[SunRescue] re: [OT] Reliable net access in the boonies

[bobk]

On Wed, 28 Mar 2001, Jonathan Katz wrote:

> A while back I was thinking of dropping a box
> (read router) in at mae-west or at paix-- if I could find folks to go
> in with me. Everyone would be responsible for their line costs or
> "virtual route" to my router at the co-lo site plus a small fee to cover
> the big expense of co-location there.

This sort of thing is being done. Details below.

> Most places you can run a "empty"
> two-wire copper feed to your local CO for $20-$60/mo-- drop in your own
> DSL equipment at the CO and at home, (dsl router at home, dsl to oc-3 
> at the CO...

Um, not any more. What you might have been able to do in the past, use an
'alarm circuit', is no longer possible. The ILECs have, with government
permission, futzed around with alarm circuits so they are useless for high
speed data. Now they sell you data lines for a lot more money.

This may not be the case in all areas. Check around. Don't ever believe
what an ILEC says, there's a good chance they are lying.


> you could effectively use a dsl router and a SS5 w/ ATM card)
> then get a friend at a fibre provider (uunet/qwest/mfs) to carve you a
> (small) PVC to "my" box at paix. I only would have to pay for one fibre
> drop from mfs/qwest/whoever to my box there, and "boom" we have our own
> fast ISP.
> 
> Since paix is too much money, and www.indyx.com is a lot closer to
> where I live... except indyx.com is gone... *shrug* gotta do some
> research there.

I am one of several people involved in building what has been labeled a
'bandwidth co-op'. A well-connected (in both meanings of the word) friend
(a famous router jock) is getting a friend of his to sell him rack space &
bandwidth real cheap. We pay for equipment, T1 loop, and bandwidth
charges. I believe the cost was $225/mo for T1 loop to my house, and then
bandwidth actual usage, 1mb/sec being $200. That's a lot of usage, we
probably use 1/8 of that, so theoretically would pay 1/8 as much. I have
my own class C and they'll route it.

The problems here is that you have to be THIS TALL to ride. Yea, if you
aren't fairly technical you aren't allowed to join. And the other problem
is there's really no one you can yell at if things are messed up. Yes, it
will get fixed, but there's work and then there's play.

But I am sure this will work better than most of the ISPs around here, for
what I want to do.

I have also considered trying to buy a T1 into the boston MXP
(http://www.bostonmxp.com), and then buying transit from one (or more) of
the providers there. This would be great as if I decided one provider
sucked I could switch to another without havign to get VeryZoned to move
my T1.