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University Taps Sewers for Internet Access
Stony Stevenson writes "A web connection via the toilet bowl may sound like Google's most recent April Fool, but the University of Aberdeen plans to welcome students back with a high bandwidth internet network connected via the sewers.
The university tapped H2O Networks to provide a high capacity link for the next 10 years, enabling students to access the internet from their halls of residence. H2O Networks is a deploying dark fibre in the UK's waste water network to enable connectivity to those who have limited access. The network is known as 'fibre via the sewer'."
Proof that the internet really is just a bunch of shit being pushed through series of tubes...
--
Captialism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called facism.
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
to the term "shitty connection". **rimshot**
The network is known as 'fibre via the sewer'."
How unimaginative. I propose the alternate "PUTP" (Pipe up the Pooper).
Oh, great, my flatmate is in the bog flushing his DNS. Anyone got a match?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I'm pretty sure I deployed some "Dark Fiber" this morning when I got my coffee and cigarette.
Say hi to Mr. Hanky when you see him.
WTF? Over?
On Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs"...
I smell a new episode of Dirty Jobs.
Chicago has an underground network of freight tunnels (below the loop and even the subways) that have been turned basically into a bunch of paths for conduits... There are some pics of people going into the tunnels here and you can see the conduits above them as they walk around.
-nick
denial of service attacks
ping times
social networking
taker a few of these subjects, roll it with some scatological jokes, and you pretty much have a thread
man, they should have dumped this story
dumped, get it?! dumped the story!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
meh
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Now the ninja turtles can fight cybercrime from home!
With all that fiber, I wonder if they try to keep logs
Does that make these connections of high speed for students of apathy?
" What has BROWN done for you lately? "
......
The internet
Cheers
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Isnt this how the internet started. On a uni campus in sewers ?
On a long enough timeline. The survival rate for everyone drops to zero. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, 1996
You'd think they might deploy fiber-optic cables and actually use them instead of letting them remain dark. I hear you get better throughput and higher bandwidth that way.
More like H2Ewwww!
Brings new meaning to the phrase: "my bandwidth has gone down the toilet".
Thank you for actually posting something that can be rated "interesting"! Given the subject, it's hard not to resort to toilet-humor...
D'oh!
I have to PPP.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
"I need internets for my bunghole!"
Anybody want my mod points?
Is it going to run TCP/IPee?
:)
And I thought my internet connection was shitty.
Ok, I'm done. Sorry.
today is spelling optional day.
HighFiberSpace...
Extruding polygons has never been so... satisfying.
It's dark fiber until it's lit. Putting cables into pipes has been around for 20+ years. Williams did it in natural gas pipes (and farmers sued them when they repurposed their easements illegally).
What this is, is a magnet for silly replies. Welcome to Monday morning.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
That there won't be any meaningful conversation on this topic and its technological implications but rather page after page of really...shitty...puns.
Rate this -1 : Meta
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
The point is, sewer pipes are really big and they connect literally every building in any community where there is a city sewer system. If I'm going to run fiber and I don't want to spend a whole lot of time digging up the ground to bury lines and more importantly make them easily accessible for maintenance/upgrade, then the sewer (despite its obvious drawbacks) makes a pretty good place to put them. The problem I can see with this, that unless they plane to lock down all the sewer caps and manhole covers, it would be pretty easy to hack into the lines at some point; perhaps I'm mistaken.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I think someone's been using sewer lines for Internet access a while already: haven't you noticed the smell in all that Spam?
It has already been well established that adding fiber to your diet will improve throughput. Sorry, I couldn't resist it!
http://www.google.com/tisp/
If you use a sewer topological architecture you will be able to wire up all habitable dwellings quite easily, but your nodes will tend to be either at pumping stations or sewage treatment works. At any rate, somewhere down in a valley.
So the nodes will be at an increased risk of flooding.
Has anyone else got any sensible comments?
They'd deploy via the steam tunnels except they're afraid to take on the D&D players...
Advice: on VPS providers
But now how are they ever going to close the anal log hole?
You can only access AOL.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
This is not news.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
just like my crap DSL from Qwest
(can you trust a company that can't spell "quest?")
pinch 'em short for a zero, leave 'em long for a one
Is it just sad that the university didn't have proper conduits between their campus buildings to allow for more fiber? DId anyone think of the consequences when repairs need to be made? DNRTFA
When the ads said "Where do you want to go today?"
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Fiber To The Toilet
Of course, it's a full-duplex connection, and it can connect with two nodes, your router, and your... uhh... fiber exit portal.
I'm amazed that they sussed this out. I mean, everybody knows how to send the numbers 1 and 2 through the sewer pipes. But... how do you send a 0?!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
That's a nice, easy way to wire a campus wide network. The tech has been here for a while, the toughest part was designing a cleanout cover that wouldn't leak and allow for access without taking the network down to use it. They use industrial strength R/C cars to run pullstrings through the pipes.
