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.

Comments

Re: Answer: They spent a lot of money

[Anonymous Coward]

Not necessarily. I lived in the sticks for a long time. We had no high speed internet option. Satellite had a data cap, mobile broadband wasn't fast enough, and the only access provided by an ISP was dial up. I could see a community in the distance where cable internet was available. I was able to get 12 MBPS over 2 miles with 2 old school wrt-54g routers, 2 18 dbi gain yagi antennas, and two sprinkler boxes to keep it all dry. The total price was under $300. The new sprinkler boxes cost me more than the used wrt-54g routers purchased on ebay. That setup worked for 6 years till I moved.

Re:Lightning?

[Kjella]

In copper electricity travels at about 2/3ds of C, so it travels 10 yards in 50 nanoseconds. That's 0.00000005 seconds, if you think it'll melt away first you're sadly mistaken. Particularly since copper doesn't melt until 1100C, the plastic outside will burn quick but the cable won't break instantly.

Re:Lightning?

[wbr1]

I have seen lightning travel through 200ft+ of rg6 coag, much of it buried. Al the way up to the house where it had a ground tap, saving the house. The cable had blown itslef out of the ground, 6 inches deep, making the dirt into glass. Without proper supression/grounding the current will find its way down ethernet and FUCK SHIT UP.