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Start Your Own ISP

startyourownisp.com

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61–70 of 199 posts

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#61

Post by Jesus_Jones »

tyleo wrote: post #58
NotSammyHagar wrote: post #53

Wow, this is fascinating! I would love to invest and start a wireless ISP on the eastside of Seattle. Suppose you have an area that is flat with lots of exposure, where everyone hates Comcast (maybe that last part is superfluous). I would think you'd find plenty of programmer customers if you have a say 200 mbit wireless connection without bandwidth caps (or maybe something insane like 10 tb/month). This seems like a…

This sounds interesting. I am in Seattle and also hate Comcast with a passion. My roommate has a similar hate of Comcast. If I could get 200 mbit at a similar cost to what I am paying now it would be an instant transition.

I'm on the east side too. Seattle has many more providers than the east side. Where I am there is only Comcast and much slower dsl (20mb). DSL comes with a bandwidth cap. I have the standard comcast 1tb/month limit, but with an xbox, it's easy to use 100 gig just for a couple of giant games. I can see it wouldn't be too hard to use a terabyte.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#62

Post by Chaebixi »

I'd love to do something like this, but I'm too afraid of dealing with the police if someone uses my service to do anything illegal. If it's very small (e.g. a neighborhood), might they just accuse the operator (me) and I'd have to prove my innocence?

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#63

Post by grahamburger »

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #53

Wow, this is fascinating! I would love to invest and start a wireless ISP on the eastside of Seattle. Suppose you have an area that is flat with lots of exposure, where everyone hates Comcast (maybe that last part is superfluous). I would think you'd find plenty of programmer customers if you have a say 200 mbit wireless connection without bandwidth caps (or maybe something insane like 10 tb/month). This seems like a…

Hey NotSammy! That's exactly what this is about, hope it helps you get started!

Rain can be planned around. Rain has a very predictable effect on wireless connections (called rain fade) so what you do is look at the heaviest rain storms from the last few years and put that in to the wireless link budgets and make sure you're broadcasting loud enough and your links are short enough that they won't fail in a rainstorm.

Then of course you also have to spend some extra time making sure all your devices are weather proofed properly.

There's no reason this can't work in a heavy rain area. Heavy tree cover is a bigger problem, though.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#64

Post by grahamburger »

Chaebixi wrote: post #62

I'd love to do something like this, but I'm too afraid of dealing with the police if someone uses my service to do anything illegal. If it's very small (e.g. a neighborhood), might they just accuse the operator (me) and I'd have to prove my innocence?

(author here) My experience has been that if you're up front with the police about what you're doing they won't beat your door down and haul you away. What usually happens is that the police look up the IP address they've identified as a problem and then check the ARIN database to see who owns it. ARIN is going to give them the name of the ISP not of the subscriber, so they're accustomed to then calling the ISP to subpoena the name of the customer. If you purchase service from a fiber provider then the name in ARIN's database will either be your provider or (if they SWIP the IPs to you) the name you give your ISP.

In the past what I've seen is that the police will ask you to identify who was using an IP and also to help them catch the person in the act if they do the thing again. So far I haven't seen them get too pushy if you can't do the first thing as long as you're willing to do the second.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#65

Post by grahamburger »

ilaksh wrote: post #59

Would it be feasible to provide an alternate to fiber for intranet within an ISP over a city using FSOC (freespace optical communications)? I kind of doubt it is practical but it seems like having some amazing high bandwidth safe way to transmit data from private homes rooftops over significant distance would solve another one of the technical/logistical hurdles (digging streets and laying fiber) keeping monopolies i…

I would not use free space optics for this but there are licensed wireless backhauls that can do this with high enough capacity and reliability. Feel free to contact me directly (contact info in the about me section of this site) for more info.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#66

Post by grahamburger »

rb808 wrote: post #56

Anyone created shared access for their condo building? Our building is wired for xfinity cable and Fios gig Fiber, but I was thinking of having a building provided internet for a low price. I'm not sure if Verizon will give us a wholesale connection when they'd prefer everyone pay separately.

(author here) I'm interested in talking to you more directly about this. Contact info is in the about me section on this site, shoot me an email if you get a chance.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#67

Post by grahamburger »

leesalminen wrote: post #57

Great work! I recently moved to a rural area. My options were dialup, satellite or WISP. I chose to sign up with the WISP and it has beat expectations so far. It’s run by 2 older guys who do software dev in Boulder. They use all Ubiquiti gear, backhaul with microwave and then directional WiFi between the houses. It’s quite impressive. We’re in a heavily mountainous area, handling ~2k vertical feet and ~20 miles back…

It's surprisingly feasible to do just that (hence why I made the site!) almost everywhere I go in the U.S. and even on a recent trip through Italy I see telltale signs of WISPs. I think it's a lot more common than people realize.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#69

Post by grahamburger »

nerdbaggy wrote: post #48
grahamburger wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(author here) I debated adding MikroTik because I heard a rumor that they were backing off on their wireless products and focusing more on routing / switching. So I should at least add them as an option routing/switching hardware. But then they just released a 60Ghz short range radio ... so maybe the rumor was wrong!

Any links about the rumor? That would be interesting if they switched directions

I think it was something I heard in person .. can't remember where now! Probably at Wispapalooza.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#70

Post by pascalxus »

Is anyone starting anything here in the bay area Eastbay? say around the tri-valley area?

Judging by how extensive the guide is, I guess there's a lot of room to make things easier? perhaps someone can build a suite of tools to assist in this process, perhaps automate things?

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