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A Portable Satellite ISP in the Middle East?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-net-connection-in-the-desert dept.

charyou-tree asks: "I'm a US Navy doctor deployed with the Marines in Afghanistan. I and many Marines have brought along our own laptop computers, but hooking up non-government machines to the network here is prohibited. Consequently, we're all stuck waiting in long lines for 15 minute blocks of time on a few designated 'morale' computers to send email home. What I'd like to do is set up a bidirectional satellite connection (like what DIRECWAY offers in the US), and then have individual computers hooked up over 802.11 - completely bypassing the Army network and its restrictions. In the sense that I'll be providing network access to other people I'll be an ISP, but I'm not interested in turning a profit on this. What other hardware and service provider options are there?" "The absolute requirements are:

1) Needs function in Afghanistan and Iraq (since we expect to go there next)
2) Needs be reasonably portable
3) Needs be end-user installable
4) Some way to throttle bandwidth to individual users so one guy can't bog the whole thing down.

So far I've only found one bit of hardware (the Hughes Personal Earth Station) but no service providers; what else, besides 802.11 cards and an access point do I need? "

59 comments

  1. You Need A Good Lawyer by bolix · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    For the military tribunal.

    Morale PCs are bottlenecks for a reason. You can't audit the unknown. You're not seriously thinking of setting up unauthorised communications facilities in a warzone? Get a clue.

    1. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by wayne606 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't assume he hasn't already investigated that issue and found out it wouldn't be a problem. Are soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan allowed to make phone calls home without supervision? If so then I can't see how homebrew internet connectivity would be forbidden. It's not like Al Qaeda is going to get any useful information by tapping into their WiFi networks (or will they?)

    2. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ooh, so close!

      This was very nearly the first time I modded someone down, but thankfully you included the phrase "get a clue" and anyone who's been on the 'net a while knows that speaks volumes about the person saying it.

      Life modded you down already.

    3. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by nocomment · · Score: 1

      One of the guys in my church (pastors son actually) just got back from Iraq. He's in airborne (helicopter mechanic). One of the things he said was that airborne is way better than infantry because if you need something, you go pick it up. They were stationed about 30 miles north of Baghdad and they flew to Kuwait to pick up their satellite internet equipment that someone had ordered. They were emailing like crazy once that thing was installed.

      --
      /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
      /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
    4. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by KrisJon · · Score: 1

      Dirty little secret #1: The morale computers setup in Iraq have absolutley no monitoring or restrictions on them. The Army was more concerned about giving Soldiers a resource, so they spent the big money on an unusually good service. The official DoD network is just too taxed to support everyone, so a commercial ISP is the only way to go for the masses. You should be happy: most connections over the DoD network are genunie molasses speed.

      Dirty little secret #2: They haven't yet begun cracking down on people who purchase their own connections or Sat phones. Yet. You are _supposed_ to be a professional and capable of understanding what you should and should not transmit. Recent events have shown some lack human decency let alone professionalism, but that's a different discussion.

    5. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by norculf · · Score: 0

      It's not been proven that any Iraqi civilians have ever been beaten and abused by the United States military. You are obviously just hating America because it is "cool" to do so, rather than having any actual facts.

    6. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by bolix · · Score: 1

      Anonymous Cowards speak volumes but no one listens. Automatic mod down. Stand up or shut up. Thats the point of /. dialogue.

    7. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by bolix · · Score: 1

      Its not only a question of supervision but also of authorisation.

      Ad-hoc initiative in a battlefield leads to randomised variables outside of executive control. Thats fine in a safe urban environment - worse case scenario you fuck up and some fat geeks steal your bandwidth. In a hostile environment, its another ballgame and can be deadly.

      Think: Loose SIPs sink ships?

    8. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by charyou-tree · · Score: 4, Informative

      You're correct on all counts. We have authorization from our command. Existing phone calls and internet access are more or less unmonitored.

      In addition, a nearby Marine unit has already set up a privately-funded satellite link. However, they went through a local company based in Kabul, who did the installation and charged an enormous sum of money for a system to support 130+ people. We want something cheaper, for fewer people, with greater portabitity (this Kabul-based company won't make house calls to Iraq next year).

    9. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Check your links!

