[olug] starting broadband ISP, any suggestions?

Thu Aug 23 00:43:04 UTC 2012

Not sure who is running Spiral Communications, but American Relay's 
customers and assets were bought by Future Technologies.

On 08/20/2012 08:46 AM, Hurley, Rod wrote:
> Sam,
> I wonder if this Spiral Communications the same company that used to be American Relay?  We had some Glenwood users that were using AR until they went bust.  Reason I'm asking is because they were so understaffed, their service was pathetic at best.
>
> Here's a great memory:  Another sys admin and I drove to their office in downtown Omaha to get an answer that they would not respond to, and it was just a secure apartment complex.  We found a way in, and you should have seen the look on their faces when we walked in their "office" (set up cubicles in the middle of the room) and asked why we couldn't get someone to call us back.  They went belly up soon thereafter.
>
> I guess my point here is everything looks great on paper.  Check out some references first, so you don't end up sneaking into buildings to get answers.  :o)
>
> Rod
> ________________________________________
> From: olug-bounces at olug.org [olug-bounces at olug.org] On Behalf Of Sam Flint [harmonicnm7h at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 8:26 AM
> To: Rob.Townley at gmail.com; Omaha Linux User Group
> Subject: Re: [olug] starting broadband ISP, any suggestions?
>
> Talk to these people: http://spiral-communications.com/
>
> On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Rob Townley<rob.townley at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Not sure what you are asking, but ubnt.com has some cool wireless
>> stuff and starting to incorporate GPS into equipment to help maximize
>> signal-to-noise ratio. It would be worth it to register and poke
>> around in their forums even if you do not use their stuff.
>>
>> 100Mbps long range 50km wireless using their AirMax stuff.
>> Line-of-sight, but i wonder if you could get substantial bandwidth
>> even when not line-of-sight.  Since bullet Ms are inexpensive ($50),
>> it would be worth buying several to test out.  Let me know how dead-on
>> line-of-sight accurate is actually required.
>> http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#bulletm
>>
>>
>> ubiquiti's airfiber is not microwave as it 24GhZ (yes, that is right,
>> no decimal. twenty-four GhZ) and claims to support 1GB wireless to
>> 13km.  Line-of-sight.  Developed from a former Motorola team.
>> http://www.ubnt.com/airfiber
>>
>> i had trouble finding a distributor that would actually sell me a
>> bullet m when i first tried a year or so ago.  But now,
>> http://www.microcom.us/bullet5.html sells several versions.  So no, i
>> do NOT have any real experience with this long range hardware, but
>> would be interested to see what you find.  If you are within 50km of
>> the Westroads, i might be willing to test.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 12:51 AM, Justin Reiners<justin at hotlinesinc.com>  wrote:
>>> line of site wireless is the dream, that is more my bosses realm, I just
>>> move packets. he leases space on his tower to many different companies. He
>>> thinks he can do some type of directional microwave transmission, said it
>>> will easily support his speeds he is looking for.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 12:49 AM, Jason N<dashrender at cox.net>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> how are you going to get from your tower to the clients?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---- Justin Reiners<justin at hotlinesinc.com>  wrote:
>>>> Ohh, touche, I guess on cox and such everyone is on the same network (for
>>>> the most part), just firewalled on the client side (we hope :) ) so you
>>>> think regular off the shelf (meaning cisco and such, not linksys or
>>>> netgear) routers and switches. good good. My boss has checked on his pipe,
>>>> can get it for about 9 grand a month, (1Gigabit, multiple fiber drops
>>>> already exist at his tower.)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 12:27 AM, Kevin<sharpestmarble at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> What if some business that you provide service to wants to contact some
>>>>> other business you provide service to? i.e. A small business that hosts
>>>>> their own website or mail server?
>>>>> On Aug 20, 2012 12:23 AM, "Justin Reiners"<justin at hotlinesinc.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> The upstream bandwidth will be fiber, 1 gigabit, already priced. The
>>>>> users
>>>>>> will be business users, requiring at least 50/50, or whatever they
>>>> need.
>>>>>> their will be 100Mb users as well. I would like all users (businesses)
>>>> IP
>>>>>> to be segregated for security reasons. all businesses will need static
>>>>>> public IPs. Last mile will be microwave.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 12:17 AM, Kevin<sharpestmarble at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>> What is your upstream bandwidth like? Fiber? From who? They are the
