Pictures of the January LabNet test will be available as soon as JT returns to #Lewis.The beta testing was done with the PalmPilot version of the client (shown running here on a Palm V) and the OmniSky wireless adaptor. Unfortunately, the picture is a bit blurred, but hey, it's hard holding a camera and a palm V.
Put simply, LabNet™ is the answer to the cries of pupils unfairly treated in schools across the country. Gone will be the days of authoritarianism, LabNet™ welcomes the age of pupil sovereignty in the classroom.
It's simple client/server architecture will mean even the most computer illiterate user will be able to gain at least some use from it. Built from the ground up to run on the Microsoft® Windows family of operating systems and current generation GSM phones, LabNet™ is 100% compatible with your existing hardware. It is designed to be run with as little cost as possible to the end user, and next to no cost to the Service Provider. It's flexible requirements mean it can be run from secure locations, and with the PGPNet® encryption plugin, your data will be safe from prying cell-hackers.
Building on the wireless technology that your very own Lab6 is hosted from, LabNet™ is, at it's most basic level, a common operating environment for related software to be run (and controlled) remotely. The server software will be licensed from us, Lab6, for use across different "zones". Each zone will comprise a transmitter machine running the LabServ server, and multiple clients to be used by pupils.
A basic server will be a PC running Windows 95/98/NT, and a GSM mobile phone. LabServ can be run as a service in NT, or scheduled to operated between certain hours, probably coinciding with your school's hours. Since the majority of the bandwidth will be between the CPU and the phone, a powerful system will not be necessary unless running the server in advanced mode, which we do not plan to support until the next release (it will only work with GPRS mobile phones anyway). If you are planning on offering Internet access as part of your Local Service, your server will need some kind of connection to the Internet.
The end user client is extremely simple and portable. Currently, we have only tested it on PalmPilots (the only hardware available to us right now), but we plan to support EPOC32 and Windows CE in the near future. There have been requests for Acorn versions, given that a lot of schools still use them. There is one problem with this - our school doesn't use them, and we have no idea how to program for them. Perhaps a skilled Acorn programmer could contact us...?
Given that not many people will have access to the school's own computer network, and would also find it extremely hard to place a desktop PC inside their school, LabNet™ supports laptop servers that can be well hidden. The GSM phone is the component likely to cause most trouble. In the past, we have used it to connect directly to the Internet, thus allowing the laptop to become a remote host, but the LabServ software is a broadcast system (allowing the phone to broadcast to a virtual private network, i.e. LabNet™ instead of dialling a conventional ISP and incurring a very large phone bill for owners of non-chipped phones). We don't expect everybody to have chipped phones (and thus free phone calls), so we built it this way.
LabNet™ broadcasts on a unique frequency, specified from within the server software so as not to cause any interference with other schools nearby. In the future, LabNet™ may support booster hardware to allow schools to connect to each others LabNets.
The clients have three designations: Administrator, Broadcaster and Viewer. The Administrator has full access to the LabServ software, whenever they are in range, using a handset. We strongly recommend using PGPnet to avoid teachers 'listening in' on your transmissions and cracking passwords. The Broadcaster client allows live transmission on video and sound across the whole LabNet™, with the appropriate hardware. The Viewer client is simply a receiver, and can only watch/hear broadcasts or call up Lab6 data.
Yes, unfortunately. The client is just software running on a regular PDA such as a Palm Pilot, HP Jornada or Psion Organiser. These PDA's require modems and phones to operate within school as nodes of a particular LabNet™.
Remote administration is 100% supported by LabNet™. As long as the host is connected to an Internet line (whether a land line, spliced into the school's own RM Network, or a chipped mobile phone such as the host machine for Lab6), you can change settings, broadcast and watch broadcasts from any client.
The software has been tested in a secure environment (read: at home), and seems to be working fine. The only hardware we've tested in school is the Palm Pilot running the client, and a very simplified version of LabServ running only the web server for Lab Six, and in NarrowCast mode - getting the phone to broadcast independently on our own frequency is proving to be quite tricky. We've had very little access to our host machine over the past few weeks, so testing has had to wait until now. We hope to have it running perfectly by March
LabServ will be distributed free, as the client displays Lab6 banners at intervals (once every 30 minutes). The clients are also free, but you may want to charge for connecting to your LabNet depending on how you run the server. If, like us, you have a way of powering it from a school power source, you might as well give it away for nothing. If you have to maintain the machine regularly, you may want to charge a small fee to cover your costs. Note: During the holidays, your school will turn it's power supply off - LabServ must be set to run in Wakeup-on-LAN mode in order to conserve it's host's batteries for the duration of the holiday. We survived Christmas, with intermittent problems, but it's unlikely that we can get power consumption low enough to last for a full six week holiday.
We suspect that pupils will use it to broadcast lessons which they find amusing (well, that's what we have used it for, so far), and for showing up teachers doing what they do worst. Recording soundbites will also be possible, as well as live IRC-style communication between classrooms.
Of course they will, but they can't do anything about it. If the host is hidden well enough (and they'll never find *ours*), you are safe. The clients can be password protected so that they appear as regular applications on the client PDA, thus any confiscation of client hardware will be able to prove nothing.
We'll keep you updated. Let the Labbage begin...