    10. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I thought the point of slashdot dialogue was to have occaisional inane banter without the hassle of actually having friends.

    11. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Recent events have shown some lack human decency let alone professionalism, but that's a different discussion."

      So... a humanly decent and professional soldier would have kept the torture a secret?

    12. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correct, they hired private companies to do that in a section of the prison where cameras weren't allowed.

      I forgot they also assigned some dogs to help, too.

    13. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by pmsr · · Score: 1
      No, they are just locking up american soldiers for one year each because military prisons are so much fun. They never proved anything after all. And those photos, oh please, just don't get me going on that, fake fake fake.


      Now,honestly, don't open your eyes please, as it would be doing the rest of the world a favour, and you surely don't want that, do you?

      /Pedro

    14. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A professional wouldn't have created evidence or had witnesses and humane torturers use industrial shredders (feet first o/c), vats of acid (also feet first), and dental instruments (start wherever), not frat hazing.

    15. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by Red+Warrior · · Score: 1
      Currently in the great sandbox of life. Can't talk about where you are, but in Iraq, I would go with a commercial provider.
      About 20 people in my unit got together on a satallite package. Total cost worked out to about $800/year each (a little higher than I paid for comcast in the states, but we happen to not be in the states)- including splitting the hardware and setup costs. This gave each individual thier own IP address, and at least DSL access speeds.

      When you get to Iraq, I would go with that, rather than homebrew. Especially since, if you are a doc, you will probably go to an established base, and run a decent chance of falling in on some kit left by the guys you replace.

      --
      "If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone."
      ~Epictetus
  2. Iridium? by jasoncart · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Pretty slow at 2.4 to 10Kbps, and probably pricey. However - it is proven for the uses you mention.

    1. Re:Iridium? by nicolas.e · · Score: 1

      Do you realize that at 2400 baud, even vi is painfully slow ?
      It would be totally unreasonnable to share this connection with 10 or 20 people, even for email.

    2. Re:Iridium? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      A friend of mine was based in Bosnia ten years ago and he used an analog modem over the satellite phone. It wasn't much faster than 2400 bps but he used Fidonet so all mail was compressed and sent in a batch. Seemed to work fine for him.

  3. Look into amatuer radio? by ForestGrump · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Those guys are able to get a signal around the world...maybe you could get that and talk to your family instead...

    --
    Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
    1. Re:Look into amatuer radio? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a ham I can say two things. Max speed is pretty low on pactor amtor psk etc (these are data modes). Also a super lame rule is that Internet being a comercial product may not be directly acessed over amature radio bands. You may use internet as a link or conduit between stations or repeaters but no free surfing over your HF link.

  4. Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? by psyconaut · · Score: 1

    I thought that this sort of thing was being frowned upon by the U.S. military in that part of the world? Just like the camera phone/email fiasco in Iraq?

    -psy

    1. Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? by cookiepus · · Score: 1

      But the cameras aren't banned. It was an Onion article....

      --
      Ecce Europa - Web Design for Business
    2. Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? by dpete4552 · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1114150.htm

      --
      http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
    3. Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? by fm6 · · Score: 1

      It's in a "real" news site, so it must be true. No, wait a minute....

    4. Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not until rummy goes on foxnews and explains to folks that our troops are looking at porno online instead of making their own in prisons...

  5. Why not two seperate services? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but why does the service have to function in both Iraq and Afghanistan? Why can't you set up one system for Afghanistan, and a different one when you move?

    1. Re:Why not two seperate services? by KrisJon · · Score: 1

      When you're talking about dropping _thousands_ on a system, you'd kind of like it to be able to work where you're going to work...

    2. Re:Why not two seperate services? by charyou-tree · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because the hardware is going to cost $2000+ at a minimum ... and it'd be foolish not to look at the possibility of taking it with us.

  6. Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY by KrisJon · · Score: 5, Informative

    You have two options: Direcway or VIASAT.

