers) and overlay roads to find directions. Great fun.

July
WrayComCom applied for funding early in June to build a new mesh network in a village near Wray. The NWDA and LDDA saw the potential for case studies and we were awarded a grant. The new mesh network was built in three days using mesh boxes from Locust World. Training was also provided for the Wray Comcom team. At some point during the next year the two networks may be meshed together to provide greater resilience and lower running costs. This may help to prove the point that a small amount of kick start funding for the infrastructure can enable small rural communities to bridge the digital divide that is growing ever wider. The NWDA are to be applauded for their forward thinking, and hopefully this shining example of communities working together can be replicated in other areas.

June
A successful mentor weekend (thanks to CBN) highlighted the need for further training for our technical team. This was provided by SWBB and ORB who taught us the basics of mesh management and explained differences between 2.4 and 5.8 frequencies. (We are learning all about it in readiness for when the university research is over and the network will belong to the community).

On June 23rd Dr Nicholas Race was awarded the Community Prize by the University for his work in Wray. We nominated him and the University have judged him worthy of this honour.

Click to read the press release from the project that Nick and his team are working on with Wray

The start of June has enabled the aerial fitter to get on to the roofs and install the special kit to enable people with very thick stone walls on main street to get a signal. On the 6th June four families and one business got a superb connection via this method. A further number are now awaiting the arrival of more of these antenna. We didn't want to buy too many in case they didn't do what we thought they would, but they have, so the rest of the people waiting will probably have one of the same. They are very small and un-obtrusive, and we are very pleased with their performance. While the aerial man was in the village he also tweaked other antenna and increased the signal to the craft barn, which was starting to slow down due to leaves on the trees. The University are now ready to start testing the speed of the mesh, and at some point in June we will begin downloading the files for them.

May 2005
The beginning of May Marked the opening of the Village Craft Barn/Tea Room which is one of our village hotspots. The scarecrow fair took up the early part of the month but new equipment has arrived and is being installed in houses throughout the month. Anyone living in the village who has registered an interest will be contacted this month.

The Mayoress of Lancaster cut the ribbon and declared the BT Community Communications Computer open for all to use. Left to right: Paul Maycock (chair of WCC) Deb Perrins (treasurer WCC) the Mayor and Lady Mayoress, Pat Staveley who owns the Tea Rooms and Craft Barn. More photos of this event in photo album on Wray village website, just click here to visit it

April
April was a busy month, more end users were connected and more connectivity brought into the main street via the institute. Two Webcams were installed for the Scarecrow festival and broadcast for 24 hours a day while the scarecrows were here. One camera filmed the street and one filmed the field where the fair is held. Each camera took a photo every thirty seconds. They were provided by the university and kindly hosted by the Lowis family. There were some spectacular sun rises over mealbank and it was great to watch a whole day in a couple of minutes and see thousands of people having fun. These films have been archived and the cameras taken down until they are required again.

March
The main street now has a signal, and the barn at the end of the village, Bridgehouse Farm Tea rooms now is a hotspot. We have installed the community computer, generously donated by BT COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS in the barn for a trial period. You can use this computer to access the network and try out broadband.

The Institute in main street is also a wireless hotspot, but there is no equipment there. You can access the service there with your own wireless laptop, just email us for a password and username.

The university have started a forum for all people joining the network, this can be reached from this link: network forum You can use this forum to register to join the network, find stuff out, complain, learn, and inform others. You can use it for general chat or anything you like.

Feb 20th
Lots of responses from the flyers, and everyone who replied is now on the list waiting to be connected. A couple of clusters of people at Holme farm and in the main street are still in areas with no signal, so work is underway to raise the aerials. We have found that the signal is being deflected off the chimney pots in wet weather. The university team have decided that if we put the antenna just above the roofs the signal will then reach most parts of the village. We are currently waiting for a scaffolding firm in order to do this work safely. Classes on DTP are now running at the school on Monday nights, and Web page classes are due to start in April, use the contact form at the top of the page if you haven't already registered.

