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To be my own ISP...

croxiscroxis I am the walrus
Broadband sucks, at least where I live (Portland, United States). I can do the monopolized cable Internet (only one option, Comcast), or DSL and then I am limited to my land line provider.

Another problem are the lousy plans. The apartment I am taking care of this summer has cable Internet with an advertised 6 Mbps down and a delightful 300 kbps up. It is very rare that any downloads I have go above 1 Mbps before they are done but uploading a file or hosting a game server sure can slow things down. Pings arent that wonderful either. I would rather have 1 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up with tighter pings than this huge sloppy pipe.

It is not so much I am very serious about this, it is mostly a thought exercise. I can already for see a couple of problems, one which is that paying for the pipe will probably cost a bit as the large providers buy their bandwidth in bulk.

Here is what I know I would need:

The box: The router/server that connects my local network to the big bad Internet. I would need SSL, DNS, HTTP, SMPT or Sendmail, POP3, firewall, and other common routing software (port forwarding and the like). Also I would need an NIC that would connect to whatever thing I am connecting to.

The IP: I would need to get an IP.

The pipe: Here is where my knowledge dies. What entity would I buy/rent the pipe from? What would be the price range? What kind of connection is it? Where would I go to find what options I have?

Ok enough ramblings of a crazy man.

Comments

  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    You think [i]your[/i] internet is bad?
  • EclecticonautEclecticonaut Elite Ranger
    I think you just have to wait for WiMAX... probably coming your way within the next three years. :D

    Or probably sooner, there have been some plans for building a citywide pre-WiMAX hotspot network: [url]http://www.dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3863[/url]
  • Knowing about this situation somewhat... the only things really availible to anyone as a permanant internet connection without buying dsl or cable costs well over 800+ a month. And that's just for a lousy t1 line (and I had quotes for it too). So unless you live near a college can have a "friend" that can send you a free line to your house, or your rich. Your pretty well out of luck.
  • FreejackFreejack Jake the Not-so-Wise
    I have a similar problem. AT&T (actually SBC) keeps telling me they don't have DSL in my neighborhood yet and I refuse to pay for Charter's service (plus it's more than double what AT&T wants).

    Anyway I know there is a T1 line running to a house that is 12 houses down from me, if only I could piggy-back off that somehow.

    Jake
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    This house that my wife and I had built is in a new neigbhorhood. In fact we were the first family to move in on this side of the street. When we moved out here, Sprint had no phone cables run and Northland cable (think local yokels) had no cable for us either.

    We had electric, gas, water and sewer, and thats it.

    It took a month and me calling every day before they got me a phone line, as my neighbors started moving in, they too started calling on a daily basis. It sucked, but now I have a decently fast internet actual speeds by dslreports got me 568KB/sec down and 74KB/sec up.

    Just as a side note, when I cancelled Northland cable and got DirecTV the guy behind the counter at Northland tells me "Oh, I have direcTV its great!" I wasnt quite sure what to say to that.
  • croxiscroxis I am the walrus
    Over a decade ago what was then Paragon Cable, the ones designated to provide cable for my area, refused to do so because they said there was not enough demand to justify the cost of establishing the network. A local dude and his son started a small cable company, wired the area, and made enough money to where Paragon bought them out.

    Another issue is that my state supposedly has hundreds if not a couple thousands of miles of dark fiber that the state subsidized to put in but the dot com bust ruined anyone from using it. I have this crazy idea of starting my own broadband ISP or spearhead a , but I know that it would be almost impossible to do outside of wireless.

    Call me old fashioned but I just like having hard lines!
  • I totally agree with you there. Hardline is so much more efficent and stable. Unfortunatly, wireless is going big. In a town near me, a few places set up outside wireless lans that anyone can access the internet for free. I was like whoa... but it's only at like only at one park, the city hall, and an ice rink. Not very exceptional places, but hell if your out of town, it's a great way to check up on the net stuff.
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