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Community Sets Up Their Own DSL

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-thats-a-great-idea dept.

Thrazzle Throne writes "The folks in rural Ruby Ranch got tired of lame dial-up server. They fought the phone company for use of their un-used lines and installed their own Dsl service. Very cool read."

32 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of by Strog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There was a small town out in the panhandle of Nebraska that decided they needed good internet to keep all the young people from moving away. They setup DSLAMs out in the country to within a couple miles of every house in the county. They didn't have to fight phone company but they did have to run a lot of fiber.

    1. Re:Reminds me of by ImaLamer · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's true... if my girl friend didn't pay the Cable modem bill I think I would leave

      --
      Get your Unix fortune now!
  2. And they're down for the count by Hatter · · Score: 5, Informative
    Slashdotted.

    Here's the google cache: linky linky

    1. Re:And they're down for the count by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Wow. A small group of dedicated individuals fights the Telcoms, wins, and gets their own homebrew DSP ISP up and running.

      Slashdot comes along, posts the story, and within seconds they're /.ed into oblivion.

      Now isn't that just the nicest way to start off your small CO-OP ISP--a deluge of traffic from marginally interested geeks who'll forget all about you in 48 hours.

      Editors et al, are you even considering the impact you have on these sites? You'll forgive me for being cynical, but the reasons you give for not caching smacks of "don't want to deal with it" rather than "genuinely concerned about the effect we have". (Wait six hours for breaking news? Heaven forfend...)

      Slashdot, you're like a bad concert. You come into town unannounced, make downtown completely inaccessible for a day, and leave the next morning without so much as packing out your mess. Take some responsability for the social impact of the Slashdot Effect. Pursue a solution. It is important.

      --

      Obliteracy: Words with explosions

    2. Re:And they're down for the count by sehryan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I definitely agree with your post. What I find ammusing is this little line from /. reply about why they don't cache...

      I could try asking permission, but do you want to wait 6 hours for a cool breaking story while we wait for permission to link someone?

      Let me see...wait 6 hours for a "breaking" story, or wait 6 hours (or more) while the server in question gets back on its feet, having to rely on nothing but the article summary on /. which we all know is usually completely blown out of proportion or just plain wrong. Yeah, you're right CmdrTaco, not caching links is better!

      --
      The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
  3. Why this is cool ... by pgrote · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This *is* cool because it's geeky, but what makes it even cooler is that the people behind the scenes walk you through what they did to make it happen.

    In their working against Qwest they had to settle a couple of issues. The include the forms and paperwork they used to make it happen and these can be used as a template.

    What pushes this over the cool mode into the must read are the accompanying technical documents. They have network diagrams, monitoring statuses and more. It's amazing.

    The best part of their site is a list of other communities have done the same thing.

    The site is dynamite and is full of information! One of the best articles I have seen on Slashdot in a long time.

  4. On another note by BurpingWeezer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ruby Ranch sets up the DSL, Slashdot effect takes it down...

    1. Re:On another note by MaxVlast · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, it's better than "guy installs commonly-used software on consumer device, turns it on, submits to slashdot." This is legitimately cool.

      --
      There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
      Max V.
      NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
  5. Slashdot on the horizon by Hornsby · · Score: 5, Funny

    Better pen up the cattle boys, I can see a slashdot brewin' up on the horizon.

    I suddenly find myself wondering if this is the first barn slashdot has ever taken down...

    --
    A musician without the RIAA, is like a fish without a bicycle.
  6. Coloradoans, unite! by Chagatai · · Score: 5, Funny
    Being a Coloradoan who lives out in the farms, I can totally appreciate what my fellow statesmen did in the mountains. Without a doubt, Qwest is the worst phone company out here, even worse than its predecessor, US West. People out here call it Qworst as they have no continuity or set goals for DSL. Some of my friends in more urban areas complain about DSL being available four blocks north and south of their street, but nothing in their region. I cheer about this development and will try to implement one, pending I get a tornado-proof shed in my backyard.

    And for one last dig on Qwest, here's an often-heard Coloradoan joke: What's the difference between Qwest and Enron? About six more months.

    --
    --Chag
    1. Re:Coloradoans, unite! by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There actually is something people can do when they don't get DSL, but it's available so close, like a few block away: it's called 802.11b. I was unable to get DSL, but my neighbor who is right across the street was able to get it, so I setup two LinkSys wireless access points (WAP11) at USD$150 a piece, and they paid the upfront costs of the DSL modem and installation (which came out to about the same as the two APs) and we're splitting the monthly costs. Qwest could be making twice as much in this case, but they don't, and they have no plans to offer DSL service to my house anytime soon, so oh well. There are others in the neighborhood who can't get it, so I'm thinking of potentially offering the service to them, for a small monthly fee (maybe $20) because we'd probably have to increase the bandwidth for our service, otherwise I'd probably do it for free.

      The moral is that even if YOU can't get DSL, but if someone CLOSE to you can, that's good enough and with a little talking to your neighbors you can be online at high speeds too.

