'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by clord on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @04:37PM (#24413033)

I live in a similar way in Canada, and I run long range ubiquiti radios (~12km) to nearest small town. get 150-200mbps and since I have battery backup + generator, usually the only reason it goes down is if the ISP router dies. I get ~1 bar of LTE that flickers to 3g, but with wifi calling it's not an issue. In addition to changing my own alternator, I run a small ISP for my neighbours :)

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by spenczar5 on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @04:52PM (#24413202)

I'd like to know more about how you arranged this. In that small town, it sounds like you have some sort of connection to an ISP. Do you lease space on a tower to do that? Do you have a friend with an office nearby, and you connect there somehow? Is the ISP friendly and willing to set this up with you?

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by clord on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @06:27PM (#24426626)

I have a 30m tower, and at the town I have a friend with a good connection. I rent roof space and pay half the bill. ISP is ok since it's a business plan, and both of us are using it for mainly business — it's similar to a shared office that provides internet from their perspective.

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by chrisco255 on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @04:52PM (#24413204)

Wow I didn't even know about these radios and how reasonably priced they are for the range!

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by ed25519FUUU on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @06:56PM (#24414584)

You might also be surprised to know that microwave is faster than fiber. Not necessarily more reliable, mind you, but faster.

There's a reason all of the HFT folks are using microwaves.

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by grahamburger on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @09:03PM (#24415550)

Only if by 'faster' you are referring exclusively to latency. In some situations (not all) you can achieve slightly better latency with wireless than fiber, but for raw throughout nothing compares to light in glass.

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by mercurialshark on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @05:40PM (#24413799)

Where can I learn more specifics about configuring/deploying a similar setup? Thanks.

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by grahamburger on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @09:02PM (#24415538)

I run a website about this kind of thing. You might find this page useful: https://startyourownisp.com/posts/backhaul-picker/

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by mercurialshark on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @09:27PM (#24415724)

Nice, this is exactly the kind of practical guide and reference material I was looking for!

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by black_puppydog on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @07:38PM (#24414915)

There are open comprehensive resources like the open book "WiFi networking in the developing world" [1] which seem pertinent here even though we're talking about North America. :P

[1]: http://wndw.net/book.html

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by ed25519FUUU on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @06:59PM (#24414620)

Also very curious also. At ~12km I would think it would require some specialized microwave testing equipment to get the alignment right.

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Re:'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US... by grahamburger on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @09:53PM (#24415913)

12km isn't too bad actually for alignment unless you're using really high frequency (>10Ghz) equipment. Even then though you probably don't need specialized equipment other than maybe binoculars and a voltmeter[1]. I've taught beginners to align 24ghz radios at 12km by hand.

[1]The voltmeter is for quick feedback on the signal level as you aim. Many high-capacity wireless radios have a connection point on the back that will adjust voltage to match the current receive signal level (measured in dBm). That's usually the fastest way to watch the signal level as you aim, especially if you're hanging off a tower while you do it.

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