Downtown Kankakee A “Hot Spot” of 21^st Century Technology

Kankakee Development Corporation, the City of Kankakee and the Daily Journal have joined forces to bring inexpensive wireless Internet services (WI-FI) to Downtown Kankakee and possibly to the entire city.

If the current success of the WI-FI testing continues, all of Kankakee will be a “Hot Spot” for wireless users, from laptops to games to IPAQ’s.  This is an optimistic observation from Wade LeBeau, I.S. Director of the Daily Journal who has been testing the wireless connections since late December 2005.

“There is literally only a handful of cities across the country that provide this service to its’ residents.  The leadership and forward thinking of KDC, Mayor Green and the Daily Journal puts Kankakee out front on this new development rather than waiting for others to take the lead,” stated KDC Executive Director, Tim Schmidt.

The test area covers roughly from Court Street to River Street and parts of 3^rd Avenue to Harrison Avenue.  The media outlet has been serving the area with a wireless ISP for six and a half years.  The WI-FI will offer access to web mail, video and IP phones on a secure connection, behind a firewall.  The system also seems to have a strong signal, working perfectly in LeBeau’s first floor office, surrounded by the electronics of the newsroom, printing area, and technology from the above floors.

The antenna for the wireless service is on the Journal’s roof.  LeBeau stated that, “On January 26 we installed a D-Link wireless access point to expand the local coverage area for WI-FI downtown Kankakee which currently includes city offices.  During one test LeBeau found that, “connections were made as far away as the Burger King parking lot to the South and West towards the Depot.”  Testing was conducted using a Sony Vaio, HP iPAQ and Sony game system, connecting to both the Internet and E-mail, expanding the network we can mesh the access points together using access point repeater mode.

LeBeau is excited at the prospect of the WI-FI.  “This is great for both the city and the paper.  We hope to be able to move farther north with it.  It’s a good way to exceed customer expectations,” while also moving Kankakee even further into the technology rich 21^st century.