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Temporary Wireless Service For An Outdoors Event?
SBECK writes "I've been asked to come up with an estimate of how much it would cost to provide wireless internet service for a small convention being held at a campground. That would entail renting or buying enough wireless access points to give coverage to the area and getting temporary satellite Internet service. Unfortunately, I've never done any of this, so I'm floundering. I'd love to get some pointers from anyone who has any experience setting up something like this. What ISP services provide temporary satellite service for something like this?"
you should check out psand(http://wireless.psand.net/) who have been doing this at various outside events and festivals in the UK using satelite to get conectivity. They are a very frendly bunch (I met one of them in Bristol, UK) and I am sure they would love to talk to you. I think they were involved with C4's Big Brother House Reality TV thing also. They even had a tricicly with wierless access. "To visit our general Internet and network services web site click here. Internet connectivity has become an integral addition to the majority of outdoor events, both as a service for public and professionals, and as an essential part of the event organisation. As many outdoor events take place in rural areas, establishing the set-up for Internet connectivity often requires installation of a cabled network, which can be both expensive and time-consuming. Psand.net specialises in satellite and wireless communication networks. As a fully self-contained mobile unit, we are able to arrive on site before or during your event, and establish a fast, reliable and cost-effective Internet connectivity network in a matter of hours, without the need for cabling or any other installations. In the summer of 2002, we provided Internet connectivity at a number of large-scale weekend festivals in the UK. Using our innovative technology, we provided an Internet café, as well as the facilities for media streaming and live radio broadcast to web."
Camp Area... Wireless Access... what you really need is this.
I don't know much about this kind of technology, but I know that there are similar setups going on at the Burning Man festival every year. Maybe it's worth looking around the site to see if you can find anecdotes and contact info for people who've done the same.
Also, the Mars Society uses satellite hookups to keep in touch with its field stations. Perhaps they can give you some pointers?
Depending on where the event is held and how well cellphone signals can be received, you might also want to try a mobile phone carrier. A lot of the larger UK events like Glastonbury are, I believe, getting support in this area from larger telcos. It may be more complex, and will probably involve getting everyone a new PCMCIA card, but it could be an option.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help; sadly IANA techie, but I hope these couple of snippets I've seen around the net are of use to you.
"It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." -- Zork
Have you thought of checking the hills in and around the campground to see if any of them have line of sight into a town?
You may only need 2 directional antenas instead of a satilite uplink.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -Plato
Even for satellite providers, you will need some sort of uplink like an ISDN or analog line
Sorry, this is wrong. Check out DirecWay for at least one provider for 2 way sat comms.
It depends on the country that you are in..but most of the small sercice providers will be able to help sort something like that out for you.. try talking to them..if they can not help directly they most likey know a company that can.
Even if you offer them a stand at the event to allow them to show off their services, you can probley get them to help out!!!
I know the manager, but not sure if they have what you need.
http://www.eurorent.ie
There are plenty of open source solutions for setting up a mesh network, some of which are covered here.
Thomas Krag & Co. also maintain a wiki that you may find useful.
Mobile Mesh runs in user-land and is covered by the GPL. It seems to get the best reviews.
-- Douglas
Problem being that the DW6000 + Dish costs over $1000 cdn for the equipment, let alone the installation, which is not simply plopping a dish on the side of a barn like DTV woud be. The tuning of a DirectWay/Lincsat dish is extremely sensitive, especially for the uplink. Once the dish is properly aligned for +60% transmitter strength, the mere act of gently tightening the bolts often throws it +/- 5% out of wack.
Lincsat is trying to get the DW4000 modems out the door, and is offering a deal of $499CDN with dish, free installation, and 'only' $49.95 for the first two months. After that, the price goes up to the regular $79.95/month for the remainder of the two year contract.
Last year at the Mid Atlantic Star Party, directway was gatewayed into a field near Robbins, NC for a large group of amateur astronomers. www.masp.org now has the plans for 2004 and the 'internet' activity links to an invalid page. It worked quite well. They used an MS box for the gw, you could use the dw6000, I suppose, to better advantage. They also had multiple linux boxes running local web servering and the like. Not sure if they used squid or what but if so, it was a transparent proxy method. Cheers, Russ