    VIASAT I have no idea on the expense, but that's what's powering your morale computers. It's the best solution you're going to find out there bar none. The ISP they're using is called Segovia, but there are other ISPs who will sell you access to VIASAT. The dishes are huge (6ft+), you need a SAT phone to engineer your link (three way call between your ISP and a VIASAT tech), and I think the cost will be prohibitive. But I don't know how crazy you want to get ;)

    While we were stationed in Iraq, we bought a Direcway system from one of the locals. It was about $3k for the equipment and another $300-400/mo for the service. But you're an officer so you can afford it ;) We got the Army to pay for it. If you're in Bagram or Kabul, you should be able to find a "local contractor" who will be willing to deal with you. Unfortunatly, most of them only deal in cash. You may be able to pay Segovia with a credit card...

    As far as your reqt #2: The dish is about 1.5 meters and the TX/RX assembly is about 2.5ft long. Hopefully you'll get a decent free standing base, but the better they are, the bigger they are unfortunately. The modem we had was three parts (TX/RX/net) each about the size of a normal cable/dsl modem. It was all 110/220 exept for the mini-hub they gave us which had a 220 only wall wart.

    3: You can use any of the numerous aiming programs out there. To see the signal strengths on the modem itself you need a F-F null modem serial cable, so either buy two of them and splice or get the appropriate adaptors. The menu system, once you connect is pretty self expanitory. Get your TX and RX to at least 90 and tighten your bolts carefully.

    4: You'll have to handle throttling yourself. Our system came with about 10 IPs, but we used a single IP as firewwall/NAT just to be safe.

    Service was OK. Your connection will likely hit the ground in Germany, so most slowdowns happen according to their timezone. You will have to be death on infections. A single computer (sans throttling) will completely dominate the connection. Good luck!

    1. Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY by charyou-tree · · Score: 5, Informative

      While we were stationed in Iraq, we bought a Direcway system from one of the locals. It was about $3k for the equipment and another $300-400/mo for the service.

      This sounds about in line with a system we're looking at from a UK company - Bentley Telecom sells a hardware package for about $1700 (1.2 m dish & receiver) plus about $300/month for a business class 512/128 connection.

      If you're in Bagram or Kabul, you should be able to find a "local contractor" who will be willing to deal with you. Unfortunatly, most of them only deal in cash.

      The problem with using a local contractor is that when we move, we can't count on them to come to us. (And we want to use the same system in Iraq next year.) We want to buy the hardware, pay for the service, and do everything else ourselves.

      3: You can use any of the numerous aiming programs out there. To see the signal strengths on the modem itself you need a F-F null modem serial cable, so either buy two of them and splice or get the appropriate adaptors. The menu system, once you connect is pretty self expanitory. Get your TX and RX to at least 90 and tighten your bolts carefully.

      This is the only thing holding us up. Realistically, how hard is this? I'm not an engineer - while I'm fairly computer literate (longtime Linux user, competent c programmer, able to set up firewalls & web proxy servers, etc) I have never pointed a dish in my life.

      Is this something that I, as a "pretty smart" guy, can reasonably expect to do? The disastrous scenario in the back of my mind is that we plonk down $2500 for everything and can't figure out where to point the dish. The comm guys at our (battalion) level don't have experience with this sort of thing. I have their blessing and encouragement, but I'm on my own.

      Which of the aiming programs do you recommend?

      4: You'll have to handle throttling yourself. Our system came with about 10 IPs, but we used a single IP as firewwall/NAT just to be safe.

      I'm not too worried about this. We have few enough users that I think an informal courtesy policy, coupled with voluntary use of download managers that can throttle speed (like GetRight), will work OK.

      Service was OK.

      Anything that works consistently at speeds over .5K/s will be light years ahead of what we have now. ;-)

      Many thanks for your input.

    2. Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY by erpbridge · · Score: 2, Insightful

      4: Throttling:

      I almost want to say use something like Netlimiter (netlimiter.com) to use for your bandwidth limiter on each computer. Have them each set a limit on the Global download/upload speeds, and that'll take care of all sorts of traffic (including BitTorrent, Kazaa, Web, and any other application running locally on your computer.)

      It's only for Windows, though... and not usable as a bandwidth shaper for a single computer sharing the connection out (I know, I've tried).

      As to dish pointing:
      Got a compass? I've only pointed a normal TV dish (both Dish Network and DirecTV), which required signals from 2 sats simultaneous.

