How did you go about getting access from AT&T?
You just call them up and order a T1 with MIS (Managed Internet Service). They handle the phone company, who will bring the T1 to your house. After a couple of weeks AT&T sends you a package with the router in it. Plug it in, call them up and in a few minutes you have an RJ45 port with Internet. From then on, it's up to you.
What was your initial cost?
Hard to say. By far the most expensive was the T1. They wanted a $3000 deposit, and every month costs over $1K. If you don't have people set up to share the bill straight away, this will suck dollars.
For the wireless side, setting up the main antenna cost:
Most of the people sharing the network pay for their own equipment (I order, assemble, configure and install it). This ends up costing each subscriber $157 initially. So there's no ROI interval.
Some people do things differently: they take out a business loan, buy commerical grade radio and antennas and aim to turn a profit after the first year.
Did you start an "ISP"?
Kind of, in a tiny way. I run an email and web server. It's more like the internet arrangement that a small company might have than a true ISP. I run FreeBSD - the handbook tells you everything you need to know.
Does the FCC have guidelines you must follow?
There are laws about maximum power. But with consumer grade equipment like this, we're well under the limits. If you're running a business you might want to use FCC certified radio/antenna combinations, but fortunately I'm not doing that.
What about the big ISP's thinking you are 'muscling in' on their business?
I really don't think they care - this is a rural area so there was nothing but dialup and satellite here before. Maybe people are doing this everywhere, now that the hardware and software are so cheap.
Have you had any problem with the WET11s related to temperatures or lightning?
I'm on the coast in Northern California: the hottest it ever gets here is the 90s, and that's really rare. Today is typical: it's in the 60s. Signals do go up in the night by a few percent - I'm not sure if this is a microwave propagation issue or something in the radios themselves.
I have no lighting protection at all; it's not really common round here.
What about enclosures?
I started with Rubbermaid food containers for enclosures.
What kind of range are you getting?
I'm using an 8dBi omni from Superpass (link above) and the furthest link I have is about 1.5 miles with a 24dBi parabolic grid.
I use WET11s throughout, and the antenna depends on range:
Foil template?
Yes, they're very easy to make, and suddenly your signal is at least doubled. No pigtails, no connectors. Just paper, glue and foil. And somebody smart enough to figure out the math, here and here.
How many subscribers do you have?
Currently 30-35, depending on how you count them, which is break even for the T1.
What is the population of your town?
About 400, I think.
What about solar power for the repeater?
I considered it, but you need a panel of at least 60W to power the units and charge the battery for an overcast winter's day. The cost for the parts was about $800. And then:
I decided not to bother.
Where many people interested in your deal for the internet?
At first I got a few people scattered across town. But the word spread - in a small town like this people will wait until their friends have tried something before committing themselves.
How long is your longest link?
About 1.5 miles. This is from the main access point (WAP11 + 8dBi omni) to a client (WET11 + 24 dBi parabolic mesh).
What kind of security do you use to prevent people from just accessing your wireless network, or switching IP addresses to get a higher speed from dummynet?
Wireless security is just 128 bit WEP with MAC access control. Somebody could change their IP to get a higher rate, but they would get a collision with the legitimate owner which would show up in the logs.
How do you deal with the "over subscription"? If you have a T-1, and you have 1500Mbps service plans... how many of those do you feel you can sell before you are over-subscribed TOO much?
I'm currently offering a total of about 9000kbps - that is, 6X my actual capacity. Utilization is almost always below 300kbps (one minute average), so I guess I could add 5X the number of people and still offer roughly the same service.
You're using outside units - what do you do about power?
I tried a few things and eventually decided to put DC on the unused pairs in he cat5 cable. This is what people call PoE, Power over Ethernet. The main trouble with PoE is that cable runs over a few feet suffer from voltage drop, and the drop is proprtional to the distance.
Because DC-DC converters are $7, I opted to put 48 volts on the wires, and use a converter next to the WET11 to bring it down to 5 volts. Here's the details.
What words of wisdom do you have? (Actually nobody asked this, but here's my answer anyway)
Use horizontal polarity throughout to avoid interference from 2.4GHz phones and cameras, which tend to be vertical polarity, very "dirty" spectrum-wise and a royal pain for fixed wireless setups.
More notes are here.
James Bowman - acelere.net