February 5th
Flyers have been distributed throughout the village to invite people to join the network and help us to make it into a real mesh. The university team are coming out next week to analyse the signal and in order to make it stronger. Working together we hope to be fully functioning before the scarecrows start to appear. The University are planning to use the mesh for research, so the more people using it the better the research will be.

January 2005
The whole month has been taken up with trying to configure the mesh boxes to talk to each other. We have all learnt a lot in this time and feel it has been a steep learning curve.

We won four awards at the CanDo colloquium held in Grantham, which makes us proud of what we have achieved so far. The online centre was off for a period whilst we tried to get an access point working. We are pleased to say it was back on in time for the internet and email classes.

December 29th We will have a stronger signal in the village and will start installing new users in January. We have funding from Lancaster City Council for the first 25 or so customers, and funding from UnLtd to choose and test kit and build a library of equipment for triallists. We have funding for Aerials and fixing from Rural Matrix. Let us hope that we learn a lot in the next few months and get our network solid. We have got WiFi in the Online Centre so if your laptop is wireless then nip round and give it a try. Lessons for beginners start in the New Inn in January, call in for details. Desk Top Publishing Classes are scheduled at the school and at Broadwood for Jan/Feb/March.

All through December we have been sourcing kit and trying things out, and it is all looking good. Three new mesh boxes have arrived from the University, and three antenna provided by Rural Matrix are installed as an interim measure until the kit arrives from America. We haven't been able to update this webpage on a regular basis because things have changed on a daily basis and it has been a real busy time. We hope to do better in 2005!

November 19th 2004 Even better news, the mapping exercise done over the past few weeks has highlighted exactly the right kit we need to purchase to get the signal into our homes, and it is all ordered and paid for so we should soon all have access to real broadband. We are grateful to the University NRSP unit, Rural Matrix, The Lancaster City Council and Wray School, who are all working together on this enterprise with us. We are also grateful to Myerscough College who lend us Laptops and Cameras to run taster courses to get people going on computers and see how useful they can be for work and play.
Sad news, the follow up BBC interviews were to begin at the end of the month (November) but we have had to cancel them until the New Year because the network is not fully functional. The equipment we need is on it's way from America and the mesh boxes are waiting but are all ready here. We were all looking forward to taking part in the interviews again but it will be something to brighten 2005 and will be a useful exercise for both us and the researchers from the Beeb.

November 10th 2004 Great News ! Many thanks to Lancaster City Council. The E-Government Committee have awarded Wray Com Com a grant to assist with the cost of installing the first users on to the system. We have yet to clarify if this can be used for aerial fitting or just the hardware. Watch this space. The funds should cover in the region of the first twenty five installs. If you are interested and have not yet signed up please email deb.The plan is to review the list of those who registered an interest initially and work out the numbers. Anyone else wishing to join the list please contact us. Following our meeting last week we anticipate the monthly fee for the service will be about fifteen pounds a month which is exceptional value for a 2mb connection. We plan to give priority to those from the list who will have the strongest signal whilst we gain some experience of the installation process. Anyone planning to buy a new computer wishing to join the scheme should make sure it has a wireless networking capability. This really is brilliant news as it gives us the chance to offer a low cost introduction to wireless broadband. Thank you Lancaster City Council !

November 1st
Tests are going well and by Friday we should know what sort of kit we are going to buy to put end users online. Email us if we haven't got your name on our list, we aim to start installs this month. Just click the 'contact us' link at the top of this page.
October 28th
Tests started this afternoon at 4pm and will continue every day for a week to build up a map of the village. If you see strange people walking around with a laptop scratching their heads it is only us. We start at one side of the village and take readings all the way round to build up the information we need. It is all good fun and we are learning as we go, as Dave (our guru from rural matrix) explains what the problems are in each location. If you see us this week and want to become a trialist do stop us and make your feelings known. As soon as we get some kit organised we can start installing end users.

