Ask HN: How do i build my own network to access internet in a rural area?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11762001

by nerdynapster • 10 years ago

11 24 10 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

share any relevant technique, technology, resource, reference or anything you find helpful.

TDL• 10 years ago

This may be helpful, depending on the geography of the rural area:

https://www.ubnt.com/

nerdynapster8• 10 years ago

thanks. please share if you found any content on how to develop such a network on my own

citruspi• 10 years ago

This might be a bit much for a single person, but your question reminded me of a piece[0] from last November which covered the creation of a local ISP, the Doe Bay Internet Users Association[1], on the Orcas Island after the residents had poor experiences with CenturyLink.

The ISP also has some technical details on their website[2].

Previous discussion on that piece[3].

[0] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/how-a-...

[1] https://dbiua.org

[2] https://dbiua.org/technical-details/

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10487419

swah• 10 years ago

Reminds me of this: http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/09/man-builds-house-the...

dsfyu404ed• 10 years ago

How rural? Is money a top concern? You could cobble together a bunch of wireless broadband devices (or cell phones), a router and some load balancing and voila. That's not really useful if you're too rural for cell service or money is an object.

nerdynapster8• 10 years ago

rural enough to not to get a line-of-sight from a BTS (zero signal strength in cellphone overthere) can spent money enough to serve, can not bear much loss.

jason_slack4• 10 years ago

I live in a very rural area (on a lake with lots of state forest surrounding me) where even to get DSL you need approval from Verizon.

I use Cradlepoint equipment to access the internet over LTE. I have wired the house but also have wireless access points too. I prioritize the traffic exiting so ensure that the really important stuff is first. Stuff related to my job comes before my son on YouTube or Facebook, etc. I also block a lot of outgoing traffic until certain hours of the day. (i.e no YouTube between 6am and 8pm).

On a side note, I have also been looking at tools I use (rsync, scp, etc) to see if there are ways to better help those on really limited connections.

curiousgal• 10 years ago

That's like my dream (living in a rural lake house)!

jason_slack4• 10 years ago

It is very quiet and enjoyable. The quality of my coding shows it.

nerdynapster8• 10 years ago

oh wow...beautiful jason_slack. how...how do you do that prioritize thing? how LTE connects to the internet? do i need to set-up a BTS?

jason_slack4• 10 years ago

I use a Cradlepoint modem with a SIM card in it to connect

Prioritization is done with traffic shaping using pfsense 2.

atomical• 10 years ago

I have thought about using an LTE modem, but currently I tether. I run my whole connection through a VPN so I can use truly unlimited data with T-mobile. I'm using 300+ gigs a month for around $100.

nerdynapster8• 10 years ago

how did you just do that?

atmosx• 10 years ago

How a colleague of mine managed to get internet access in rural Uruguay https://blog.scrapinghub.com/2016/04/27/a-not-so-short-story...

walrus013• 10 years ago

You're basically asking "How do I start a WISP?". What is your existing level of networking knowledge?

nerdynapster8• 10 years ago

during my graduation in telecommunication engineering, i has studied relevant subjects such as "Telecommunication Switching, Traffic and Networks", "Computer Networks", "Digital Signal Processing", "Wireless and Mobile Communication" Topics such as OSI Layer, Network Topology, RF Engineering, Microwave engineering,

walrus013• 10 years ago

Uhhh. Have you ever worked for an ISP in any capacity? Personally worked with fiber or microwave transport systems?

That list of stuff looks like something a person would copy+paste on a resume.

Not trying to dissuade you, but your initial question is really vague. Exactly what are you trying to accomplish and where?

sheraz• 10 years ago

I looked into this a few years ago when I was entertaining the idea of bringing better-than-dsl speeds to a rural town. Here is what I learned:

Getting high speed internet to a rural location is a mix of cool tech, line-of-site, politics, roof rights, friendly farmers, and chasing whoever controls the nearest fiber. Oh, and $$$$$ MONEY $$$$$

Routers and network:

  - http://ubnt.com 
  - http://mikrotik.com

Both sites have user forums that discuss not only the hardware but also all of the above.

nerdynapster8• 10 years ago

line-of-sight between what and what? can't internet be accessed through satellites? how much money may i expect to offer to the project?

walrus013• 10 years ago

based on your questions, I recommend you hire a professional to implement your project. As for money, how can you ask that question if the goals, location and scope of your project have not been defined?

"I want to build a WISP covering an entire multi-county area in Montana with 200Mbps+ last mile services"

"I want to build a single point to point link with $95 ubnt radios 3km to service an island"

totally different things.

Ask HN: How do i build my own network to access internet in a rural area?

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