Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
1–10 of 33 posts
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#2I've always wondered what it would take to setup an ISP. I think customers would be the major pain point (especially in america when competing with Comcast or AT&T).
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#3It seems like the "from around the world" part isn't really up and running yet. I expected to see some of my local SF Bay Area ISPs on the map, but it's only showing some European ISPs right now. Further I wondered what the qualifications for DIY might be--individual-level shared networks or the typical small business thing? Next I wondered why it was so important to know about FDN attending some conference, vs. spending more time explaining in basic terms what they do and what they plan to do.
Anyway, seems like a neat idea.
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#4Have always been curious about setting up an ISP. Especially so recently. I have been unsuccessful finding much information, though I haven't tried as hard as I probably could. Anyone have any good links?
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#5It seems like the "from around the world" part isn't really up and running yet. I expected to see some of my local SF Bay Area ISPs on the map, but it's only showing some European ISPs right now. Further I wondered what the qualifications for DIY might be--individual-level shared networks or the typical small business thing? Next I wondered why it was so important to know about FDN attending some conference, vs. spen…
Their main page (ffdn.org) has this description:
Members of the FDN Federation are Non-Profit Internet Service Providers sharing common values: volunteer-based, solidarity-driven, democratic and non-profit working; defense and promotion of Net neutrality.
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#6I've always wondered what it would take to setup an ISP. I think customers would be the major pain point (especially in america when competing with Comcast or AT&T).
A good part of DIY ISP don't have customers, they have users, it's a major difference, they are made by the people for the people.
It really depends on the country where you want to do that, but, generally, it's hard and expensive to setup a traditional (think *DSL, FTTH) ISP.
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#7Have always been curious about setting up an ISP. Especially so recently. I have been unsuccessful finding much information, though I haven't tried as hard as I probably could. Anyone have any good links?
That is definitely one of the reason for http://www.diyisp.org to be setup right now. The idea would be to have a sort of http://hackerspaces.org (one stop website for hackerspaces around the world) to facilitate discovery and spreading of useful information.
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#8Have always been curious about setting up an ISP. Especially so recently. I have been unsuccessful finding much information, though I haven't tried as hard as I probably could. Anyone have any good links?
From what I understand so far, the model they encourage is:
- register a legal entity (coop, non-proft, corp, whatever)
- register with IANA to get an ipv4 and ipv6 block
- find an ISP who can do the BGP announcements for you (DSL resellers usually support it, even if for a residential connection)
- use something like Quagga for routing, no need for big expensive routers
- connect with whatever premises you want your DYI-ISP to cover: ex: specific building, such as a student dorm, specific residential district with a mesh wifi, cat5 flying all over the place, install your own fiber (it's not that complicated!), etc.
Browsing the FFDN database, a lot of their members are small orgs with 50-100 users. With time, if you encourage a community legal model (coop or non-profit), people will develop more expertise and step up to manage and expand your network.
PS: I'm part of a Montreal mesh community called "Réseau libre" (http://www.reseaulibre.ca). We don't provide Internet, but we build the underlying infrastructure. It's a lot of fun and a great way to learn crazy networking stuff on a shoe-string budget.
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#9Have always been curious about setting up an ISP. Especially so recently. I have been unsuccessful finding much information, though I haven't tried as hard as I probably could. Anyone have any good links?
I've done a fair amount of research here. There are few links that just "have everything" as not a ton of people are doing this from the ground up. The biggest bottleneck is infrastructure, which to some extent boils down to government and corporation politics, a lot of which are difficult to reference online.
Re: Federating Do-It-Yourself ISPs from around the world
#10Could Namecoin be used for the database?