October 25th
Tests are starting this week to enable us to deploy more mesh boxes. The mesh box technology will strengthen the signal through the village and we should get it into our homes before Christmas. The first trialists are reporting very good results, even with a poor signal, so once the new kit is installed the results should be even better and we can start to put others online. We have a meshbox called Miss Piggy to find a new home for, and she has to go where she will serve the most people. Kermit, Ernie and Bert are already transmitting, but it looks like it will take a feminine touch to make the signal work well. We have great hopes that she will be able to get the signal into Tim's house, as currently he has to download his emails by sitting with the laptop in the dog kennel outside

Update October 6th
The Avanti trial currently running in Tatham, Botton and Millhouses has been upgraded from 2.4 kit to 5.8 this week. This is because of the limited range of the lower frequency not being able to get through the leaves on the trees in the area. It was a similar solution to the one the university used in the village trial. The 5.8 kit works on a higher frequency and so now both systems are working well, with download speeds of at least a meg and uploads of up to half a meg on the Avanti trial, and 2meg on the village one, which is very good and all the trialists are very happy. Now we are concentrating on the village network which is about to be enhanced with more mesh boxes to increase the range of the signal. Currently the online centre and a couple of other houses are the only ones utilising the service, but we hope more can be connected soon.

http://www.intothemesh.com/ - this is a site which tells you all about mesh networking, and they have put a link on to us, we are getting famous at last!

September 30th - an email from the NRSP today confirms that the extra mesh boxes are expected to arrive any day now, so the network in the village will get a boosted signal and more people will be able to access it. The online centre is having great fun with the new broadband service, at 2mgb it is four times faster than the normal ADSL connection that a lot of people subscribe to and everyone is wanting to join us. At the moment anyone living in the village who can access our network can have free broadband until we get the system tested and working well. Use the contact us form (on the left) for details of usernames and passwords you will need.

VOIP, click here to read about it, it is free phone calls using broadband!

September 20th
The Online Centre is back with Broadband!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dave and Harry (The Minister) spent all afternoon rigging up some kit to put the computers onto the wireless network. The signal at the end of the village is very weak, 28% received, so they needed a little access point upstairs to feed the signal to the computers downstairs. Janine clocked up amazing speeds when she tested it last night. It is 7 times faster than the old ISDN line they had before. This is real good news and it means people can go into the Inn and try it all out to see if they want it in their homes. Theoretically the same sort of kit will work for anyone who can't actually 'see the yagi'. Further tests will continue and results will be posted here. The online centre is shortly to have it's own webpage, watch this space.

September 13th
The NRSP unit has ordered some more mesh boxes to boost the signal around the village. They are quite happy for the dogs in the kennel to have their broadband but appreciate the fact that most of the villagers have their computers inside the houses...

September 10th
Bad news today, our online centre has had to close. The funding from the LCC has finished but we have been lucky enough to have it for nearly three years. The centre held the record for the most used ISDN line in the North West. We are trying to get the broadband signal into the building as quickly as possible and then it can be used again by the community. The Lancaster City Council have agreed that Howard and Janine can keep the computers at the New Inn, so by the end of the week they should be working again but without internet access. Classes can therefore continue in most subjects. Our online centre will return, but this time it will be our VERY own. Power to the People.

Sitting still and wishing Makes no person great.
The Good Lord sends the fishes.
But you must dig the bait. Anonymous

September 9th
News just in is that Tim's dogs have broadband. The signal in his house needs an antenna to bring it in, so he took the laptop out into the dog kennel and managed to download a 15meg file in five minutes off a very weak signal from the middle yagi. This is taking broadband to the extremes when we start providing it for dogs too!

September 7th
A wardrive round the village picked up a signal from nearly everywhere. There are some black holes and the NRSP will deploy more meshboxes to cover them. If anyone can pick up the signal contact us for passwords to login. This will be a free service during the test period so make the most of it, have a go and let us know!

September 4th
Tests today with a modern wireless laptop have picked up a weak signal on Wennington road, but that weak signal downloaded an 18meg file in 2.5 minutes. The same file took hours on a modem. Amazing. If you have wireless kit let us know if you can get a signal and you can do the same! Janine is sat in the beer garden at the inn surfing away...

