Local networking | The computer specialist for the Hermon school department creates an elementary solution to spotty Internet access

Twelve years ago, Jeff Wheeler arrived in Hermon, a town of 5,000 people just outside Bangor, and was aghast at the outdated technology in the local schools. The elementary school, he remembers, didn't have Internet access and his own office didn't have a phone jack, a symptom of limited funding from the town.

Wheeler had just been hired as the school department's micro-computer specialist, a role that included updating computers and Internet service in the elementary, middle and upper schools. It was a tall order, and one that wasn't particularly well funded.

Wheeler could have asked the school district to do what has become common: Subsist on as many Macintosh or PC computers as it can, and beg the town to allocate more funding. But Wheeler, an entrepreneurial guy who stands nearly six-and-a-half feet tall, decided to try something different.

Before the year was out, Wheeler created a department-wide computer network called HermonNet. HermonNet was considered revolutionary back then ˆ— it offered dial-up Internet access to the entire town through the school system. Now HermonNet is entering its second phase, and Wheeler plans to offer tax-supported wireless Internet access to the town through the school by the end of the year. Dial-up through HermonNet is free to residents, but the wireless will cost $15 a month.

A handful of towns in Maine are working on projects like HermonNet, using taxpayer money to set up wireless Internet connections for residents that rely on the schools as hubs, rather than wait for large companies like Verizon and Time Warner to activate those services. Today, about 15% percent of Maine functions without some form of high-speed Internet service, according to research from the ConnectME Authority, a state committee launched in 2006 to help solve access issues.

HermonNet, however, differs from other municipally-funded Internet services: It uses school technology to serve businesses and residents. As a result, Wheeler says, residents regard the local school department not as a financial drain, but as a community center. The school-based model also means students become tech-savvy, he notes, because they have to teach their families how to use the school's computers and Internet service. "It's one thing to make sure there are wireless networks in rural Maine. It's another thing to make sure [people] can use it," he says.

But the HermonNet model isn't exactly catching on statewide at any rate resembling high-speed. Wheeler has attracted attention from state leaders: Gov. John Baldacci and Congressman Mike Michaud have visited the town in recent years to check out HermonNet. In May, Joe Perry, a state senator from Bangor, sponsored legislation that would have replicated HermonNet elsewhere. But Perry's bill was defeated. Critics noted that HermonNet relies mostly on outdated dial-up and could strain understaffed schools. As schools begin consolidating into larger districts next year, too, these limitations make some reluctant to experiment with the HermonNet model on a large scale, Wheeler says.

So after 12 years of work, Wheeler's baby is stuck in its tween years. "We're at a moment of possibilities," he says. "Do we bury it? Do we destroy it? Do we take one piece and not the others?"

Geek, on the cheap

Wheeler created HermonNet in 1995, shortly after he was hired to run technology for the local school department. He knew a lot about computers, having previously run computer networks for the University of Maine. The job in Hermon was appealing because Wheeler could implement what was considered a novel concept: Allow town residents to use the school department's Internet for free. The town had just built a $12.5 million high school, and wanted residents to feel justified paying taxes to support it.

HermonNet has evolved over the years: At first, the school department allowed students to use its Internet to remotely access their assignments and the school's software. Students used a 36 kbps, dial-up modem, which was good enough for most back then. To Wheeler, extending Internet from the school to the town was a public service. "It's all about equity and distribution, being able to access that [technology]," Wheeler says. "If you build infrastructure to do that, so that parents [and] relatives can use it, before you know it, you have your first community dial-up operations."

Then, in 2000, the town realized its old Macs and PCs would be expensive to replace. Instead of blowing his budget on new computers, Wheeler designed a computer network that connects recycled, gutted computers to a few powerful servers at the schools. These servers store students' documents and software programs. The Hermon School Department now owns about 500 of these terminals, or "airboxes," as Wheeler calls them, and a few residents use them from home, too.

The terminals are the reason the town can spend money on Internet service for the schools and residents, paying about $2,400 a month for commercial-grade, T1 lines from Verizon. (Verizon has installed high-speed T1 lines in Hermon, but those lines are usually too expensive for residents to use, Wheeler says.) Each airbox terminal, made from computers thrown out by government offices, businesses, jails and other schools, costs about $35 to make ˆ— the price of a network card that connects it to the server. That server costs about $2,500, and can run about 40 terminals. Thirty new computers, by contrast, would cost at least $30,000, Wheeler says.

To make the terminals even cheaper, each one uses open-source software called Linux instead of an operating system from Apple Computer or Microsoft. In the last couple of years, several schools in Maine and around the country have begun using Linux software because it's free to download and can be tweaked to fit students' needs. Though it doesn't look quite as nice as a Mac, a Linux-based computer has similar programs to traditional operating systems, such as photo-editing software and word processing.