      Usually what I needed then was to get the compass for the azimuth, and get in the general area of the signal (within about 5-10 degrees.) The altitude (height of the sat in the sky): Well, the DirecTV dish had altitude markings on it, the Dish one didn't.

      So, it was pretty much move slowly up and down, wiggle back and forth, wait five seconds between each adjustment, until you could find the signal. Once you were on the fringe of the signal, then you start narrowing down onto it (my first time was using the Dish Network one, and it took a good 45 minutes to close in on the signal.)

      Then, with the dish that required tuning in 2 birds, you don't deal with just left-right and up-down, but you also deal with rotating the dish (so the dish is pointing up at an angle) to tune in the second bird while keeping the first bird in sight. Sometimes a real pain in the neck, because you'll lose the first signal and have to reacquire it before you can go on. Again, the dish bracket may have markings, may not.

      From what I've heard about providers like DirecWay, and usually goes for any sattelite Internet provider... you have to be pointed at a single sattelite, but have to be straight on the signal, not just at a fringe.

      A bit of advice, but take this with some very large grains of salt: ask a contractor if someone could let you/show you point a normal TV dish for practice someday after hours, first a normal one sattelite one, then a two sattelite one... or maybe see if there is a very friendly local who uses sattelite, and will let you on the roof to see the settings of their dish (and maybe play around adjusting it to learn how it affects the signal.)

      Watch out for the one with the local, as you might get someone mad at you if you screw up and can't get it pointed right again.

    3. Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY by KrisJon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Locals would be hard to re-establish service with when you went to Iraq later.

      Aiming the Direcway system was quite easy. The guy who came over was able to get it to about 75/75 without even a compass or inclinometer. The menu system isn't too complex and you can ask the place you buy it from for a setup guide (and a F-F null-modem cable ;). He was able to get it to 90/90 just by us yelling at him from across the roof. The hard part is keeping it >90/90 as you tighten the bolts down. Sometimes you have to go a little bit off and use the tightening to bring you back in line. Put as much rubble/sandbags as you can on top of your base to keep it from moving. Ours was able to sway a little during the sandstorms and still keep the connection which was pretty amazing. But you won't get much when it falls off the roof ;)

      So yes a fairly intelligent person can set it up no problem. You've probably compiled a kernel and setup your X-server, each of which are about three times as hard as finding the signal strength menu. A compass and _magnetic_ inclinometer (level with degrees on it) would make the chore much easier.

      The program we used is called Satmaster Quickaim which isn't free, but that's what came with our system. I don't know if there are any free programs out there. If you have to, e-mail me your lat/long and the bird you want to hit and I'll send you your aiming info. For that matter, if you're dropping >$2k on the system, e-mail your supplier and have them send you the aiming info :)

      Your IT guys should have versions of Norton Antivirus and Firewall. Get yourself a copy and make them mandatory. Linux/Unix/MacOS people should be smart enough to be running a firewall already. I'm not kidding when I say viruses will take down your network. We struggled for a month with the Army networks before they figured out viruses were the problem (they don't get tought advanced traffic analysis, we're lucky if exchange & IIS are working in the morning ;).

      Decide now if you want to allow things like P2P and servers before it becomes a problem.

    4. Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I worked supporting Satellite for MindSpring/Earthlink for several years and it can be a pain, and a blessing at the same time. If it where up to me, I probably wouldn't even bother with setting up a dish, but again, thats from a techie standpoint with lots of "hell calls" behind him. I'm even part of a group attempting to setup a new ISP and we won't even discuss satellite due to the problems.

      Anyway, if you have access to AKO, you now have access to
      • free
      Anti-Virus and Firewall software. As above, I would make this mandatory and if anyone gets any hits from a local machine, make it mandatory to report it as soon as an infection occurs - if they don't they can't connect anymore.

      If you do end up going with a satellite connection, make sure to get a commercial Wifi base/router if you do go wireless. That will allow you to cover a larger area and more users. Depending on what you get, it may offer throttling too.
  7. Considered INMARSAT? by Daniel+Wood · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't know the prices, but INMARSAT offers a 64kbit ISDN over satellite connection. Not the best response time, but it is a good solution for web surfing and e-mail, I got to try it out when I was at Fort Gordon last year. To my knowledge, you're not going to get better than 64kbit from something designed for a Maritime solution. Not sure on the prices either.