>>>>>> people
>>>>>>> you'll need to buy your IPs from. You don't need to buy a public IP
>>>> for
>>>>>>> everyone, just use NAT(assuming they're home users), although there
>>>> are
>>>>>>> some who would take issue with that. Some of those who would take
>>>> issue
>>>>>> are
>>>>>>> people of this list.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Routing could be done using a Linux box. You'd need multiple
>>>>> interfaces,
>>>>>>> and you'd want it to be redundant, although you'd want that as part
>>>> of
>>>>>> any
>>>>>>> setup you would use. Play with iptables some to get it set up and
>>>>> running
>>>>>>> properly.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> What kind of networks will you be running that you'll want to keep
>>>>>>> separate?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Aug 19, 2012 11:57 PM, "Justin Reiners"<justin at hotlinesinc.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>> Hey eveyone, weird question, I have done my googling, to no avail.
>>>> I
>>>>>> was
>>>>>>>> wondering if anyone here works for an ISP, or has the understanding
>>>>> of
>>>>>>>> first time setup. My boss have come to me with a task, He is
>>>> looking
>>>>>> for
>>>>>>>> starting an ISP in his home town, as there are no, 100MB+ isps in
>>>> the
>>>>>>> area,
>>>>>>>> connection type is fixed wireless, or microwave. He owns a tower in
>>>>>> IA, I
>>>>>>>> cannot say where exactly it is located because he hosts things for
>>>>> the
>>>>>>> CIA,
>>>>>>>> FBI and such. He also has fiber to the building, unused at the
>>>>> moment,
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>> he also has all the capital he needs to get it going. I have some
>>>>>>>> questions, He wants to start with 1Gb of bandwidth, and knows
>>>> plenty
>>>>> of
>>>>>>>> businesses in the area that are looking to go faster.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> 1. When the fiber is installed, will we be left with a 1Gigabit
>>>>>> Ethernet
>>>>>>>> port I route off of?
>>>>>>>> 2. I assume we will need to buy public IPs. any idea on the costs?
>>>>>>>> 3. What types of switches and routers do you recommend, (hoping it
>>>> is
>>>>>>> just
>>>>>>>> ethernet) (number of users will be around 20 at first, then the sky
>>>>> is
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>> limit.)
>>>>>>>> 4. can the routing be done using a linux box?
>>>>>>>> 5. Can multiple users use the same directional antenna?
>>>>>>>> 6. How can we keep networks seperate?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Any help will be appreciated. I am hoping someone in the group
>>>> works
>>>>>> with
>>>>>>>> this type of thing. google has not been much help, I find a lot of
>>>>> OLD
>>>>>>> ISP
>>>>>>>> pages, talking of dialup modems of such. lol.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Justin Reiners
>>>>>>>> www.PartsHotlines.com
>>>>>>>> www.MrCycleParts.com
>>>>>>>> Service/Support/Training
>>>>>>>> Back-end Systems Support.
>>>>>>>>      <
>>>> http://www.facebook.com/pages/PartsHotlinescom/251605051521985
>>>>>> <
>>>>>>>> https://plus.google.com/102910487271834609118>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>>>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>>>>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>>>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Justin Reiners
>>>>>> www.PartsHotlines.com
>>>>>> www.MrCycleParts.com
>>>>>> Service/Support/Training
>>>>>> Back-end Systems Support.
>>>>>>      <http://www.facebook.com/pages/PartsHotlinescom/251605051521985><
>>>>>> https://plus.google.com/102910487271834609118>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Justin Reiners
>>>> www.PartsHotlines.com
>>>> www.MrCycleParts.com
>>>> Service/Support/Training
>>>> Back-end Systems Support.
>>>>      <http://www.facebook.com/pages/PartsHotlinescom/251605051521985><
>>>> https://plus.google.com/102910487271834609118>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Justin Reiners
>>> www.PartsHotlines.com
>>> www.MrCycleParts.com
>>> Service/Support/Training
>>> Back-end Systems Support.
>>>      <http://www.facebook.com/pages/PartsHotlinescom/251605051521985><https://plus.google.com/102910487271834609118>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> OLUG mailing list
>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>> _______________________________________________
>> OLUG mailing list
>> OLUG at olug.org
>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>
>
> --
> Sam Flint
> flintfam.org/~swflint
> _______________________________________________
> OLUG mailing list
> OLUG at olug.org
> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
> _______________________________________________
> OLUG mailing list
> OLUG at olug.org
> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug