The city-wide WiFi network Hillsdale FreeNet will be updated this spring in hopes to increase the internet speed.
While FreeNet is available throughout the city, most Hillsdale College students studying downtown said they prefer to use local business’ WiFi, such as Jilly Beans.
“[FreeNet] not super fast. I can check my email and do basic things with it, but I only use it as a last resort,” Hillsdale graduate student Margarita Ramirez said.
Hillsdale FreeNet creator Jeff King recently moved back to the Hillsdale area and said he is hoping to do some updates to the system this spring.
“We are aware of the speed issues. There have been a few issues with the system we hope to have improved in the near future,” King said.
Hillsdale FreeNet was first set up in 2004 by King with the name “HillsdaleCoolcities.” City WiFi was still new and not very many cities were using it, even in 2006.
“Big companies and cities — like San Francisco and Pittsburgh — were bragging about free WiFi,” King said. “In Hillsdale, it was designed to improve the experience of visitors.
It was relatively new at the time, and it was kind of a community effort. It’s very common now, of course.”
Originally, the WiFi operated from routers which were centralized in city hall, King said. In 2008, this was updated, and now there are WiFi nodes throughout the city, creating what King calls a “mesh network.”
“There’s about 20 nodes in Hillsdale. It’s called a mesh network because if one node goes down, there are others still interacting with each other,” King said. “We’ve got some on lampposts, one on top of city hall, one in the library bell tower, and some individual businesses, like Checker Records and Toasted Mud.”
In 2010, the network ID changed from “HillsdaleCoolcities” to “Hillsdale FreeNet.” Since Hillsdale FreeNet was set up by a private business, it receives individual
donations instead of government money, King said.
King moved away to Holland, Mich., in 2009 but continued to work on the WiFi
network. In August 2013, he moved back to Hillsdale. Since his return, King plans to upgrade the FreeNet.
