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Running an ISP in a Warzone

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the frag-the-line dept.

musatov writes "SGT Coughanour, David A (HHC 1-110th Infantry US Army) speech on NOTACON 3: "Right now I am currently serving in Iraq where I run IT operations for a small chunk of the Sunni triangle. One of the major projects that we have accomplished here is setting up an ISP that supports 350 subscribers. It has also survived multiple mortar attacks, and is built entirely on Linux." Download video (80 MB QuickTime) Requires latest QuickTime installed. A mirror is available for people to download it."

9 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Gives new meaning to disaster recovery plans by qwijibo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've always found disaster recovery plans to be an annoying necessity in large businesses. I'd hate to see all the other paperwork that would be needed if my systems were subjected to mortar attacks. That certainly justifies the need for clustering over a WAN.

    1. Re:Gives new meaning to disaster recovery plans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think mentioning terrorism might be the new Goodwin's law, but at that risk, do you recall the WTC attacks? I used to work for a company whose servers were located in the WTC, thankfully I worked in Chicago. I may have been one of the first in Chicago to know something was wrong when all of our connections went down. Of course I just thought it was a network problem at first.

    2. Re:Gives new meaning to disaster recovery plans by tinkerghost · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was working tech support that day.
      You would not believe the number of people calling to complain that they couldn't see what was going on down the street because of the smoke and/or dust and they couldn't watch the news because their cable TV and internet services were not working.
      Geeee, there are whole blocks of your city missing, why do you THINK your Cable is down?
      IIRC - the basement of one of the towers housed a major peering point as well as a network satilite feeds.

  2. Video isn't going to last long, so... by MattGWU · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's the best line: "And there are couple of reasons why we do it: The uh...the DoD gives us an MWR cafe, for every 1000 troops you get something like 6 to 12 computers. And that's great, except some of the grey-list sites are kind of blocked so basically you can't get porn off it, among other things."

    Runner up:
    "Managed to get a Power Mac G5 smuggled in from eBay"

    --
    "These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
  3. Re:It's about time that TCP/IP was tested... by everphilski · · Score: 2, Interesting

    www.netwurx.net
    www.nconnect.net
    www.theramp.net

    All linux based (Started out as) mom-and-pop ISP's from the midwest, although they have grown. All started in the 95-96 timeframe.

  4. Re:IT + NRA by joib · · Score: 4, Interesting


    I wonder if anyone has tried that for real. Some sort of multiple server system up and running when someone puts a bullet through one without the system missing a beat. Now that's a video that would get some attention, both for the insanity and technical merit.


    Funny you should say that. HP just did it with their high end storage array. See here.

  5. Yes, it works.. by LuisAnaya · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I IM chat with one of my high school buddies that is serving in Iraq. They get about 1/2 an hour of computer use to email friends and family. My friend logs in and checks the class bulletin board and chats with whomever is online. So far, it has worked. One thing he noticed was the he was not able to run some chat java applets. Other than that, it works well and at least I'm happy to know that he's still well.

    --
    Vi havas e-poston.
  6. Re:I wonder what else is blocked. by squidguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Access to media outlets is not generally blocked -- I can't think of a single site that is, unless it includes pr0n. The only exception may be some of the European rags that included the so-called "page 3 girls" nudie pix. And those used to be up...may still be now.

    Here's an idea for those naysayers who are using this article for political grandstanding (pro or con) -- join the military and discover for yourself what is blocked or not.

  7. Tachyon! by pointbeing · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I work for an agency under DoD. We've deployed several Tachyon systems in southwest Asia. Tachyon is a satellite solution with one fixed option and two mobile options. We had problems in the beginning with regular T1 lines being cut by insurgents or vehicles - and it takes weeks to get a new line run that we decided to go satellite.

    The coolest system of the three that Tachyon offers is the 'Auto-Deploy CAS' system, where you just plug it in, push a button and the thing finds the satellite on it's own.

    A bit spendy, but we've found them to be the most reliable solution for broadband communications.

    --
    we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
    -- anais nin