A fun office not at the corporate HQ for some reason. Such a weird, talented, and very international crew, we had an indigenous Indian fighter jet program supervisor, the former commander of Soviet civilian reentry command, an old USAF nuclear ordinance disposal expert, several H1B PhDs. I wonder if anyone here will remember mix vodka with your drink tuesdays, or the solstice where our manager handed out a whole blotter of acid to anyone who wanted?
I recall a coven of witches meeting in one cubicle to experimentally try to magic some network problem, there was money laid down on both sides. We hacked the prox-card security system to not unlock the first few tries for certain classes to give us a minute or so to hide our screwing off if an important manager showed up in person.
Or the time when we fell behind on Y2K stuff and the lead of that project was found in the bathroom at 3am passed out on smack with a needle in his arm. Hacking with satellites, hacking anything we could get our hands on, and inside a real telecom network while there was a lull in work. I learned so much, but so damn stressful at the same time as I think we all knew we were totally disposable. Good times…. I had already left to find a sane job. Folks on our block actually did this in after giving up on the wretched scam fon.
Three of our neighbors provided subMbps cablemodem or DSL links, which were pooled together we tried Astaro and Smoothwall to provide faster downloads under the right circumstances and fail-over. Members who provided bandwidth received credit for the traffic and a pooled link. Four other neighbors bought bandwidth from us, and we either beamed it to them as wifi or ran an Ethernet cable along the fences to them.
At the pooling point, a media server gave everyone access to a library of music and movies. Email and web hosting was managed with Webmin. There was a private forum and community home page. Web GUI access to an instance of Transmission made it easy to download more stuff for the library. Music files were played at random on our own Icecast station.
Not all of these services were permanent features, but they were all accomplished at one point or another and could have been permanent. I think we all do. Thus, an already registered LIR can cheaply resell them.
Obtaining IPv4 address space is much more expensive. Dirty addresses that have been used by cheap hosting companies are cheaper, but usually blacklisted in many places. ARIN addresses are more expensive. AfriNIC has no limitations on where you can use the block, just from where you can register it. This was a really good write up. I think I am going to send the article to my boss when he starts asking me about equipment specs for our BGP peers.
Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. Comment Policy. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. This connection is future proof and also provides high upload speeds, which is especially beneficial for those working from home or for businesses. In order to make the investment worth it, most communities will want to opt for FTTP connections.
Rural communities will be much better served by wired networks than urban groups. This is because installing fibre networks in cities is much more difficult and costly — more on this in Step 2. Wireless networks are the cheaper option since they require less investment in physical infrastructure.
In traditional WiFi networks, a single router is used to spread the incoming wired signal from a main hub to each individual user. This causes the power of the signal to decay as it travels through the air, making the network inefficient in terms of providing high speeds in a large area.
Those wishing to establish a wireless community network will need to construct a fixed wireless broadband infrastructure. Such an infrastructure starts from a central hub. This hub should be a tall building, one from which all of the individual premises which will be part of the network must be seen with the naked eye.
In community led projects these are usually bought by the user, though they can also be rented from the ISP. These types of WiFi networks will not fare well in areas characterised by steep hills or tall trees. This is because the strength of the signal will degrade as it passes through objects. It might still be possible to establish a wireless network if there are lots of trees in the area. However, as they grow taller the network might become unusable due to signal decay. Furthermore, those in urban areas with a variety of both tall and shorter buildings will find it difficult to create wireless networks due to this limitation.
It might still be possible if you manage to rent rooftop space on a structure that has unobstructed views of the premises in your network. Mesh networks are characterised by a series of nodes aka connection points which are able to communicate with one another, spreading the signal from one to the other. The ability to spread the signal in this way is what separates mesh networks from traditional WiFi networks. We have discussed how traditional WiFi networks work and how this modus operandi brings about limitations in how far the signal can reach.
Mesh networks bypass this critical deficit by allowing each node to relay the WiFi signal coming from the head node aka the modem without losing much speed in the process. This network topology is used on a smaller scale in many offices, where a central router is connected to the external internet through a wired connection while also sharing this connection with many other satellite routers distributed throughout the office.
By using mesh network technology which is supplied by a number of companies including US-based Althea and UK-based LocustWorld users can pool their money together and purchase a commercial grade internet connection. This bandwidth can then be distributed through the local mesh, providing a much cheaper connection. The decentralised nature of the network goes one step further: there is no need for a subscription.
Routers are able to pay each other using cryptocurrency. Thus, all that is needed apart from the router itself is a long-range WiFi antenna, making it possible for users to use cryptocurrency on a pay-as-you-go basis. Moreover, because of their decentralised nature, they can scale practically without limit, maintaining the ability to send and receive data at the same pace. Before beginning the process of becoming yout own ISP, you should use the fibre checker to see if there are currently plans to bring fibre to your area.
If there are no plans of this sort, then a community broadband project is in order. If so, all the information needed will be readily available and you can plan accordingly. The already existing infrastructure should serve as a starting point for all community broadband projects. What sort of investment is needed will hinge on what your initial prospecting phase has revealed and on what connectivity option you have chosen.
Depending on the size and nature of your project you might need either public or private funding, if not a combination of both. Private Fund-Raising The logical starting point for a community-led project such as this would be a private fund-raising strategy involving all those who have expressed their interest in the undertaking.
You can use:. Other parties might also be willing to invest in shares or bonds which offer various proceeds; this will depend on the nature and scale of the project and will vary from scheme to scheme. Community investors will be incentivised by the Enterprise Investment Scheme EIS which offers tax reliefs to parties who invest in your project. Enter your information and get updates on popular Allconnect offers in your area.
Why do we ask for your address? Need help? Speak to one of our experts. Call: Data caps. Download speeds. Transfers data to your home for activities like streaming, shopping and browsing social media. Mbps Megabits per second. A unit of measurement used to indicate download and upload speeds. Upload speeds. Transfer data from your home for activities like video calls, uploading large files, working on online documents and live gaming.
Get the latest internet, streaming, wireless, TV and home security news directly to your inbox. What to read next Read more. A community guide to advocating for better broadband services Ari Howard — 7 min read. Report: Majority of Americans support government-run internet service Ari Howard — 4 min read. Need a reason to move? Check out the cheap high-speed internet in these small cities! Samantha Cossick — 6 min read. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for internet news and promos.
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