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My google search found a number of results, including Linux on the WRT54G and a result from broadband reports.

You might look for wireless ISPs in your new or prospective location. Most WISPs are very small companies, so you'd probably get a chance to do some of everything--network admin, programming, tech support--not to mention tower climbs in snowstorms. Read up about this new and absolutely fascinating industry (to me anyway, since I work at a WISP) at the Broadband Reports WISP professionals' forum. --C. Crowley, Wiacomm, Inc.

You might look for wireless ISPs in your new or prospective location. Most WISPs are very small companies, so you'd probably get a chance to do some of everything--network admin, programming, tech support--not to mention tower climbs in snowstorms. Read up about this new and absolutely fascinating industry (to me anyway, since I work at a WISP) at the Broadband Reports WISP professionals' forum. --C. Crowley, Wiacomm, Inc.

Just so somebody else doesn't have to look this up, geosynchronous orbit is at 19,323 nautical miles, while the various radar and broadband blimps are proposed to be at around 12 miles up. So satellites have an inherent 100ms delay each way, the blimp version would only have a one-way delay of 0.06 ms.

First, this isn't a "first in the nation", even though the article claims it is. We've had BPL in Manassas for a few months now. I'm pretty sure I've also heard about a city in Florida and somewhere out west, but I'm too lazy too search Google for them.

On the impact to Telcos, Qwest has announced "naked" DSL where you don't need to purchase dial-tone to get DSL and one of the reasons they cited for packaging it that way was to compete with BPL.

To find out more about wireless Internet:

• The WISP forum on Broadband Reports (an excellent resource for all kinds of fast Internet)
• The WISP users forum on BBR
• Directory of WISPs at Part-15.org
• Another nationwide directory of WISPs
• Alvarion's broadband wireless access site - some good information in their product descriptions and white papers

Yeah - gotta like the SBC speeds. Qwest is still pushing their crappy 256/256 or 640/256 dynamic IP service in MSP and I laugh at them every time they call (I can do better, even at those speeds). I wanted a static IP, which is why I dumped Comcast, and I had a single option: Speakeasy. Unfortunately, Speakeasy's not a cheap provider, so I do pay quite a bit ($70 now for my 1500/768, will be $90 in January unless I downgrade to 1500/256). I'm thinking of trying to find some people in my area willing to go wireless broadband, though, and start reselling my 1500/768 Speakeasy connection (which they allow and encourage with a 50% discount, and even provide the billing - but I provide support to users using it). Heck, just finding one neighbor to do it may make it cheaper than the base rate...

If you haven't tried broadband reports, you should - I was able to browse several hundred broadband providers prices in my area. Accuracy isn't 100%, though (for some reason, it thinks my CLEC has a provider that is only in the CLEC south of me), so use it as a tool for investigating what you want.

Why be such an asshole?

Just there was a story on increasing options to the Linksys WRT54G wireless routers. Maybe you can try 4 of those (1 per floor) and settings (encryption is a must so people not allowed to, steal your bw) to help against abusers.

You will need access hardware from/for your ISP (e.g. cable modem, DSL modem, etc. Usually Most likely you will need at least one wireless AP for each floor. Depending on the thickness of walls and size of the building, multiple APs might be necessary. Budget around $100 (rough number) per AP for consumer grade equipment, which is all you probably need. Don't forget to put each AP on a different wireless channel - and stagger the channels to minimize frequency overlap (e.g. Floor 1: Channel 1, Floor 2: Channel 9, Floor 3: Channel 4, Floor 4: Channel 11).

You probably need a NAT since you will have many people needing IP addresses, unless you want to get a subnet prefix from your ISP (at $7k that isn't likely). So at least one NAT box is needed.

If you are comfortable with Linux networking, take a look at a Linksys WR54G as described here - one of these on each floor would allow you to have a cheap AP + detailed control of banwidth (i.e. make sure that no one guy hogs all your Internet connection).

At the access point you will need to put that NAT mentioned above, plus a switch for between floors. The Linksys could act as both and is a cheap solution. If Linux isn't your bag, then a decent low end (SOHO router) such as a D-Link DFL-300 would be a good thing (with built-in firewall to boot, which would help).

In terms of wiring, get at least CAT 5 cable run ("CAT 6" is even better) to every floor. A separate wire to every floor, all culminating in the basement (or wherever your Internet access is) gives a measure of reliability in case of a wire fault or router fault on one floor. A patch panel at the termination point of all the wires is a good idea.

Expect to spend a large amount of the money on the labor for getting the wiring done. Professional cable pullers can charge high 2 digits to 3 digits/hour. If you hire a professional company to do the whole thing including picking equipment, setting it up, etc., then $7k isn't near enough.

it seems the author has submitted this project to sourceforge and is waiting to be set up.