      --
      Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
  7. Link to another Ruby Ranch article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Do-it-yourself DSL is no pipe dream
    http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2002/0408netb uz z.html

  8. Home Built Fiber Network by bahtama · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I also remember reading about these folks who made their own neighborhood 100 Mbps fiber network. The screenshot of the FTP download speed is just plain silly. The creator of the page even mentions "and 25-40 Mbps is possible most of the time - that means it is their single hard disk limiting the speed!". :)

    --

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    Oh bother.

  9. Why didn't they just roll out CAT5? by t0qer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've said this many times before, why are people in this kind of situation rolling out DSL? Why not just lay down new copper in the form of CAT5?

    It's dirt cheap. I've done it. Just look at these pics of my neighborhood area network. Currently 10 neighbors share the cost of an internet connection. We also share stuff we've grabbed from kazza, we have a intranet that announces the happenings and events on our street. Very cool stuff. Basically each house has a switch, and we daisy chain houses so we don't run into the 600' Ethernet limit.

    I can give a rat's ass about the AUP of my ISP because the question of packet ownership has to be asked. At what point do I own that packet? When I request a document from the web? When it hits my router? When it is on my copper?

    People can do this themselves, it's not hard. In a rural area you just replace the AC transformer brick on the switch with a battery/solar panel combo every 600', or you could something that has a bit more distance to it like token ring. Yeah maybe this all sounds silly, but we're doing it out here in silicon valley and it's been working for the last year.

    --toq

    1. Re:Why didn't they just roll out CAT5? by gmhowell · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You may want to invest in a bit of conduit. The insulation on that CAT 5 ain't gonna last forever. Also squirrels, mice, etc.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    2. Re:Why didn't they just roll out CAT5? by Target+Drone · · Score: 5, Informative
      I've said this many times before, why are people in this kind of situation rolling out DSL? Why not just lay down new copper in the form of CAT5?
      Here's the answerfrom their FAQ.

      Why not simply bury your own cable? In our neighborhood, the ground is full of rocks. This means that many ways of burying cable, such as a vibrating plow blade or a Ditch Witch, are unworkable. Pretty much the only way to bury things is with a backhoe. Backhoe work is expensive. Our neighborhood has many miles of roads, and we would likely have to spend well over a hundred thousand dollars if we were to try to bury new cable in the neighborhood.

      Burying new copper under our roads is particularly frustrating to think about, given that the existing phone cables buried by Qwest were overbuilt by a factor of three or more. In other words, some two-thirds of the pairs in the cables are spares right now, spares that would never get used by Qwest for revenue service. Qwest ought to be delighted at the chance of collecting monthly revenue from us for some of these pairs.

    3. Re:Why didn't they just roll out CAT5? by catfood · · Score: 4, Informative
      I've said this many times before, why are people in this kind of situation rolling out DSL? Why not just lay down new copper in the form of CAT5?

      One word: right of way.

      Oh, that's three words.

      But the simple reason you don't just run CAT5 all over town is that the state won't allow it. You could theoretically get permission from the owner of every property the wire crosses, but even then you'd need an easement from the city or township for every crossing of a public street.

      This is one of the more important reasons why one has some recourse when the ILEC won't provide a needed service. They've been given unique privileges by the state, and in return have a well-recognized legal obligation to act in the public interest.

    4. Re:Why didn't they just roll out CAT5? by t0qer · · Score: 4, Informative

      You could theoretically get permission from the owner of every property the wire crosses

      Yup, that's what we did...
      Sorta funny how it started out. I originally just shared with 1 neighbor, but then a guy on our street (who's also a pushy saleman) wanted to get on our network. Problem was he was 10 doors down from us. So he went door to door and asked all the neighbors in between if they wanted to participate.

  10. Site contents by afidel · · Score: 5, Informative

    About the Coop

    The Coop offers DSL service to all homes in the Ruby Ranch neighborhood in Summit County, Colorado.

    The Coop was founded in 2001 because no one offered DSL or cable modem Internet access in our neighborhood, and because the voice telephone service to the neighborhood is of such poor quality that it is not possible to get modem connections faster than about 26K bits per second. The Coop is a Colorado nonprofit corporation and is federally tax-exempt under 501(c)(12).
    The Coop's History

    The Coop has launched service.

    By far the biggest challenge faced by the Coop, a challenge that dwarfed any of the Coop's technical and financial challenges, was gaining access to subloops from Qwest under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. (The subloops are needed to connect the DSLAM to the subscriber homes. The buried telephone cable in our neighborhood has some three times as many subloops as are actually needed for voice service, and the subloops we wish to rent are among the hundreds of spare subloops which otherwise would generate no revenue for Qwest.) The course of negotiations was such that the Coop found it necessary to file an informal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission and subsequently found it necessary to pursue arbitration before the Colorado Public Service Commission ("CoPUC"). In the arbitration, the CoPUC found that "all of [the Coop's] proposed equipment is compatible with the Qwest network," and that "Qwest is technically able to accommodate [the Coop's] proposal." The CoPUC found that the Coop is entitled to pay "wholesale" rates for the subloops rather than much higher retail rates. Finally, the CoPUC found that because the Coop will be providing only data services (not voice services) and because the Coop will be offering its services to everyone in its service area, the Coop does not need to be a CoPUC-licensed telephone company. (This is very good news, since being a licensed telephone company would impose prohibitive accounting and record-keeping burdens.) After the CoPUC's arbitration decision there were further negotiations with Qwest, and a signed Interconnect Agreement between the Coop and Qwest has been approved by the CoPUC.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  11. Colorado has a long history... by tenchiken · · Score: 4, Informative

    Of cheap internet access. A while ago parts of the community came together to form The colorado internet co-op. In fact, if you look at the network diagram of this group, they use nettrack, which also has a connection to the co-op.