September 1st 2004
Nick and the team re-configured the meshboxes at the school and now we are live. The signal is not strong enough to pick up at the corners, so we need to get another aerial fitted onto the Online centre. Further tests are running to see where the signal can reach. If you have wireless enabled kit at home could you see if you can pick up the signal, and if you can email us for details of how to access the network trial - use the contact form at the side of this page.

Thursday 26th August: The first end users will be connected on Tuesday 31st August. The NRSP unit are coming out with the gear and probably the online centre will be the first to go live. As events unfold news will be posted here. Watch this space

The network went live today, 17th August 2004!

Yesterday (Monday 16th August) the Cleo unit installed new kit on the NTL mast at Melling and a new set of kit at school. Today, Tuesday 17th August the NRSP technicians configured the signal to the mesh boxes. A strong wireless connection was picked up outside the school. Over the next few weeks we will be contacting those who have already registered to be trialists, and once the system is tested and working we will open it up to everybody. We will be posting our charges on this site so you can compare them to others and know what a bargain you are getting! We will also post a form for you to use to register for this service. Watch this space. Wray is coming into the broadband age at last. Email us if you want to know more or would like to join our committee, new members always welcome! comcom@wrayvillage.co.uk

20th July 2004	The scaffold came down today, thanks to Rhino Scaffolding for removing it once the yagi were installed, it would have caused interference with the signal and also stopped the builders erecting the new kiln house where the scaffold stood
15th July	A meeting of the steering committee was held to see how we could get the signal out to the rural community and over the hill to the bobbin mill area round the spout. "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?" ~ Albert Einstein	We might have to apply for funding and enlist the help of more members, anyone interested? "Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand."
13th July 2004	Broadband signal from Melling Mast reaches the school, it comes via Quarry house to Melling to us. The technicians from the university have installed it in the equipment at school, we are nearly there.	The University reports problems with interference from other sources holding the job up. They are trying to get it all fixed then the trial can start.

"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be." - Alfred Lord Tennyson 1st July - a signal is received all round the village. We have just been right round and picked it up on a PDA so we know the network works! Anyone in Wray Village can join the wireless network and get a good reception. Now the trial can start. The backhaul (signal) from the University will be enabled around the 13th July, so if you want to be a trialist then contact us now and let us know. Your first three months connection will be free while we get the bugs out of the system and you will have to help us a bit and it will be necessary for you to be computer literate. You will be asked to pay a deposit for your equipment but this is re-fundable if you choose not to stay with the wireless network so you have nothing to lose. After the three month period if all is working properly you can choose to subscribe to the service and at that point anyone can join in and they should have a brilliant connection by then. Contact us now if you want to register, or want to know more, email us here: register or read all the pages on this site for more info. June 30th, and finally we get the Yagi antennae installed on the school roof. (Photos below) It has taken many months of planning to get to the stage where the installation can finally happen. Currently we have had no funding, and it has all happened as a result of the hard work and enterprise of the Broadband for Wray Group, Lancaster University, Rural Matrix and Wray Endowed School. The University team have worked hard sourcing and testing all the kit, and designing a network that will be safe for people to use. The school equipment is now all on site thanks to Rhino Scaffolding providing a safe access to the roof for the electrician Graham Spavin. Graham has installed the mesh boxes in the school in the eaves of the building because they need to be very close to the antenna. The University team will then check to make sure the signal reaches all round the village. Once that is done we can start to install the end users. This page will grow as work progresses. The photographs below of the three corners of the village were taken from the spot where the yagi antennae are fixed to the school. We weren't sure we could see these places and so it was a relief to see that we could! From the ground we couldn't see the school, but we knew it was one of the highest points of the village. "As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it." Albert Einstein We are very grateful to the vision and foresight of the teachers, governors and staff at Wray Endowed School for being the host to the network. They realise how much it means to the children and their education to have a broadband connection at home as well as in the classroom. In rural areas it is even more important than in urban ones, as villages like Wray do not have the facilities of the towns such as libraries and meeting places, and some village children leave home at 7am to travel to secondary schools and only get home late. Broadband connections mean that they won't have to wait for long periods to download their homework and coursework. Modem connections have made it very difficult for them to keep up with their contemporaries in the urban areas. Now that ADSL broadband has become cheaper and more parents install it at home for their children it is important that the rural children who can't get a connection due to distance and faulty wires can have their own wireless connection in the not to distant future. We are trying to secure funding to take the signal out into the community and connect all the farmers and small businesses in the area. This network will encompass all the farm children. The children of Wray Endowed School will not be disadvantaged in the future when they go to secondary school in the towns if we can make this network happen. It is the children who will bring the older people in to the network, and show them the benefits of broadband. The network is the people, not the computers. Power to the People.
"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be." - Alfred Lord Tennyson first corner This is the corner of the village approaching from Millhouses. The signal will reach the new complex being built there by John and Pat Stavely. It will be a plant and craft centre with tea rooms, with lots of attractions for visitors to the village.
second corner The second yagi is pointed at the far corner of the village approached from Wennington.
third corner The third yagi is directed at the Online Centre at the New Inn. This facility is used by many of the villagers, and currently holds the record for the most used online centre in the whole North West area. Once it has broadband it can move on to even greater achievements. Howard and Janine have managed to secure funding to keep the computers for a further period, and lessons are available free for groups of up to six people. Contact them at the centre or use the contact form on the left of this page if you have a group wanting to learn AnyThing.
Currently we are taking bookings for Databases and Web page design classes. The Desktop publishing ones were a great success thanks to the tutor, Harry of lime green wetsuit fame....	"A year from now you will wish you had started today." -- Karen Lamb

