Community-wide wireless Internet Service

[digibucc]

I read an article a few months ago , about how a community banded together, started their own company and provides themselves dirt cheap internet. I would imagine all the phone lines and buildings had to be wired and such.

I am interested in doing that, only wireless. or rather, my boss wants it done - and i find it an interesting idea. Now I know retail routers and such only go about 40-50 ft right? there are the super ones that say they go like 108 feet but I've never tried it.

A) are there commercial grade high power wireless access points?
if there are not high power long distance access points, repeaters are then my only option correct?

the area I am trying to cover is at max 5 miles squared, probably closer to 2 , but I haven't done a measurement yet.
what is the longest distance I will be able to send a signal.?


who knows anything about how to best get that trunk access in the first place? through the tel co or what? I doubt a regular isp would be good, roadrunner business wouldn't be a valid option. right? i don't imagine the entire town would use as much as a typical college or large business office. just a T# line?

please advise!


im sure there will be more questions along the line. I am just trying to get it fleshed out, any ideas or thoughts id appreciate greatly.

thank you!

 

[digibucc]

Ok - after a few minutes I realized no matter how powerful the unit on the tower is , each user's transceiver would have ot be strong enough to respond. there goes that idea.

but then i got another one - a web of repeaters. the point is to saturate the area with wireless , so for every customer place a repeater in or on their home. this will keep the signal going. give free access to fill in some dead areas if needed.

does this sound like any kind of viable idea?

 

[mrhuggles]

you'll probably just have to use the same kind of wireless isp's have been using, its expensive but it gets the job done

 

[W1zzard]

are you a business ? is the whole area private property? or public? whats your budget?

 

[digibucc]

we're a business , the area is the small town the business is located in. my boss owns other businesses in this small area, also there are some buildings we would like to provide free access to.

the rest would be paying customers, but the idea would be to make it as cheap as possible.
the budget is ... as cheap as possible. I mean he is willing to buy the necessary hardware - but I still have to find the cheapest possible way to saturate a 3-5 sq mi radius.

I have a small linksys wireless n router, that with ddwrt can function as a repeater. with it set and amped up, with one in each house, that could spread the signal form house to house, correct?

is there any way to get a signal to go more than 100 or so ft with wireless N?

 

[digibucc]

So I go back and tell my boss that a single access point won't work for something this size, that we need repeaters every 100ft or so to keep the signal strong. that was a wild gues on my part - but I know it can't go a few hundred feet and I know wireless G is rated at like 50ft so .....

anyway , he's fine for the day. comes back in today, saying that he talked to a buddy who owns a campground, and the guy says he has 5 acres covered in wireless from one access point. How is that possible? Do they have to have amped up external antennae for each user? how is it possible to saturate acres without a single repeater?

 

[mrw1986]

All of my retail purchased routers easily have a range of at least 500ft...I've tested it. Then again, I've also always flashed custom firmwares.

 

[digibucc]

so my 100ft for Wireless N was just in my head? ok ... did not realize. thank you.

but that still doesn't answer 1 access point saturating 5 acres - or am i overestimating the size of 5 acres?

 

[mrhuggles]

if its flat, and not a lot of things filled with water in the way [trees]

it can be done, it can be a lot better if you have good software installed on it
i get range about like that with nothing more than a WRT54G v2.0, openWRT + X-Wrt whiterussian, and replaced the normal anteni with a cute little set of cheap 7dbi ones that were only like 12 bux, they feel like they are AT LEAST twice as good as the default ones, but maybe more like 5 times better cuz the default ones really sucked.

 

[Disparia]

so my 100ft for Wireless N was just in my head? ok ... did not realize. thank you.

but that still doesn't answer 1 access point saturating 5 acres - or am i overestimating the size of 5 acres?

You are

I live on 10 and while I haven't taken the laptop out to the edge, I haven't had a problem so far. Will check tonight for you.

But an upgraded outdoor antenna would be a must, IMO, regardless of my distance testing though.

And before going too far, might want to talk with your lawyer about the liability of offering internet access, both free and paid.

 

[twicksisted]

why do you want to do this?
what are you trying to achieve... and if its as a business how is it going to make money?

 

[digibucc]

why do you want to do this?
what are you trying to achieve... and if its as a business how is it going to make money?

Well there are multiple buildings in the small town that we want to be on a single wireless network. We want to provide free internet to the kids center and stuff like that.

Basically we own a piece of property with a large tower. and though wireless isn't like analog tv or radio , a tower still helps - and they want to use it for something.

so we get a T1 or two for failover, and share wireless with those specific buildings. at that point most of the work is done and the town is partially saturated. if we can offer cheap wireless access to residents without too much extra - that's what we are looking in to.

 

[twicksisted]

thats very noble, but what about the cost? or do you plan on making money from "free" wireless... thats all im trying to find out
more importantly, how are you going to make money out of it to cover it self at least or profit to make it worthwhile?

 

[digibucc]

thats very noble, but what about the cost? or do you plan on making money from "free" wireless... thats all im trying to find out
more importantly, how are you going to make money out of it to cover it self at least or profit to make it worthwhile?

in the end, yes we would like to make money from it. once there are enough customers paying for access. it's a small and close knit town , and locally run isp would be a hit and should not have a problem signing up customers.we are nowhere near the pricing and implementation. this is the first few days of the idea , trying to find out if it is a viable option.

we are thinking:

sending direct LOS high range signal to the MANY churches in this small town, as well as the kids center, and library idk. these would be the "free" users. places where we can put higher power equipment and LOS to extend the range further. use the tower we have to accomplish this LOS from a higher alt.

also using broadcast , high-powered wireless-N , at each of those points - including the tower. Then do the same for each customer , placing a Wireless-N repeater on their roof. no wires in the house, it's really just extending our network and giving them a stronger signal.

does this make any sense?

aside from the high powered and LOS transmitterrs - the per-customer repeaters could be relatively cheap. get a $30USD wireless-N router and flash dd-wwrt , set as repeater.

obviously there is a lot to figure out - and it may not be viable. we would have to be able to offer it for less than RR does in the area (around 50-60USD/mo) and still make profit. there will be a number of customers we have to reach to get to that point.

but other than our trunk connection, there are no regularly recurring costs. part breakdown would be worked out over time by choosing better suited components.

in short, we would like it to make money - but know it will take a considerable investment and time for it to get to that point.