You can read the details here and here (original thread). It was caused by an update released back in November 2003.

You can read the details here and here (original thread). It was caused by an update released back in November 2003.

The most comprehensive FAQ that I know of about Direcway is at BBR.

I've had Direcway since December 2002. In short, it sucks, but at least it ain't dialup.

The lag is god awful. Minimum latency, by the laws of physics, is 600ms, and more usually twice that. Forget ever playing any online game. Pages take nearly 5 seconds to even begin loading. FTP and email are so painfully slow you want to gouge out your eyes.

The download speed can't be beat (depending on what satellite/transponder they activate you on), but upload is a joke. All customers on a transponder fight for the same 128kbps upload speed. Dialup is better and more reliable for uploading any file larger than 20kb. When you do upload something, don't hold your breath because you will probably max out at 20-45kbps.

Yes, rain/snow/heavy cloud cover knocks it offline. Since you're in the north, it will go down easier than it would here (weaker signal the further north you are). I usually have to cycle the modems when the rain knocks it off. It fills up with static (probably could be grounded better).

This probably won't apply to the new Dway 6000, but the model I have (4000 I think) has software which Direcway uses for A.) Remote Access and B.) Popping up full page advertisements. See here for details.

Tech support is a joke. Don't bother. Go to Copperhead or BBR if you need help.

I don't know about the newer system, but I'm behind a NAT (and I think this applies to everyone unless you pay for a static IP). You cannot run a server because of the NAT. SSH probably won't work. I can't use VNC unless someone on the server side initiates a client connection to me first.

Then, there is FAP. FAP (Fair Access Policy) is a joke. If you download more than 169MB within 4 hours, they firewall your connection. They claim they throttle it to dialup speed, but that is a lie. The internet connection dies for hours after the FAP kicks in. If you decide to download a .ISO or other large file, use dialup because it'll download slower but in much less time than trying to work around FAP.

I would suggest taking a very hard look at Starband before spending any money with Direcway. I plan to switch to them myself as soon as I can afford to do so because of Direcway's popping up ads on my PC. I need to recover from Christmas first.

The most comprehensive FAQ that I know of about Direcway is at BBR.

I've had Direcway since December 2002. In short, it sucks, but at least it ain't dialup.

The lag is god awful. Minimum latency, by the laws of physics, is 600ms, and more usually twice that. Forget ever playing any online game. Pages take nearly 5 seconds to even begin loading. FTP and email are so painfully slow you want to gouge out your eyes.

The download speed can't be beat (depending on what satellite/transponder they activate you on), but upload is a joke. All customers on a transponder fight for the same 128kbps upload speed. Dialup is better and more reliable for uploading any file larger than 20kb. When you do upload something, don't hold your breath because you will probably max out at 20-45kbps.

Yes, rain/snow/heavy cloud cover knocks it offline. Since you're in the north, it will go down easier than it would here (weaker signal the further north you are). I usually have to cycle the modems when the rain knocks it off. It fills up with static (probably could be grounded better).

This probably won't apply to the new Dway 6000, but the model I have (4000 I think) has software which Direcway uses for A.) Remote Access and B.) Popping up full page advertisements. See here for details.

Tech support is a joke. Don't bother. Go to Copperhead or BBR if you need help.

I don't know about the newer system, but I'm behind a NAT (and I think this applies to everyone unless you pay for a static IP). You cannot run a server because of the NAT. SSH probably won't work. I can't use VNC unless someone on the server side initiates a client connection to me first.

Then, there is FAP. FAP (Fair Access Policy) is a joke. If you download more than 169MB within 4 hours, they firewall your connection. They claim they throttle it to dialup speed, but that is a lie. The internet connection dies for hours after the FAP kicks in. If you decide to download a .ISO or other large file, use dialup because it'll download slower but in much less time than trying to work around FAP.

I would suggest taking a very hard look at Starband before spending any money with Direcway. I plan to switch to them myself as soon as I can afford to do so because of Direcway's popping up ads on my PC. I need to recover from Christmas first.

The most comprehensive FAQ that I know of about Direcway is at BBR.

I've had Direcway since December 2002. In short, it sucks, but at least it ain't dialup.

The lag is god awful. Minimum latency, by the laws of physics, is 600ms, and more usually twice that. Forget ever playing any online game. Pages take nearly 5 seconds to even begin loading. FTP and email are so painfully slow you want to gouge out your eyes.

