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Start Your Own ISP

startyourownisp.com

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Re: Start Your Own ISP

#171

Post by grahamburger »

mhasbini wrote: post #124
grahamburger wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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 su…

Thanks for your great work! > 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 What's the method to catch the person in the act? Is it something like creating a rule: "if [this website] was visited between [foo] and [bar] notify me" at the routing level?

(author here) When I've been involved in this it's been using a traffic sniffer (tcpdump or iptraf or wireshark) to watch the customer's traffic and see what they connect to.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#172

Post by grahamburger »

bigbugbag wrote: post #170
grahamburger wrote: post #8

Hey everyone! Author here. Happy to answer questions. Thanks for posting @tomcam! Just a quick note about me - I currently work with the great folks at common.net running an ISP that is similar but not exactly like what's described here. Look us up if you're in East Bay maybe we can get you better Internet service! This site is not associated with common.net, though.

Just so you know, your project is referenced on https://diyisp.org/ Also there's this mailing-list (in english) dedicated to sharing knowledge between DIY ISP, a database and map of DIY ISP[2], this series of blog posts (in french) documenting how to build an ISP[3] and a wiki page centralizing resources about building a non-profit ISP[4] on the FFDN[5] wiki (Non profit ISP Federation from France). [1]: https://lists…

Great info thank you! And thanks for the link back. All great info and I've had a lot of questions from people outside the US which is unfortunately where most of my experience is so these will be great resources to hand out.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#173

Post by dboreham »

d00bianista wrote: post #164
dboreham wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I didn't see anything about licensed spectrum on the site, but of course that helps with backhaul and high-end subscribers. For many years we really didn't see any interference issues with P2P links @5GHz but that has changed recently. We have been deploying dishes with shrouds to cut down on sidelobe gain. My experience has been that interference is as much a problem at the CPE side (and much harder to diag…

Shrouds should help against out-of-band radiation. I'm no expert but I assume that they do more harm in a single radio environment than without but they should help when you have multiple radios next to each other.

Not only out-of-band, but also in-band interference from local and remote transmitters (whether direct by transmitters operating on the same channel, or indirect via out-of-band harmonics transmitted by low-cost radios).

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#174

Post by grahamburger »

lucb1e wrote: post #148
grahamburger wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woops I think so! Thanks nice catch!

Why use Google DNS? We have no idea what's being done with the data, and 'apt install bind9' + two configuration options is enough to run your own.

Agreed that this is a better solution but the point of the site is to get from 0 to 1 customer as simply as possible and setting up a DNS server adds a complication. Another HN user recommended opennic, though - I might change the recommendation from Google to something like that.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#175

Post by grahamburger »

earenndil wrote: post #122
grahamburger wrote: post #8

Hey everyone! Author here. Happy to answer questions. Thanks for posting @tomcam! Just a quick note about me - I currently work with the great folks at common.net running an ISP that is similar but not exactly like what's described here. Look us up if you're in East Bay maybe we can get you better Internet service! This site is not associated with common.net, though.

Hi graham, really neat site! One recommendation, you currently recommend google dns. What do you think of opennic[1]? 1: https://www.opennic.org/

Great idea I'll take a look and consider changing the recommendation.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#176

Post by grahamburger »

neosavvy wrote: post #156
grahamburger wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(author here) this sounds about right to me. I definitely know people who have gotten started for less (a friend recently just sold a car for $10k and went for it - making enough now to support his family) but obviously safer to have some cushion. I usually guess 300-500 customers to be able to pay yourself a reasonable salary and maintain the business, depending on how much you hire vs do yourself.

This is really good to hear, as it seems like a very viable business in a small town like the one I have moved to. We have a high population density in the downtown area and folks favor local over corporate offerings around here. Keep up the good work on documentation - it was very interesting to read yesterday. One aside, what do you consider an appropriate salary to pay yourself when you reach that 300-500 user mar…

Hi Neo!

> what do you consider an appropriate salary to pay yourself when you reach that 300-500 user mark.

Depends on your situation obviously but something like 80-120k.

> Also seems 100MB rates down and 5mb up in my neighborhood costs around $40/month - do you try to compete heavily on rates?

That's not too bad! If people are satisfied with that then it might be tough to get customers. It could be that those are advertised speeds but people aren't actually seeing those speeds, esp at night when they try to watch netflix, so that could be a selling point - even a lower but more consistent speed package can sometimes win over a flashy marketed package that doesn't deliver. Also if people really hate the cable company enough (many do!) then they'll switch even for the same price. Doesn't have to be the lowest cost option (but it definitely helps!)

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#177

Post by grahamburger »

magneticmagnum wrote: post #147
grahamburger wrote: post #8

Hey everyone! Author here. Happy to answer questions. Thanks for posting @tomcam! Just a quick note about me - I currently work with the great folks at common.net running an ISP that is similar but not exactly like what's described here. Look us up if you're in East Bay maybe we can get you better Internet service! This site is not associated with common.net, though.

Hi Graham, thanks for authoring and sharing such an interesting topic! My main question is, how is the latency of these wireless networks? How well do these roof antennas perform in rain or covered in snow? Is gaming suitable with wireless ISPs such as common.net? And finally, what are the biggest complaints from your customers?

> what are the biggest complaints from your customers?

The other questions I think were answered below but this is a great one so I'll answer it directly. Biggest complaints that I currently see / would expect people to see:

1) No public IP addresses (this is addressed on the site and elsewhere in the thread)

2) No TV package, have to cut the cord

3) Can't provide service everywhere. "My neighbor can get it why can't I?" Well .. your house is 1 story buried in trees, unfortunately.

4) Sometimes wireless is just weird and there are things that don't work, especially when you're optimizing for a cheap home install. Some customers have a bad experience and as hard as we try we can't ever get it much better.

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#178

Post by grahamburger »

legostormtroopr wrote: post #135
grahamburger wrote: post #8

Hey everyone! Author here. Happy to answer questions. Thanks for posting @tomcam! Just a quick note about me - I currently work with the great folks at common.net running an ISP that is similar but not exactly like what's described here. Look us up if you're in East Bay maybe we can get you better Internet service! This site is not associated with common.net, though.

I really just want to know what framework you use for the site - is it just Material Design?

I'm using Hugo static site generator with this theme: https://github.com/digitalcraftsman/hugo-material-docs

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#179

Post by sophistry »

Gnarl wrote: post #136

Hate to be the grumpy uncle at the party, but seriously, you don't want to build a business on microwave radiation based wireless. Why? Its a potent biological toxin and the wireless industry is just walking dead until Governments are forced to shut them down to prevent getting bankrupted through cost to the health-care system. The scientific evidence is abundant and its strong. Countries are already passing laws to…

>a potent biological toxin

A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms [...]

Toxins can be small molecules, peptides, or proteins that are capable of causing disease on contact with or absorption by body tissues interacting with biological macromolecules such as enzymes or cellular receptors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxin

Re: Start Your Own ISP

#180

Post by cweagans »

grahamburger wrote: post #168
mseebach wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like there'd be a market for a "ISPaaS" style company. This company would consult on the setup, in the style of this guide, but would remote-admin all the gear, keep track of updates, security settings, make sure everything is documented, run 24/7 NOC monitoring, spot bottlenecks early and recommend upgrades, review site access contracts (or provide standard contracts), run billing and customer service etc.…

(author here) It's possible that this could turn in to something like that. When I originally started writing it that's exactly what I had in mind, actually - but I have since started working with common.net and I'm quite happy there. If this is something people are interested in though reach out to me! I may be able to line something like this up.

I am very interested in this. Making it dead simple to set up an ISP would be a very awesome thing.
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