    You might be better off working a deal with your onboard Satcom crew for a 64kbit internet stream. Not sure how much you guys normally pull, but I think if you do have a satcom crew, you guys are usually pulling 384k.

    I'm not sure how things work in the Navy, but in the Army, we Satcom guys always have our own dedicated internet separate from everyone else with our own laptops. Talk to them, mabye you can work something out.

  8. Huh? by jazman_777 · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    I'm a US Navy doctor deployed with the Marines in Afghanistan.

    You guys make a wrong turn somewhere?

    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
    1. Re:Huh? by crazymennonite · · Score: 1

      No, they didn't. The USMC does not have any medical units. They bring in Navy people who get attached for full tours. Field Medics are Navy Hospital Corpsmen. Field hospitals are almost exclusively Navy staff.

  9. The perfect solution... by austad · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If I could only remember where we got it...

    I used to work for Travelers Express/Moneygram. They are like Western Union. For some of our money transfer stations in Africa and places where local phone service/long distance was too expensive, we got these things that looked like laptops. The part that looked like a screen was a satellite panel. You opened it up to the right angle and rotated the unit so it pointed at the satellite.

    They cost something like $100 a month for 10MB of data. Charged by the K after that. I'm not 100% sure on the speed either, but if your priority is email, that doesn't matter a whole lot unless you are sending pics. I think the speed was pretty decent though.

    Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember who made them or where we got service from. They were useless in the US because the satellite they point at was over the other hemisphere.

    It's not phone service either, it was an internet connection.

    --
    Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
  10. Thank you by knightPhlight · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm a Marine and am damn thankful for the things you and your Corpsmen do for us. Believe me, I wouldn't be humping around the country side with only a 9mm.

    You are welcome to my DirecWay dish (parabolic.. about 2' x 3') and the RX/TX unit (a DW4000). See the dish. The dish weighs 80lbs approx. Aiming the dish is usually done by a professional installer with a special signal strength meter. Anyone have a good POC for getting one of those? Little yellow device IIRC.

    I don't have the DW4020 (right model number?) which has the built-in router so a Windows machine would be required as the RX/TX unit is USB with no available OSS drivers. A headless mini-ITX machine would be perfect. It could do bandwidth control and NAT/DHCP as well. I've run this same setup (albeit stationary) without any trouble. Download speed is great but capped to 169Mb per four hours (see more detail. Upload is good enough for email and the all important pr0n.

    As long as the motor pool would allow it, it could be mounted to the side of a hummer or 5 ton very easily. Setup/takedown would be minimal. It's bright white so motor T may need to donate some paint as well. Might be a bitch getting cami netting over it.

    Can the rest of Slashdot see any problems or offer any other help?

    1. Re:Thank you by mlyle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unfortunately, your dish will not work. The direcway satellite is in geosynchronous orbit over the equator, at a longitude/antenna pattern that works well for North America; Afghanistan is literally on the other side of the world.

      I wish the submitter luck-- unfortunately, it's going to only be served by little LEOs (expensive service offerings) and regional geosynchronous providers that we're not familiar with here in the states. It's a shame that the military doesn't have a little more infrastructure for morale for everyone who's putting it on the line for us.

    2. Re:Thank you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How are you powering all these things? Directly from the vehicule battery? What kind of power bar to plug multiple devices?

    3. Re:Thank you by raju1kabir · · Score: 1

      I've seen Direcway (as resold by Bentley, which I believe was mentioned above) used aplenty in Iraq. So clearly it's possible outside of North America. As to whether their footprint covers Afghanistan, that I cannot answer.

