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How a Group of Rural Washington Neighbors Created Their Own Internet Service (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes with a story that might warm the hearts of anyone just outside the service area of a decent internet provider: Faced with a local ISP that couldn't provide modern broadband, Orcas Island residents designed their own network and built it themselves. The nonprofit Doe Bay Internet Users Association (DBIUA), founded by [friends Chris Brems and Chris Sutton], and a few friends, now provide Internet service to a portion of the island. It's a wireless network with radios installed on trees and houses in the Doe Bay portion of Orcas Island. Those radios get signals from radios on top of a water tower, which in turn receive a signal from a microwave tower across the water in Mount Vernon, Washington.
There are so many places forgotten by the mainstream service providers. Competition is a good thing.
Next up, how your next-door neighbor bought a car, and how the guy down the street got his pool.
The system has radios installed on trees connected by power-over-ethernet. What happens when lightning strikes the equipment in the customer's tree? What surge equipment do the houses use to mitigate effect of lightning strike? Just wondering, not criticizing.
https://youtu.be/Pmz3Ez9Nrks
The placement of the microwave link on the water tank, the network of '10 relay points, which have multiple radios", using "5.8GHz and 900MHz frequencies, and a little bit of 3.65GHz". Long term planning "take their time to add capacity before connecting everyone who wants service"
Tracking what relay point is down and having backup battery power for a time. The suggestion to place a "Raspberry Pi at the different relay points to do speed tests" was a good read too.
This is really motivating and shows what a community can do with existing methods rather than waiting for more traditional networks to even be planned or upgraded or offered.
Thanks.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
One thing that really strikes me about this story is how many walls the founders of this movement ran into trying to get it set up - they wanted towers, but said putting those up would be prohibitively expensive for such a small organization. Now, imagine that a municipality was able to get behind this, maybe get some state funding to offset the costs (perhaps by providing free broadband to homes with children in public schools that otherwise could not afford it) and was able to put up a better system that didn't rely so much on the homeowners to maintain (the article states that any homeowner who has it installed has to provide power for it for life even if they do not use it). Commercial providers would be forced to cut prices and improve service or go under.
Now if a for profit company wanted to do this they would have had to do the following;
1. Environmental impact studies,
2. Local consultation
3. Easement/right of way purchase/contracts
I am also wondering who does the maintenance/customer service for this system?
A local group just doing something is very different than a corporation doing it.
I know. I've seen me do it. I got my 24/7 internet with a routeable /29 subnet thru an internet cooperative back in the early/mid 90s. Sure, it was dialup but that's what was available at the time. We built it because everything available through dialup was metered at around 50 hours per month except for a couple ISPs that would kick you off after X hours then bitch at you if you had an autodialer that reconnected. With 20 connections, it really didn't cost a whole lot more than a regular account. After a few years, we co-located our equipment at a new ISP (instead of a residence) and were able to do ISDN. Then cable and DSL rolled out simultaneously and we shut down pretty much overnight. It was neat while it lasted but the world finally caught up.
Now I can post this from tens of thousands of feet over the ocean.
Air-Stream http://air-stream.org/ have been doing this for almost 15 years now.
While not an ISP people can share their internet over the network using VPN.
It's still as relevant today since the national broadband network isnt getting to everyone especially people in valleys who cant get a service and are looking to make their own links to someone who does have it.
WACAN are also similar http://www.wacan.asn.au/
Community networks are the way to go, take out the middle man ISPs and government snooping.
Why is this news? Less than $200 in parts and you too can be a wireless ISP. Move on, nothing to see here.
+1 to this, there are quite a few community wireless networks around the world and is worth checking out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region
(look at the history as some idiot keeps deleting the page contents)
That is RF bandwidth that some poor, deserving cellular corporation could be using to sell more iDroid phones to suckers. You act as though the radio spectrum was some sort of publicly owned resource or something. The CEOs of AT&T and Verizon are crying themselves to sleep every night, you bastards!
Have gnu, will travel.
We have three providers, one of which is the very same CenturyLink telephone company DSL cited in this article. Like all DSL, it plugs away reliably over the installed telephone copper, but the speed each user gets depends on his distance from the telco switch. Speed falls off rapidly from the 10 MHz maximum at the switch to unusably slow three wire miles away, and given the funky routing of telephone wire, that might be two blocks from the switch as the raven flies.
The best service comes from the TV cable company. Those who are on its limited number of service thoroughfares enjoy 80 MHz, albeit with a chintzy monthly cap that prevents most users from making much use of the bandwidth. For every other house in our large, spread-out area, scattered through a maze of hills and canyons, is a commercial wireless ISP that operates just like the one described in the article. A central signal received on fiber is radiated to homes that get free service in exchange for hosting large relay antennas, which in turn fan out to surrounding individual users.