The download speed can't be beat (depending on what satellite/transponder they activate you on), but upload is a joke. All customers on a transponder fight for the same 128kbps upload speed. Dialup is better and more reliable for uploading any file larger than 20kb. When you do upload something, don't hold your breath because you will probably max out at 20-45kbps.

Yes, rain/snow/heavy cloud cover knocks it offline. Since you're in the north, it will go down easier than it would here (weaker signal the further north you are). I usually have to cycle the modems when the rain knocks it off. It fills up with static (probably could be grounded better).

This probably won't apply to the new Dway 6000, but the model I have (4000 I think) has software which Direcway uses for A.) Remote Access and B.) Popping up full page advertisements. See here for details.

Tech support is a joke. Don't bother. Go to Copperhead or BBR if you need help.

I don't know about the newer system, but I'm behind a NAT (and I think this applies to everyone unless you pay for a static IP). You cannot run a server because of the NAT. SSH probably won't work. I can't use VNC unless someone on the server side initiates a client connection to me first.

Then, there is FAP. FAP (Fair Access Policy) is a joke. If you download more than 169MB within 4 hours, they firewall your connection. They claim they throttle it to dialup speed, but that is a lie. The internet connection dies for hours after the FAP kicks in. If you decide to download a .ISO or other large file, use dialup because it'll download slower but in much less time than trying to work around FAP.

I would suggest taking a very hard look at Starband before spending any money with Direcway. I plan to switch to them myself as soon as I can afford to do so because of Direcway's popping up ads on my PC. I need to recover from Christmas first.

Some of the things covered here are correct. Ping times suck (800-1000ms), upload sucks, downloads rock. BUT, there is FAP More info can be found at the Broadband Reports Sat. Forum and a guide for tweaking your network is at tweakhound An example of a statstics someone is getting today, 2004-01-26 07:15:03 EST: 1726 / 32 Your download speed : 1726359 bps, or 1726 kbps. A 210.7 KB/sec transfer rate. Your upload speed : 32325 bps, or 32 kbps. Your upstream result was very slow! .. not good Seems like broadband .. above the 1mbit barrier!

Direcway is alright for browsing but its not real useful for much else. They have a fair access policy which limits you to 206Mb down in a four hour period. If you exceed that limit, you won't have access until your average goes down (a few hours).

SSH and VPN work over it, but the latency is pretty bad. I used both a great deal and rely on a dial-up connection for them if I'm doing anything involved. SSL is also tedious through it since it doesn't go through Direcway's proxy...

FTP is pretty poor over it as well - especially if you're uploading. My 56K dial-up connection is about twice as fast for uploads as my Direcway service. Forget about online gaming.

If you just want it for browsing and small downloads, its great. Otherwise, it is certainly not worth the expense. I had Roadrunner for 2 years before moving out to BFE and I'd say calling satellite internet "broadband" is false advertising.

Check out BroadbandReports for more information

The best way to think of the Fair Access Policy is like a bucket of water, which refills at a rate of about 5 KB a second. The bucket fills up to 169 megs (for the consumer version, 350 for the more expensive one), and if you empty the bucket in a four hour period you are penalized by being throttled down to dialup speeds for a while. What this effectively has meant for me is that I must schedule downloads of large files in chunks. I use leechget to download a 169 meg chunk in the morning, then let the bucket refill, and download another later in the early evening, then maybe schedule another one in the middle of the night - when the limit goes up to 225 megs. Web browsing is pretty comparable to dialup due to latency, not anything close to when I had cable (didn't want to switch, but had to move). The best part is the download speeds, which usually equal or exceed the speeds I was getting with cable. See here for user experiences and the best tech support you'll get with this service, and also read the FAQ here

The best way to think of the Fair Access Policy is like a bucket of water, which refills at a rate of about 5 KB a second. The bucket fills up to 169 megs (for the consumer version, 350 for the more expensive one), and if you empty the bucket in a four hour period you are penalized by being throttled down to dialup speeds for a while. What this effectively has meant for me is that I must schedule downloads of large files in chunks. I use leechget to download a 169 meg chunk in the morning, then let the bucket refill, and download another later in the early evening, then maybe schedule another one in the middle of the night - when the limit goes up to 225 megs. Web browsing is pretty comparable to dialup due to latency, not anything close to when I had cable (didn't want to switch, but had to move). The best part is the download speeds, which usually equal or exceed the speeds I was getting with cable. See here for user experiences and the best tech support you'll get with this service, and also read the FAQ here

A true geek is always connected. The price of cellular internet has come down, and the speeds are going up, to the point where its feasible for full time use.

Links:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions /b roadband/index.jsp

http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/5668

http://www.patents.com/pcs/

I've been using it for about 4 months now.