      --
      "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
    4. Re:Thank you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, good idea with the mounting and all but I dunno if it would work out. I mean it kills the setup and movment time but the problems you get into is that you have to park the truck level otherwise it's harder to position the dish. My suggestions would be just to break it down whenever you jump sites and then set itup again. these things arent too hard to fuck with cause if you look at them they are just a buncha metal pipes or whatever welded and bolted together. Just take a digicam and take a few pics if you are afraid you won't remember where they go. For a satellite finder, I mentioned in another post in here that you can probably use a regular TV sat finder for the same band as the broadband dish which is KU in this case I believe. Also, I dunno how it goes for initializig the terminal but once it's been setup you can move it anywhere and as long as you point it at the sat correctly again and all the techdata is right and you paid the bill it should kick back in easy as pie. I don't suggest you paint the dish any color than white unless you know what you are doing cause that might cause a serious problem with heat absorbsion and possibly screw with the signal reflection. Also, with a vehicle mount, you would always need to park the vehicle in a certain direction depending on the dish type. Some dish systems have to be oriented a certain way and can only be fine tuned a few degrees in either direction from there. I guess it all depends on your dish and base but i've seen both types.

      Also, a sat system we use with a higher power transmitter melted down on one of our taskforce units and sometimes the Direcways cut off in the middle of the day from the heat. If you have that solar tarp crap We'vce have good luck making solar shade for the dishes with it with a minimal amount of attenuation to the signal. Just try not to get the scafolding material in the way of the radio signal's path and you should be good. It can be tricky where the signal is pointing if your dish's LNB/receiver element isnt directly center but is offset and mounted to the bottom because it boucnes on an angle then. Simple solar shade is take lumbar and make 2 big triagles large enough to swallow the dish looking at it sideways and then connect the 2 triangles with support beams at the 3 points and use like, cross beams on the back. where we are in iraq the dishes kinda point with the back towards the rising sun and their front is more towards the setting sun which is when it's the hottest so we drape the solar tarp over everything except the back and that also allows us to adjust if we need to.

  11. swe-dish? by ptudor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Would anything from SWE-DISH help out? I remember reports from new organizations about it last year. Pretty much it has 1M satellite on one side with 10/100 rj45 Ethernet on the other, in a suitcase.

    1. Re:swe-dish? by charyou-tree · · Score: 1

      Their IPT Mil Suitcase looks perfect for our needs, but I suspect anything that cool is going to be at least an order of magnitude too expensive.

      But I sent off an inquiry to them anyway. Thanks for the link.

  12. "I'm a US Navy doctor ..." by unitron · · Score: 2, Funny
    "...completely bypassing the Army network and its restrictions."

    Oh yeah, no interservice rivalry problems forseeable here. :-)

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  13. Why do this yourself? by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 1

    We're supposed to be in Iraq teaching them how to be more like us, right?

    Well how about this: figure out a way to buy the equipment. Buy it yourself, organize donations, get the Army to pay for it, whatever.

    Give the equipment to locals who would like to run a business.

    Let them charge money to serve coffee and Internet access to American soldiers.

    The bonus is that the more people you set up in operation like this, the lower the prices get, and the shorter the lines get. And you've taught them how to be Americans. After all, we're the land of a Starbucks and 802.11b on every corner.

    --
    Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    1. Re:Why do this yourself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, no offence but we already do this in Iraq. Anywhere where a unit has set up their own hughes or viasat or has a good MWR the Hadji net cafe's just totally go out of business. Their best hope in this case is to bank on servicemembers trying to download porn without worrying that his CO is going to sit down next to him and find out. That or they mostly cater to non US personell like, phillipine contractors and other coalition forces. No offence to the Iraqis but after so many years of sanctions they don't have PC equipment to learn on so they know JACK about these systems. They are usually full of viruses worms and spyware or whatever. If that wasn't enough to make you not wanna put personal info like passwords over their networks, then the thought that they might not be 100% pro US puts the nail in the coffin for me.

      to recap,
      your idea is a good idea.
      It is being done in many places
      I wouldnt do anything remotely sensitive over it

  14. Hardware here by Webmoth · · Score: 2, Informative

    You might look into these guys. They provide ISP-grade wireless network hardware (Cisco Aironet, Motorola Canopy, and their own Cyclone products). The Cyclone products are based on the Motorola Canopy, but are environmentally hardened. They've pushed the limits of the technology; I heard they recently did a test where they were able to get a signal at 125 miles.

    DISCLAIMER: I don't work for Last Mile Gear, and won't get any commission or kickback; but they are business associates of mine.

    --
    Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
  15. UPLOAD pr0n? by RMH101 · · Score: 1

    ...what exactly are you guys doing over there?