And of the three alternatives, the WISP is the one that everybody hates. It's dog slow for all users, and all those relay links are subject to an incredible variety of interruptions. Raccoons and termites chew through feed lines. The summer monsoon and the winter snow breaks dishes. Trees grow into the relay beams at unexpected points, constantly having to be trimmed back. And wealthy owners of large houses in the boonies (there's an 8,200 square footer on my street) don't expect dialup-grade Internet service in a home they have paid so much for. Everyone who gets stuck with the WISP lusts for cable service
People in Rural area have been relying on WISPs for over a decade now. Lots of operations that look like this. I transitioned our company ( CyberStreet ) from dialup to this several years ago. Did most of the work building the network myself.
Great place to bring up the kids!
Yes, perhaps they could learn geography, unlike you.
Just adjust that tin foil hat a bit tighter, bro. It will all be OK.
So it seems that US is far behind even West Africa's standards if this was necessary.
Until they get sued by a semi-local ISP with an established monopoly on the grounds that they couldn't possibly compete with the upstart in a market that they literally had no interest in before they decided to litigate an upstart out of existence.
A) Meat smoker out of a '72 Chevy pickup
B) Outreach group to "turn gays straight"
C) Massively-distributed methnet
Thanks folks; I'll be [stuck] here all day. :/
I ain't religious - was raised open-minded, make my own decision. I respect pretty much everyone equally, but you're a fucking idiot.
Weak troll is weak
Communism requires FORCE to succeed (unless it's a community in which people can join and leave at their pleasure). This is actually an example of the free market where people create something from the ground up rather a top-down government bureaucracy system.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Communism requires FORCE to succeed (unless it's a community in which people can join and leave at their pleasure). This is actually an example of the free market where people create something from the ground up rather a top-down government bureaucracy system.
You think you can leave Capitalism?
Why? Honestly, I'm interested - I'm not aware of anything unique to communism that requires force to succeed.
On the other hand, doesn't any modern political system require force to succeed? How else is the rule of law enforced? How does the free market prevent me just taking what I want?
"APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)
Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...
(Searching this in BOLD "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)
I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks & exchange/outlook in the free model does NOT work with AD specifically you lying little imbecile).
I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.
I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).
Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine). Most people out there don't run a home LAN. They have single systems.
APK
P.S.=> You're a disgusting butthurt liar... apk
YOU say "hosts=bad" (but they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitch on admin privelege to UPDATE vs. threats:
"So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)
Hypocrite - You use admin priv admitting it
&
How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?
---
"Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)
You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!
FACT:
Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!
---
Aryeh Goretsky NOD32/ESET says hosts = good security-> http://it.slashdot.org/comment...
Oliver Day (Symantec) does-> http://www.securityfocus.com/c...
MalwareBytes' hpHosts hosts & recommends my APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit-> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl...
---
* HOW MANY SECURITY PROS DO I NEED TO KNOCK THE CHOCOLATE OUTTA YOU?
---
Those security pros INCLUDE me: I work w/ guys from malwarebytes' hpHosts on a regular basis!
I've professionally worked for decades as a combined domain-wide network admin & software engineer since 1994 (Even showing you HOW to migrate a hosts across an enterprise-> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... )
I've also been securing computers + WRITING GUIDES using CIS Tool (who took fixes from me http://slashdot.org/comments.p... - bonus) http://www.bing.com/search?q=%...
You told me you learn from guides?
I write good ones that MILLIONS USE & was PAID FOR IT http://pcpitstop.com/news/winn...
+ WARES TO PROTECT USERS that are endorsed & hosted by security pros -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl...
You did all that? No!
(& that's ONLY a SMALL part of what I could put out)
APK
P.S.=> You're all TALK -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & a "ne'er-do-well" in security... apk
distraction bs. jews are a race. you have nothing so you post say nothing slobber to distract.
- others, see 'scum jew' post above, mass of links on jew fraud 'govt' 'media' 'corporations' fraud 'wars', mass immigration, weapons and chemtrails assault -
"I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)
False positive: I've wrote 'em long ago, no response vs. 60++ REPUTABLE sources (not nobodies) below that fries you Coren22!
Is that YOUR fake site for MORE LIES Coren22?
Lying about me LIKE YOU DID HERE punk? -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ??
---
MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...
&
It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...
+
Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...
More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...
APK
P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:
"his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)
"I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)
"APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)
"his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)