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work,
but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Cetad course for farmer's wives and small/med businesses
this is a course to utilise the benefits broadband and ITC will bring to us, by training us in the management skills to improve our rural businesses. No formal qualifications needed to join, but you will end up with an NVQ4. Oh - and it's free! It starts w/c July the 19th, so book a place quickly or you will miss it.

Update 30th June, the yagi have been installed today by Graham. He commented on what a brilliant scaffold he had to work on and how safe it was. He has fixed up three yagi aerials to send the signal to three corners of the village. We need more kit to get round to the fourth corner (the bobbin mill) but we have to find more funding before we can get the signal over the trees to them.
Update 28th June, the scaffold has been put up this morning on the gable end of the school, and now the antenna can be safely fixed to the roof. Check out this link for photos of the Rhino team. Rhino
360 click here to go to the photo album with views of 360 degrees round the school hub	Photo albums started!
Update 24th June Our Aerials! This is Graham who will fix them up. I think we had better start a photo album of this project.
22nd June, rhino scaffolding will be at the school on Monday 28th to assemble a tower to put the aerials up safely. We are very grateful to them for their help and advice. (If you need a scaffold they are the people to contact). The technicians from the University will then join the mesh to the aerials.	21st June - The first part of the village network will be installed at the school on Thursday and Friday this week. The electrician Graham Spavin will run the wires to the equipment and put the mesh boxes in. We will soon be live... ...watch this space.

http://www.nrsp.lancs.ac.uk This is the site of the research department at the University who are doing a project on the Wray network.

Rural Matrix who help us learn about broadband... - they will do classes in the village for all who want to learn. Any number between 2 and 6 pupils catered for. Classes so far have included: Wireless networking, Databases and Desk Top Publishing. Venues have included the school and the online centre in the New Inn.

June 16th, The Adsl guide says we are enabled. That means that if you want broadband through your phone line and live close enough to the exchange you can get it from today onwards. If you do subscribe to this service please post your opinions of it on the forum, if your ISP is a good one let us know.
Forum online for broadband chat just click here

June 15th, just heard that the equipment is being installed at school on 24th June, we are nearly there.

The open meeting for the village was held on 6th June 2004.
The steering committee for broadband delivered their report for the end of Phase 1. It was well received by those present.
Aftab opened the meeting with an introduction, followed by Paul's presentation of the report.
Chris gave a short description of the two trials which are presently under way, one for the village and one for the rural areas. Aftab then described the advantages/disadvantages and costs of ASDL broadband. Paul then gave the community the choices available to them with full details of what each would entail.
Refreshments were served while a short film was played about other villages which have already built their own broadband networks. A short Q&A session followed where all queries were answered and people were asked to fill in a form with their details and what they wanted and how they could help if a co-operative was to be formed.

