A Portable Satellite ISP in the Middle East?

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? "

Comments

Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY

[KrisJon]

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!

Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY

[charyou-tree]

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.

Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY

[KrisJon]

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.

Considered INMARSAT?

[Daniel Wood]

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.

Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon?

[dpete4552]

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

Re:You Need A Good Lawyer

[charyou-tree]

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).

Hardware here

[Webmoth]

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.

Re:Iridium?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.