However, the problem they can't solve is that in the US, the town water authority would be in direct competition with a private company, a big no-no. The existing players would raise hell if it were tried in a community on more than a point to point basis (and even that would get a lot of attention). I would imagine similar outrage in the UK. However, since it is a campus network they can basically do whatever they want.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
(Insert random innuendic pun about Internet and feces here.)
>>Got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from
I know that Paris already has many fibers and other cables running through their sewer system. Then again, these are rather ancient, large sewer systems. I've seen a video where they also place wifi within the sewer system even.
Is that site using a marquee tag?
I think this is fairly common in Universities that have a stand-alone campus (as opposed to one inter-mixed in a city environment).
t
My alma mater has an extensive system of steam tunnels(*) that run throughout the huge campus. These have been used for communications links for a long time. When I was there, we had an FDDI ring running to major buildings for a high speed backbone. I'm sure they've continued to upgrade the equipment on that fiber through the years. Having your own fiber offers a lot of interesting possibilities for great interconnect speed, and distributed services or data center decentralization.
(*) The MSU steam tunnels are the source of the Dungeons and Dragons tunnel games folklore, because of an incident with a disturbed child prodigy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_tunnel_inciden
I mean, it removes a lot of the incentive to sniff the network, doesn't it?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
When your toilet is backing up or your servers are not.
Have gnu, will travel.
http://www.google.com/tisp/
If a million people jumped off a cliff, it'd only be a short time until I landed in a nice soft mountain of bodies.
Should we call this Filth Fiber? Or perhaps PooPoo Packets?
On one hand, this is a really a great idea.
But it gives me some warning flags:
1. Fibre will now get backhoed (metaphorically) whenever sewer workers do any major work -- which means a talented technician needs to be around all the time sewer work is being done. To make a reliable network, there would need to be alternate paths to clusters of buildings/neighborhoods, etc. Is that possible in sewers? Are sewere designed with multiple paths, in case of blockage?
2. Blockage. Fibers are long things. They might snag stuff. Will flow break them? Do you glue them to the walls? THen the fibre is rigidly in place -- What happens when a pipe cracks and that causes a shift? Or when there's a tremor and things shift. Or do you glue up conduit?
3. Entry into the building. This requires a wet to dry interface. Things go wrong in such things. This means the people doing it need to be both plumbers and fibre people. Seems expensive, and seems like it opens up liability issues.
4. Or do you install wireless in the pipes and never actually enter the dryspace?
If these things worked well, then you could do an end-run around the telcos for last mile. How big is a sewer pipe into the home or into an apartment building? Can we design robots to creep those spaces?
Aberdeen didn't want to lower themselves that far.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
"Today we're hauling fiber optic cable for a new high speed network. I'm Mike Rowe, and this is my Dirty Job."
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I've heard of these guys, I think the product is being branded as "IP Freely"
Austin is more fun than Dallas.
Now we will see how many "Shitty Connection" jokes slashdotters can come up with.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
H2O Networks is a deploying dark fibre
Good to hear his a new company is a getting jobs.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Colleges have enough distractions from belly piercings to plunging necklines without having to go down the drain.
More fiber may help generate more shit to clog the pipe,
but with more shit clogging the pipe, probability is that
the overflow will cause a very big shitty mess that no one
will clean up, because everyone will refuse as usual to pay
for an IT bathroom attendant to clear clogs as needed.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
How would they keep rats from knawing on the cables?
Raphael: Dude, did you know they had so many toppings? Their ads are way out of date...
Michaelangelo: And look what this chick can do with her legs!
Splinter: Are you all still using the internet? You need your rest or you will never defeat Shre--whoa, look what that young woman can do with her legs!
Donatello: *bad gangster impression* You dirty rat!
number 2's compliment?
It was done about 6 years ago in several cities, including Albuquerque. It was even shown on Discovery channel or something._ 4/ai_80224599
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IGP/is_10
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
The CHUDDS will havehigh speed internet access to look at porn.
I have a septic system!
OK, I'll admit I haven't researched this "technology" but I do run one of the top 50 largest university networks in the U.S. and I can see nothing but problems with this one. First, when they snake one of these pipes how do they expect not to destroy the fiber? How about pipe repairs? Your telling me your going to be able to repair/replace a pipe without cutting the fiber or the pipe? (and cutting the new pipe to install it wouldn't strike me as a great option) This is just plain stupid.
On my network we utilize the steam tunnels and access tunnels which house plumbing to run the fiber, but never *in* the pipes... that just doesn't make sense. Sounds like a shitty mess to me, best of luck with that one.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Real crap, meet virtual crap...
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
It is very rare for a house to have a main sewer line of over about 6 inches. My understanding is they tow the cables with small robots.
Also a house would not necessarily need to go up a toilet stack, as long as they have a pipe for sinks and what not. The cable probably doesn't even go into the house directly, but instead exits the house via the stack opening on the roof and then comes down again. Much more sanitary.
Daily backups!