The meeting closed with everyone going home with plenty to think about for the future but better informed than they had been before it.

Many thanks to the Institute for the loan of the facilities, Paul and Aftab for the presentation equipment, Howard for the refreshments and to the people who attended. Email if you would like a PDF copy of the full report

Lessons learned from the meeting:
1. If you want a brew with sugar and not salt then don't let Chris make the tea
2. If you want to use the institute remember to book it first
3. If you want to run a video through a laptop remember to bring some speakers

It was a good meeting nevertheless, and hopefully the next one will go like clockwork!

Update May 24th

We have all been very busy since the last update, the scarecrow festival took a chunk out of the month but we are still making lots of progress. The village is about to get it's wireless connection and the trial is going to start very soon. We now have to know who wants to subscribe to the wireless service on the trial, and who would like it after the trial when we have perfected it. Some of you have already registered an interest, so you may be contacted in the next week if you suit the geography of the initial installation.

The Broadband for Wray Group would like to invite you all to an open meeting on

Sunday 6th June at 3pm in Wray Institute

After many months of research we are now able to deliver the final report on our progress. An open meeting will be held and anyone interested is welcome to attend. With the exchange in Hornby being enabled this month we want to inform everybody of the options that are available. We can then make a more informed choice of the way we want to use broadband. We value your opinions of our report and wish to hear them.

Although we don't have all the answers, we have far more than we had at the last open meeting, and if anyone manages to come up with any questions we haven't already thought of, we will endeavour to find out and let them know asap.

We also need to contact people to help us with two surveys,

1) a BBC survey on broadband use, so if you are free on 10th or 11th of June and are fully intending to get a broadband connection soon please email me bb@wrayvillage.co.uk and let me know if you are available for a short interview. We need all sorts of people for this, families with children needing the internet for homework research, isolated users who use it for email and contact with others, people interested in the security angle, skeptics, young and old alike all your comments will be valuable. Of particular interest is anyone who thinks that having a broadband connection will make a difference to the economy of the area or that it will change any social aspects of our community. (You only have to think something - it's not a case of knowing it!)

2) The University also want to do a pre broadband interview:
‘The Impact of Broadband on Rural Enterprises’ so any volunteers for that would be also most appreciated. They want to interview businesses, home workers and the self-employed. They also want to interview businesses who have decided not to use the technology at all. (This survey will be totally confidential and will ensure your anonymity) email me bb@wrayvillage.co.uk and let me know if you are available, it will take an hour and will be repeated in 12 month’s time to see if your opinions have changed in any way.bb@wrayvillage.co.uk

Update 20th April

We have broadband in the valley!

A satellite dish was installed in the Botton area and connected houses in Millhouses and Tatham. 5 trialists are now online and have surveys and tests to complete. It is great, the phone line is free to use for calls while the computer is connected to the internet and it is a lot faster than with a modem. Once it has all settled down a bit we will publish some results here.

Update 23rd March
Initial surveys done for the wireless links in Wray and the satellite links for Millhouses and Botton. We are hoping to be able to test and trial the service sometime this month. If you haven't registered an interest in having the wireless connection (as opposed to a landline one) then make sure you email us on this link: email the group

Update 6th March
Three of the committee went to an open day at Cybermoor, one of the government pilot schemes for rural wireless broadband. We learned a lot of things there and came to the conclusion that rather than re-invent the wheel we would apply for funding to use them as consultants for our project. They are one of the  pioneers of this type of enterprise and are aware of many pitfalls. Their vast knowledge and expertise should save us time and money in the long run. We are waiting for funding to help this happen. We have also formed our group into a co-operative, in order to access funds for the consultations, lessons, surveys and initial installation of the wireless network/the extension of it.
We have distributed 300 flyers throughout the community, if you would like one and haven't got one there are some at Wray Post Office. Alternatively you can contact us by email. Email the group  Please register your interest soon if you would like to be involved. We have had a tremendous response and are working as fast as we can to deliver! It is going to take longer than we imagined, but we will do it. There are many groups like us throughout the country, and we are pooling our information and learning from each other.