    Some of the more prominant Unixers on the co-op board are Trent Hein, and Evi Nemeth (two of the authors of the USAH) was also involved. The CO-OP has played a nice part in keeping colorado up and wired.

  12. The cost of a slashdotting by datastew · · Score: 3, Funny
    From the faq What are you recurring costs?
    The Coop pays for its data traffic on the T1 data line. This cost could be anywhere from $75 per month to about $450 per month, depending on traffic levels. After some months in service we will have a better sense of what this cost is turning out to be.

    Does anyone know whether that "about $450 per month" is the maximum charge? I guess they are about to find out. Sometimes I feel sorry for the slashdotted victims.

  13. This is wonderful! by uncoveror · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A co-op for DSL! I love it. This reminds me of the Community Antenna Television co-ops that created cable TV. Too bad corporations turned that into a money grab scam. I used to get my electricity from a co-op before I moved, and service was cheaper and more reliable than from those crooks at Cinergy. If the co-op turned a profit, I got a profit sharing check at the end of the year. Someone has proven that neccesity is the mother of invention, not just the potential to get filthy rich. I wish all utilities were available from co-ops and not corporate robber barons who gouge me.

    --
    The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
  14. Bizarre Metaphor by snicker · · Score: 5, Funny
    Could someone explain to me what this quote means?
    If you throw a dart at a map of the United States, much of the nation can't access broadband even if they wanted to.
    I was following the story pretty well up until that point.
    *nick
    1. Re:Bizarre Metaphor by digitalsushi · · Score: 4, Funny
      Could someone explain to me what this quote means?

      If you throw a dart at a map of the United States, much of the nation can't access broadband even if they wanted to.

      I was following the story pretty well up until that point.


      If you're going to ask questions like that on Slashdot, until the farmer realized all the cows were already home!

      --
      slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
    2. Re:Bizarre Metaphor by red_dragon · · Score: 3, Funny

      Help, Yoda can:

      If at a map of the United States a dart you throw, access broadband even if they wanted to much of the nation can't.

      Better now?

      --
      In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
  15. A barn, somewhere in Colorado... by Wraithlyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Zeke: Durnit! All of a sudden, the DSL got reeeaal slow, then it stopped altogether!

    Ezekiel: Hmmm, my 28.8 connection seems to be connecting fine... let's just surf on over to Slashdot... OH MY DEAR GOD

    --
    "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
  16. Simple, really... cause and effect by Rayonic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cause - You throw a dart at a map of the United States.

    Effect - Much of the nation can't access broadband if they wanted to.

    Solution - For the love of God, DON'T THROW THAT DART!

    --
    [PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
    1. Re:Simple, really... cause and effect by BlowCat · · Score: 5, Funny
      Cause - You throw a dart at a map of the United States.
      Effect - Much of the nation can't access broadband if they wanted to.
      Solution - For the love of God, DON'T THROW THAT DART!
      Wrong. The right solution - ban darts. And maps.
  17. Bureaucracy by m_evanchik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From their FAQ, it really sounds like the biggest obstacle was the lack of cooperation from Qwest.

    The Phone companies forget that they are public utilities. They are given certain privileges, not least of which is monopoly power, not so that they can turn a profit, but so that their service can do good for the community. The profit motive is just an incidental factor to encourage them to invest in providing that service.

    Hats off to Ruby Ranch for having the moxie to get the thing done. I wish I could get 1.5Mbit SDSL for $60/month.

    --

    evanchik.net

  18. Something similar, and older by jimmu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is Lariat.

    Its basically a co-op out in rural wyoming that provides internet access, support, and other stuff to members of the community. Pretty interesting, really. Check out their FAQ, or their Clone Us page which has information on how to create your own local community network.

    --

    ----
    One of us needs to stick ones' head in a bucket of ice water.
    - Hobbes
  19. Hey, it's in Colorado by DarkHelmet · · Score: 3, Funny
    I wonder how the people in South Park are taking the slashdotting:

    Stan: Why's this damn thing taking so long?
    Kyle: Stupid slashdot crashed our DSL.
    Kenny: MFFMFMMMFMFMMMFMM
    Stan: Yeah, this movie of Cartman's mom's taking forever to download.
    Cartman: That's it! Screw you guys, I'm going home!

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
  20. Way to go! by cr@ckwhore · · Score: 4, Funny

    As if slashdotting some poor guy's PDA earlier today wasn't enough, the hounds behind slashdot, the worlds #1 DOS trigger, had to go take out an entire community.

    Way to go guys!

    --
    Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com