[olug] Community Colo Project

[Kenny Kant]

This has been a fun thread to read and I am also willing to support such 
a project.  However, I think the question needs to be asked on how such 
a thing would be managed financially?
Granted everyone is willing to donate time, effort, hardware, ...etc but 
at some point money will have to exchange hands with providers.  How 
would such a thing be handled?  My mind quickly
goes back to 10 college kids living in a house and only one dude is on 
the lease. :)  then 9 dudes leave and then the house sucks.  I think 
some structure would need be put in place in order for this to be taken
seriously by others.

BTW, once this is all worked I will donate some beer and a couch :)

Kenny



Phil Brutsche wrote:
> Bah, this is piddly little stuff; I think you're thinking way too hard
> about it. Except for the scale this isn't a whole lot different from
> what some of us run in our basements.
>
> If we did this, we would be using enterprise-grade switches. The sort of
> switches that have GBIC slots in them ;) The sort of stuff I have
> sitting in a corner waiting for me to give away ;)
>
> I have Cisco 3500XLs - 3524XL (24x 10/100, 2x GBIC), 3548XLs (48x
> 10/100, 2x GBIC), 3508XL (8x GBIC). Cosmetically challenged 1000base-SX
> GBICs are free ;) I also have 2950G-24s (24x 10/100, 2x GBIC), 2950G-48s
> (48x 10/100, 2x GBIC) and 2948Gs (48x 10/100, 2x GBIC) I could be
> convinced to part with.
>
> It might be weird to some people to connect both ethernet ports on the
> router to the switch - a 10/100 port and a GBIC on vlan 10 for the ISP,
> everything else on VLAN 20 - but we wouldn't have to worry about any
> financial outlay. If the switch breaks we'll have downtime regardless.
> We could always get a fiber card or three later after we get established.
>
> As for the fiber card, we wouldn't need to spend $500 for a fiber Gig-E
> card, if you know what you're looking for you can get them for a lot
> less than that:
> http://search.ebay.com/280322917964 <http://www.adaanumber.com/>
> http://search.ebay.com/110342439831 <http://www.adaanumber.com/>
> http://search.ebay.com/130291378047 <http://www.adaanumber.com/>
> http://search.ebay.com/140304056203 <http://www.adaanumber.com/>
>
> I wouldn't even worry about which connector the fiber has on it, there
> are lots of ways to convert between ST, LC, and SC - couplers, patch
> panels, etc.
>
> Dan Clough wrote:
>   
>> I've never done anything on this scale before, so one of my (already
>> numerous) worries is if we just get a barebones fiber drop from
>> Pinpoint.  Won't we need gear built to handle it?  New fiber NICs are
>> ludicrously expensive... I've seen upwards of $5000 for the Intel 10G,
>> $2k if you're just looking for the transceiver.  Now granted we won't
>> ever need to handle a 10G drop (And if we did we sure as hell wouldn't
>> use a single Vyatta box) but the 1Gigs are still $400-500 a pop.
>> Would we just need to use an SC/LC to 8P8C transceiver, or is a more
>> complex setup required?
>>     
>
>