Update 18th Feb
After the successful Landline Broadband Campaign I have just been informed that the exchange will be enabled on the 16th June 2004. There is a message board on www.getonandgetit.co.uk/HornbyBroadbandNow/ if you want to post your news and views on service providers or any other topic. - Steve Openshaw.
Forum online for broadband chat just click here (this is an old forum, new one is linked above, this is left for history purposes)
Depending on how close you are to the exchange the full range of connection speeds may be available from 512kbps right up to the 2Mbps.

Update 12th Feb

We are in communication with several organisations who will help us in our quest for 'broadband for all' in our area. If you know of anyone who could help in any way please ask them to contact us by email.  Email the group

Update 9th Feb

We have reached the threshold for enabling the Hornby Exchange, but if you haven't registered you still can do and it might encourage BT to do it a bit sooner.Up to date we have 20 customers for a wireless broadband service.We are holding a course in March for anyone interested in learning about Wireless.

The Cleo Hardware has been installed for the School, we are waiting now for NTL to enable the mast at Melling.

Jan 25th 2004

A Group has been set up to investigate the possibility of bringing Broadband to Wray. We have been offered the chance to join the CLEO project which will bring broadband to Wray via microwave link. There was a Public Meeting on Saturday 24 January at 3.00 pm at the Wray Institute.

Representatives from CLEO and The Leader + Matrix Group were at the meeting to answer questions. The Leader + Group will help us put forward a bid for grant money if we are interested in this project. The more people who join in, the cheaper it will be. We are not sure of the exact cost but it could be substantially cheaper than via BT. If you are interested in joining us or want to make a firm commitment then let us know your name and postcode to include your property in the initial survey. Leaflets will be available at Wray Post Office and coming through your doors in the next few days. (FEB 9th)

Landline Broadband available to all. Another option for obtaining broadband in the area is to get BT to enable the Hornby telephone exchange so that ANYONE with a telephone line in the following villages can get broadband:- Wray, Melling, Hornby, Wennington, Docker, Arkholme, Farleton and finally Gressingham. In order to do this BT has set some threshold values for the number of people expressing an interest before they will enable an exchange.The threshold for the Hornby exchange is 250 and we already have 80 people who have expressed an interest. In order to promote the fact that the population on an exchange can work for themselves Steve Openshaw of Wennington has volunteered to manage a landline campaign. Steve supports broadband of any flavour but he will concentrate on the landline campaign so that the two possible broadband options are pursued. Steve is currently sending out promotional material to all villages. This link (http://www.getonandgetit.co.uk/HornbyBroadbandNow/) will allow anyone to register an interest in the area. Please note that registration is free, requires no commitment and does not mean you have to connect to Broadband with BT as your Service Provider..any Service Provider can be used. All registration does is get BT to enable their exchange. In addition, by passing this information on to those who may not yet have a pc or internet connection we can accelerate the process of getting broadband. Remember this scheme is driven by YOU. Once the trigger level is passed the exchange will be enabled usually within 10 weeks. Steve can be contacted on 22122 if you want to register or you can use the link above. (Steve Openshaw)

Please continue to email with any thoughts or concerns or suggestions you might have. We are not mindreaders and we value your comments.

September 2003
A group has been set up to investigate the growing rural/urban digital divide. The broadband for Wray group will find out more about broadband and how we can get it into our village.

Comment: What does broadband mean? Click here to find out - report by Simon Aughton 2003

Links

Community Broadband Network- Real Support for People without Broadband
To register interest:  visit the project's website at www.broadband-uk.coop
 or call 0845 456 2466 and get involved Online Forum http://www.cbncan.co.uk

South Witham Broadband a similar project to ours but in the South. They help us with advice because they are working to the same goals.
http://www.abcampaign.org/www.abcampaign.org
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