Sharing Internet

[Imminent]

Hello,

I am a fan of le Interwebs. I was hoping I could get some insight on what would be my best option for sharing a 10mbit internet connection legally with as many people as possible. I live in a small town, but we have 4mbit adsl and adsl2+ modulation.

It would be easy for me to lay cables.. I heard that you wouldn't require a lisence if you sell internet through cables.. But I guess I would have to have a lisence (ISP) if i want to start selling broadband?

My boss is a very rich farmer who is about to upgrade his IT Backbone on the farm and he wouldn't mind if he had to pay R50 000 for an ISP lisence. If he could make the money back by helping the community (make back his ISP fee and then only charge them cost for the data).

I would really appreciate it if you could keep the comments constructive in this topic. Since its for the betterment of a town

Cheers!

 

[voipnow]

If you are in a small town it may be a very long time before you get 10Meg, possibly never. You could get a line binder for two or more 4 meg lines.

Becoming a WISP. ( Wireless internet service provider ) is going to be easier than cables. Its not easy fora WISP become financially profitable. You should check that you will get at least 50 customers pretty quickly or this may become a financial black hole. Also don't underestimate the amount of administration to run a ISP.

I far as I understand it you need a license to lay any cable between any to properties.

 

[bleh69]

Wireless IS the way to go. You need to find the highest spot in town, and strap to it, 1 (at first) or more WUG kits (PtaWUG.co.za), with 2.5Ghz (standard wifi) reciever cards. THEN, you need to get that antenna connected to (presumably) your house, using another WUG kit. Direct line of sight, you could push 100Mbps easily over that link. Then you sell the townfolk cheap wireless access points (~R450). HOWEVER, you need to give them sort of roof based antenna setup (the dinky antenna you can screw out of it is useless). You can go anything from the Pringle Can Hack (Google: Pringle Wifi Antenna) - but that would make you look a bit cheap - to a good omni kit and cable for R300/kit. (all this at miro.co.za)

This will see the townsfolk connecting at at least 2-3Mbps. Thus the bottleneck will be either the link to your house, or your internet connection.

As far as i know, WUG's are legal. : ] - although i dont know how big this town is. You may have to switch to 5.2Ghz wireless (more expensive access points) to cover grater distances.

 

[portcullis]

Wireless IS the way to go. You need to find the highest spot in town, and strap to it, 1 (at first) or more WUG kits (PtaWUG.co.za), with 2.5Ghz (standard wifi) reciever cards. THEN, you need to get that antenna connected to (presumably) your house, using another WUG kit. Direct line of sight, you could push 100Mbps easily over that link. Then you sell the townfolk cheap wireless access points (~R450). HOWEVER, you need to give them sort of roof based antenna setup (the dinky antenna you can screw out of it is useless). You can go anything from the Pringle Can Hack (Google: Pringle Wifi Antenna) - but that would make you look a bit cheap - to a good omni kit and cable for R300/kit. (all this at miro.co.za)

This will see the townsfolk connecting at at least 2-3Mbps. Thus the bottleneck will be either the link to your house, or your internet connection.

As far as i know, WUG's are legal. : ] - although i dont know how big this town is. You may have to switch to 5.2Ghz wireless (more expensive access points) to cover grater distances.

What have you been smoking?

No wonder people treat WISPs with so much disdain.

YOU NOT COBBLE SOLUTIONS TOGETHER AND THEN SELL THAT ON AS GOSPEL.

Wireless is probably the way to go, but if you can run cable, then you should do so as cable is king. I wrote an article on it two years ago.

Before you do anything, go to your nearest ICASA offices and apply for a Class ECNS licence. Once you have that in your hands it'll be time to get the ball rolling.

The closer you are to the Telkom exchange the shorter the cable run from the DSLAM to your router, the less attenuation, flapping or jabber. Meaning the better your connection.

Find out when MikroTik, Miro or Scoop are running MikroTik training courses and attend them. If you aren't fluent in TCP/IP and can't subnet in your head while sitting on the toilet, get a good TCP/IP book and study it.

Find premises as near to the exchange as possible and apply for service. 2 x 4Mb ADSLs will be fine for a start. Put 2 MWEB Business 4Mb uncapped connections on there and you'll be good to go.

Next secure your high site(s). If you can't buy the property get LONG leases. Remember "huur gaat voor koop" so even if the buildings / farms get sold, you will still have your leases on the pieces of land.

It'll then be time to build your backbone. You will need a RADIUS server at the office where the ADSLs are. Ubiquiti make some very good Mimo dumb bridges that provide great throughput. They are ideal for links from the office to the high sites and for meshing high sites.

A high site would usually consist of a MikroTik RB433AH or a MikroTik RB800 with a couple of high powered radio cards and a couple of sectoral antennas. You users can then use cheap CPEs to connect to the access points.

As for cable. If you can get permission from the council to dig up the streets do it.

I second what voipnow says about the costs and the amount of administration required to run an ISP.

 

[Imminent]

What have you been smoking?

No wonder people treat WISPs with so much disdain.

YOU NOT COBBLE SOLUTIONS TOGETHER AND THEN SELL THAT ON AS GOSPEL.

Wireless is probably the way to go, but if you can run cable, then you should do so as cable is king. I wrote an article on it two years ago.

Before you do anything, go to your nearest ICASA offices and apply for a Class ECNS licence. Once you have that in your hands it'll be time to get the ball rolling.

The closer you are to the Telkom exchange the shorter the cable run from the DSLAM to your router, the less attenuation, flapping or jabber. Meaning the better your connection.

Find out when MikroTik, Miro or Scoop are running MikroTik training courses and attend them. If you aren't fluent in TCP/IP and can't subnet in your head while sitting on the toilet, get a good TCP/IP book and study it.

Find premises as near to the exchange as possible and apply for service. 2 x 4Mb ADSLs will be fine for a start. Put 2 MWEB Business 4Mb uncapped connections on there and you'll be good to go.

Next secure your high site(s). If you can't buy the property get LONG leases. Remember "huur gaat voor koop" so even if the buildings / farms get sold, you will still have your leases on the pieces of land.

It'll then be time to build your backbone. You will need a RADIUS server at the office where the ADSLs are. Ubiquiti make some very good Mimo dumb bridges that provide great throughput. They are ideal for links from the office to the high sites and for meshing high sites.

A high site would usually consist of a MikroTik RB433AH or a MikroTik RB800 with a couple of high powered radio cards and a couple of sectoral antennas. You users can then use cheap CPEs to connect to the access points.

As for cable. If you can get permission from the council to dig up the streets do it.

I second what voipnow says about the costs and the amount of administration required to run an ISP.

Thank you for this very insightful comment.

I will try and find out what the market looks like in our town. Before I take it any further regarding the infrastructure