  16. Inmarsat BGAN by aberson · · Score: 1

    IP service: http://regionalbgan.inmarsat.com/

    very portable.

    "How much does Regional BGAN cost?
    The satellite IP modem costs about the same as a notebook PC, with costs for transmissions in line with GPRS roaming tariffs."

    144Kbps

    1. Re:Inmarsat BGAN by joehoya · · Score: 1
      I would also suggest looking at Inmarsat BGAN.

      If you are mainly interested in email also look at UUPlus software. Basically their software sets up a POP3 server on your local network that stores and compresses your outgoing mail until you next connect to the satellite. When you do connect it forwards any incoming mail and sends your outgoing mail. They are priced very reasonably and it is definately worth the money you save on SATCOM charges (you can really rack up a big bill fast with Inmarsat). We use this from a ship circumnavigating the world and for a 6 person crew doing unlimited text email it is costing us less than a $1 a day in SATCOM airtime.

      Hope this is helpful. Good luck.

  17. Sure enough by marcus · · Score: 1

    My brother was USN flight surgeon in Gulf War 1 and got his picture in Life magazine while attached to the Marines and thus was photographed while tending to a wounded Iraqi soldier. He said the worst he saw of allied casualties were minor accidental injuries, no war wounds.

    It was a big surprise while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store thumbing through the pages and then there's your bro' in full color and 3/4 of a page.

    --
    Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
    - W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
  18. Tachyon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    www.tachyon.net

    Covers most of Iraq, unfortunately Afghanistan is not covered at all.

  19. Tachyon? by apl175 · · Score: 1

    Also look at a Tachyon solution www.tachyon.com
    Don't know about pricing, but they have coverage in the area, and unlike some of the other names mentioned, they focus on data....at broadband speeds....

  20. Same setup as I have in Iraq by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, that's the same setup we have here in northern Iraq. We have a hughes direcway 4020 that gives us 16 ips. I hooked it up to a couple wireless bridges to extend the service beyond what ethernet can run. I don't know who the ISP is but I'd assume it was direcway. The service is definitely available in iraq though. the net ops center is based in germany so whenever i goto google it defaults to german. These systems aren't that hard at all to set up. I'm sure they would want a pro to do it but in iraq that's not going to happen. you could probably just tell them your lat and lon since i dont think they use military grids and they would be able to give you an azimuth and elevation and polarization. The dishes we have are very easy to adjust by turning nuts in one way or the other or to lock in. The wind doesn't bother them that much since they are sturdy and ours has been sitting at 91 signal strength for months. A few tips with this service though, I don't know if they have a special contract with the army for this but if they detect a worm on your network they will shut down your terminal untill you removed it. We had to set our antivirus programs to more aggressive settings like updating and doing a full scan daily to combat this. We also hid the computers behind a router and that also adds IP addresses through NAT. That also helps keep the comptuers from being infected in the first place. Unfortunately I never got to set up these dishes start to finish and I only have to maintain them. Brigade handles the billing so I don't have a lot of the info you probably need. I hope this little bit helps though.

    1. Re:Same setup as I have in Iraq by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, me again. Also, pointing the dish is pretty easy. The best bet is to get your azimuth elevation and polarization and then set it as good as you can and then double check it. I don't know how the whole comissioning process goes but if you get it right on azimuth and stuff and turn on the system it should give you a signal strength. the simpler view is the web based ip address of the gateway through a browser but the more accurate way is like someone else said, with a null modem serial cable from your computer to the sat terminal. just hyperterminal in and it's in one of the menus. just slowly and carefully adjust azimuth for the best possible value and do the same for elevation. Polarization is weird cause it doesn't change the signal strenght really but what signals you are looking at on the bird. like these systems transmit horizontal and recieve vertical or vice versa. if you get the polarization wrong you will be looking at someone elses signals maybe but on the same sat. You can't really tell if polarization is off unless it's not working or you have a monitor for it. It looks like an occilloscope but that's probably more involved than you need to get. you can be a few degress off polarization anyway and be ok. as for other special guages and helper tools, I don't thhink you need any really unless I'm just FUBAR. If you do think you need a finder tool, these sats work off KU band I think so a regular KUband sat TV finder should work fine. I haven't tried it out myself though. Hope this info helps!