It pretty much sucks, but until there's a better option, it's usually better than dial-up.

You'll probably find a more informed discussion at broadbandreports.com forums. Also check out their Satellite FAQ

SSH sessions are pretty bad. However, in pinches they are possible by "typing blind". ie. typing your slew of commands and waiting for them to appear/happen. Can be a bit dangerous. :)

Reliability is pretty bad. We have regular snow and rain storms which usually knocks it out of service.

Speeds, http download is alright, although there is always a slight delay before things happen due to latency. Other download speeds suck, especially anything is encrypted. Upload speed is as slow as if not slower than modem.

But, we don't have any other options at the moment (come on airships!)

BTW our setup two way direcway using a dedicated w2k box with crappy internet connection sharing.

I'd like to see which software Mitch Bainwol has on his desktop: Shareaza, eMule, BitTorrent, or DC++.

DSLR/BBR sucks anyways. I should know. I've been posting there since September 22, 2001. Their news is slow to get posted and the forums are way overmoderated.

Case in point:

Your account has been banned from posting until 2048-02-23 23:28:33 for TOS violations.

Stuck? try the help forum

DSLR/BBR sucks anyways. I should know. I've been posting there since September 22, 2001. Their news is slow to get posted and the forums are way overmoderated.

Case in point:

Your account has been banned from posting until 2048-02-23 23:28:33 for TOS violations.

Stuck? try the help forum

Also, check this BroadBandReports.com/DSLReports.com thread for other AV and discussion.

Maybe try BroadbandReports? Somewhat poor signal-to-noise ratio, but best place to find lots of user feedback in my experience.

Actually, that's kind of funny, because that's the exact phrasing of Comcast's letter. Check out the Comcast forum on BroadbandReports.

Here

Broadband reports has been reporting that Comcast has cut off people for violating unspecified download caps while to refusing to state a clear bandwidth limit.

I believe that some carriers heavliy filter their GPRS connections.

this seems to indicate that T-M blocks outbound SSH. Tough break.

Reported several days ago here

Illinois citizens pay the price

These towns better look hard before they leap....

here

If you look for those answers on Broadband Reports

First of all, this is WAY old news. Comcast had been sending out bandwith notices quite a while ago.

Second, this has nothing to do with RIAA pressure. It has to do with tricky marketing, bait-and-switch, and money. Comcast likes to claim they are an unlimited service yet they want to give you an UNKNOWN limit of bandwith you can use (subjective to those users in your immediate area it seems - so if you are in Podunk and 5 people have cable and you are using X amount of bandwith above the average of the other 4, you are busted and lose your service).

Third, Comcast has a monopoly and almost 25 million subscribers. Like *I* have a choice of another provider for broadband (no DSL, wireless is cost prohibitive). I loved the note on my door on Friday: "Please note that we will be inspecting your cable outlets on Monday with your landlords permission, please move all furniture out of the way." How about no. Glad that the landlord changed my locks when I moved in and forgot to keep a key for themselves. I don't appreciate Comcast coming in in the first place, nevermind when I am not at home.

Comcast is real cute. Takeover a monopolized market, raise prices even higher if you don't have CATV, create bandwith caps if you go over some mysterious number, etc.

See here and here for more info.

Just my worthless .02

First of all, this is WAY old news. Comcast had been sending out bandwith notices quite a while ago.

Second, this has nothing to do with RIAA pressure. It has to do with tricky marketing, bait-and-switch, and money. Comcast likes to claim they are an unlimited service yet they want to give you an UNKNOWN limit of bandwith you can use (subjective to those users in your immediate area it seems - so if you are in Podunk and 5 people have cable and you are using X amount of bandwith above the average of the other 4, you are busted and lose your service).

Third, Comcast has a monopoly and almost 25 million subscribers. Like *I* have a choice of another provider for broadband (no DSL, wireless is cost prohibitive). I loved the note on my door on Friday: "Please note that we will be inspecting your cable outlets on Monday with your landlords permission, please move all furniture out of the way." How about no. Glad that the landlord changed my locks when I moved in and forgot to keep a key for themselves. I don't appreciate Comcast coming in in the first place, nevermind when I am not at home.

Comcast is real cute. Takeover a monopolized market, raise prices even higher if you don't have CATV, create bandwith caps if you go over some mysterious number, etc.

See here and here for more info.

Just my worthless .02

I think a good way to eliminate spam is to trace back the spammer who sent you the advertisement and question them... Much like this person has successufully done.

One would think that the spammers themselves deserve to be jailed. Interestingly, I found a case where the spammer is trying to send his spammed victim to jail!