HermonNet ˆ— with its network of terminals and school-based Internet service ˆ— wouldn't have become popular in town without students' help, Wheeler says. Happy to have a personal computer with lots of programs, students persuaded parents and relatives to try the terminals, whose clunky appearance would have been a little disconcerting to some.

From dial-up to wireless

But there was one problem: Dial-up Internet had become old news. Ancient, almost. By 2005, Hermon's residents wanted high-speed, wireless Internet access, so they could watch videos and shop online. So Wheeler and Hermon officials decided to install wireless antennas in town, which would connect residents to HermonNet. The first round of wireless was expensive: The town built towers on its own because it couldn't persuade Verizon or Time Warner to do so. The expense kept people from using the service: Only about 40 residents and businesses bothered to pay $350 for installation, plus a $20 monthly fee.

This year, the town is working on making wireless access less expensive, while maintaining partial control over the infrastructure it builds. In July, the town signed a deal with Rockland-based RedZone Wireless to build what's called a mesh wireless network, which will cost users about $100 for installation and $15 a month for basic service. The arrangement will be less expensive than other municipal wireless services, and maintain the connection to the school, because Wheeler and his staff of three will provide basic customer service as part of their regular jobs, says Town Manager Clint Deschene.

Businesses who use Internet supplied by HermonNet are pleased with the service. Ande Binan, co-owner of DaVinci Signs at Hermon's Pinewood Business Park, is one of the few who signed on to HermonNet's early wireless service. Moving from Orono to Hermon, Binan had thought Verizon's wireless extended to the park. It didn't.

So Binan decided to use HermonNet's wireless. It costs him $40 a month, the business rate. "It's certainly affordable," he says. Even though Verizon has begun servicing the park with wireless for upwards of $60 a month, Binan plans to keep using HermonNet because it's cheaper.

Deschene is convinced the town's early investment in wireless service prompted Verizon to extend wireless service to Hermon, a lesson he's eager to impart to other small towns. "You have [to] invest in yourself first to get the private companies to come," he says.

Not buying it

While many in Hermon are pleased with HermonNet, some aren't sure it can be successfully duplicated in other towns. Tina Taggart, a library assistant at Hermon High School, says Hermon is "the best-kept secret in Maine" because of its network of terminals and municipally funded Internet service. But she acknowledges it might be difficult to replicate because the system is complex, and could overwhelm the one- or two-person technology staffs at many schools. Hermon, by contrast, has Wheeler, three staffers and two interns.

HermonNet's reliance on dial-up up to this year also makes state officials wary of using it as a model. Phil Lindley, executive director of the ConnectME Authority, says HermonNet's free, municipal dial-up service wouldn't allow users to watch videos or download large files. And Hermon's wireless component is still untested. Instead, Lindley is in favor of ConnectME's current project, to give $500,000 in grants to towns installing wireless networks with help from private companies, not necessarily adding schools to the mix.

"Hermon's first phase is not the solution," he says.

Dan Breton, chair of ConnectME and a representative for Verizon in Maine, is equally skeptical. "Do you have Linux in your office?" he asks.

Despite the drawback s of the school-based, dial-up model, two towns in Maine are considering building their own HermonNet to boost Internet access locally and save money on school computers. The town of Greenville plans to launch a small pilot of the program this year, installing eight airboxes in the elementary school with Wheeler's help. Meanwhile, officials from Machias met on August 14 with Machias Savings Bank representatives to discuss implementing a HermonNet model in town.

Greenville's HermonNet pilot won't be financially risky, says School Superintendent Heather Perry. Installing the airboxes will require $35,000 to $40,000 in startup funding, taken from the school's $116,000 technology budget. The technology budget alone is just four percent of the entire school budget, she says. "We're not entirely sure this is the direction we're going to go in," she says, but she's willing to try it because the school's laptops are "on their last legs" and would be expensive to replace.

Machias Savings Bank wants to bring the HermonNet model to Machias because it could help small businesses in the area, according to David Eldridge, a vice president in Machias Savings' business banking division. "In our area, we have a lot of small businesses and to stay competitive, you need to stay connected," he says. Eldridge and a team from Machias hope to visit Hermon later this year before developing more concrete plans, but he says the bank could offer its annual, $25,000 community development grant to fund the effort.

But some in Machias are concerned the school-based model would send the wrong message to private companies, whom they've spent time and energy to court. Mary Ann Hayes, who's working with the group as executive director of Maine Rural Partners in Orono, hopes that local companies, like Axiom Technologies in Machias, would continue to work in the area even if the town set up a school-based model. "There's a real concern about not messing up the private sector," she says. "We would not want to undermine their efforts as an investor in areas that have been left behind."