Hey... Now that you think of it, that isn't some guy's @$$h013, that's a server!
User: "Hey, My interenet connection is really shitty"
Tech: "Yup thats how it's meant to be, bye!"
User: "But...."
your ass and.. eh my ass
Fibre, Fiber - in the poo-pipe, we have both kinds!
Brown fiber ;)
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet but what kind of precautions would need to be taken to ensure that the fiber didn't suffer from the ill effect of corrosive agents in a sewer system to make this viable for deployment on the community level?
We drain all kinds of trash into the sewage system: detergents, lye, human waste, etc etc etc. This stuff has to cause some harm sooner or later.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
to tub girl ....
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The problem I can see with this, that unless they plane to lock down all the sewer caps and manhole covers, it would be pretty easy to hack into the lines at some point; perhaps I'm mistaken.
I'm more concerned about whether the fibers will hold up to ongoing sewer maintainence and whether they will snarl in debris and be pulled loose, severed, or cause a blockage.
Imagine what happens to a fiber-down-the-drain when Roto Rooter does its thing...
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
How is this in any way novel or even interesting?
Utilities have been run through sewer lines for *decades*. Since cities typically already had sewage systems before technologies such as electricity, phone, data and so on came along, the sewers are the best place to run such cables.
New York City is a perfect example of this.
"OMG we ran wires through sewers LOL"
Come on. Next thing you know we'll talk about this amazing new concept of stringing wires up on poles to keep folks on the ground from tripping over them.
I am thinking that when a student wants to transmit a mouse event that the toilet will flush twice implies the user is working with Windows, and once for Linux. I am getting an "Overflow" thought about what the Beday does when the user clicks the Right Mouse Button.
The correct name for the system is "Sewer Hosted Internet Transport Layer". Otherwise known by its acronym, YK. (You Know)
Squirrel!
dark fiber isn't unlit fiber. They are conduits of Ninja Hacker(tm) black magics. Google doesn't control page rank, it's secret Ninja Hacker dark fiber techniques!
Balderdash!
As someone who works for a water and sewer utility, I have to say this isn't such a crazy idea. HOWEVER, they need to consider a very disgusting reality: Grease buildup. We routinely jet-rod the sewer pipes to scour out the grease buildups.
If we do not do this, we risk having a storm flow do it for us. The grease coagulates and can form a blockage in the sewer mains. I've been at a large wastewater pumping station during a storm and these grease balls trap sewage, causing sewage overflows, despite an otherwise properly running pumping station.
What does bearing does this have with a network cable through the sewers? Well, it better be VERY tough and resilient to grease buildup. The force of jet rodding the pipe could easily break the cable unless it's been designed for this sort of abuse.
Oh, and by the way, if you haven't already learned this, DO NOT POUR GREASE OR FAT DOWN THE DRAIN! The stuff I'm talking about is the irreducible, routine buildup. The less of it you send down the drain, the less likely it will be that you'll have a backup flood your basement with it.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
So if those damned fraternity pledges flush a cherry bomb down the drain, not only do I have to worry about my toilet exploding upwards but NOW I have to worry about my Internet going out as well???
How else do you explain how grouchy they've been?
I've had some disastrous sewage problems in my unit in San Francisco because of heavy rains, bad plumbing, failure to follow proper city code, and otherwise.
What happens when waste water pipes back up and the augers, snakes, and fancy plumbing tools shred the fiber to pieces? There's a reason why we use dedicated conduit for telecommunications lines.
A better solution exists, and that's the one used by IPN - Instead of sewage lines, they use the natural gas lines to run fiber optics. Gas will never plug up a pipe and fiber will never start a fire as it's only photons.
This gives a whole new meaning to "leaking" information.....
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
"Ma'm, I know it seems like a strange place for a webcam..."
i know it isn't a huge problem for larger lines, but what if one of the pipes gets clogged? ream it out and the replace the wire? sounds like a major problem to me.
i do realize that they have high pressure "jetting" systems that basically just spray the "shit" right out, but theres a few problems.
1. High pressure water could easily cut through the fibre sheath, and although lossof insulation of fibre isn't as bad as copper it still degrades the signal!
2. What if water isn't enough and they have to get out the "big guns", i.e. a snake with a sharp cutter head is about the only thing that can remove tree roots. The cutter will shred fibre just as fast as tree roots!
it's a nice idea and might save money, but something tells me that they forgot to consult the plumber!!
))<>((
is this too obscure a reference?
think this idea stinks.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
So let's say I have this connection, then I take a dump and broadcast it live via a webcam. Shit and photons carrying information about said shit traveling in the same shit. Fascinating.
"H2O Networks is a deploying dark fibre in the UK's waste water network" -
What a coincidence - I've been doing exactly the same thing ever since I took up the All Bran challenge.
This showed up some time ago and was then an obvious put-on. Wish I had the original reference.
'fibre via the sewer'
Bandwidth increase by flushing the toilet!