Well thanks for being ignorant. I live in Ohio and broadband is all around me, problem is Verizon says DSL is not available even though the CO is reported live on broadbandreports.com, Time Warner services every house withing a quarter mile radius of my house, but doesn't service my house. The only broadband I could get is sattelite, and that's a minimum of a 700ms ping. Wireless? that gives you fairly low pings but shitty transfer rates and is only really available in metropolitan areas. Oh and BTW I play CS on my dial up all the time, and a 200ms ping is not too much, I can still kick ass. So you can go back to being ignorant or you can open your eyes and see reality.

Out here in Loudoun County Virginia -- home of AOL and major WorldCom offices, in addition to a myriad of other high tech companies -- there's very little in terms of broadband. If you are lucky, you can get the crappy Adelphia cable, but that's three years late in some parts, still.

But let me return to the focus of this message -- Verizon. We can't get DSL in much of the county because of fibre loops and because there's simply a lot of fibre underground, instead of copper. Nothing 100% substantiated, but there has been talk that this area was set up as a testbed for Fibre to the Home/Curb (FTTH/FTTC) about 12 years ago, but the experiment was cancelled.

So what has Verizon done? In the past two years, they've gone in and started the experiment all over, instead of using existing infrastructure, in a new part of the county, a new development called Brambleton.

I emailed the author of an article about the Brambleton Project, asking if the things they learned from it meant that the rest of Loudoun would benefit from the 'discoveries'. His response sound suspiciously like a non-response.

I wish I could post a copy of his answer, but the only copy I seem to have anymore is at broadband reports.com -- which seems to be down, currently. You can find it in their Washington-Baltimore forum, however.

There are a number of ADSL services, which all eventually go through Verizon. They are a little cheaper, but OptimumOnline has had much better reliability. Many people, including myself, have had enough problems with Verizon to never go there again.

There are a few WISPs, but they mostly provide business level service, and are too pricey compared with cablemodem.

Check out this site for more info.

IMHO, commercial telcos are interested in 1 thing, PROFIT. Not much R&D, no competetive pricing. Abysmal customer service.

You want us to fix that rat's-nest of wires behind your house? That will be $2000. It works, so we won't fix it unless you pay for it.

Read Jim Baller's remarks for a synopsis of technological rollout.

The article is too generalized. ISP speed and reliability are very much dependend on where you want to order service. I'd advise checking out a site such as Broadband Reports to find the best ISP in any area.

Almost everything you said there is untrue.

Most DSL is ADSL, which stands for Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line. That means that the connection is not a fixed speed. In other words, it's NOT dedicated bandwidth.

At the main hubs, both cable and dsl have to use some other kind of connection to the internet - T1, T3, etc. to connect to the rest of it, and both of them can have bandwidth problems.

The difference that can make you notice is that cable connections can be split much more easily than DSL connections. This means that companies are much more likely to give service when they've already reached capacity, since it's not much more trouble for them.

As far as capping...you must have access to some cable company that I don't know about. I've looked at the main broadband rating website (I think it's here), and it seems that a lot of companies cap the cable modems themselves, and a few do the subnet routers.

In terms of raw bandwidth, it is dsl, not cable, that is a dead-end. Cable services are slowly switching customers over to digital cable services. When this move is complete, all the wasted bandwidth being absorbed by an inefficient analog broadcasting protocol will be available for trasmission (not like they've even maxed out that part now).

In other words, when it is cost effective to offer speeds that are 100x what they are now, DSL won't be able to cut it without adding more wires, but cable will.

Broadband Reports Specifically their forums and more specifically the international section of their forums

Broadband Reports Specifically their forums and more specifically the international section of their forums

Broadband Reports Specifically their forums and more specifically the international section of their forums

Im sorry but this article is completely inaccurate. Im an OOL customer and I actively participate in the OOL discussions on broadbandreports. The discretionary cap was put into place because users were clogging upstream channels with p2p uploads. It got so bad that DHCP requests on some nodes (mine in particular) could not be recieved within even a 17 second ack window. It does NOT have to do with pressure from the RIAA.

Here's why: The cap is not a new portblock (they already block 80 to discourage webhosting), but simply a different cable modem config file with a lower upstream maximum. The ordinary config for OOL is 10 megabits down and 1 megabit up. the altered config file is 10 megabits down and only 150 kilobits up.

Obviously this is a solution that was implemented to control bandwidth, not specific applications. If OOL were to start battling p2p apps, it would come in the form of a portblock or traffic shaper - NOT an upload throttle.

To the author of the story, please do your homework. You can start in the OOL forums on BBR:

http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/cable,opt

Here's the announcement thread on the forums.