Ask HN: How do i build my own network to access internet in a rural area? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do i build my own network to access internet in a rural area?

11 pointsnerdynapster24 comments

share any relevant technique, technology, resource, reference or anything you find helpful.

I live in a very rural area (on a lake with lots of state forest surrounding me) where even to get DSL you need approval from Verizon.

I use Cradlepoint equipment to access the internet over LTE. I have wired the house but also have wireless access points too. I prioritize the traffic exiting so ensure that the really important stuff is first. Stuff related to my job comes before my son on YouTube or Facebook, etc. I also block a lot of outgoing traffic until certain hours of the day. (i.e no YouTube between 6am and 8pm).

On a side note, I have also been looking at tools I use (rsync, scp, etc) to see if there are ways to better help those on really limited connections.

That's like my dream (living in a rural lake house)!

It is very quiet and enjoyable. The quality of my coding shows it.

I did a stint in a mountain house about a hundred miles away where I used to spend a lot of time when I was a teenager. Forests and a river. It was for one week, I took one book with me (Smirnov's "A Course of Higher Mathematics - VOL I").

All I have to say is that after one week I came back and people hardly recognized me. My skin tone changed, my face became lively, I regained my weight because I didn't skip meals, I slept early because I'd be sleepy early, I woke up early and fully rested (the best sleep quality I had in years), I did maths all day long lying on the grass in the shade of trees, and hiked to the river or ran across tall grass to stretch my legs.

The ability to think without interruptions, not because I was fending them off taking extra measures but because there truly were none, is what really did it for me.

This sounds amazing. For me, this environment, my diabetes is really under control. My weight is consistent. I eat way structured, well balanced meals. I can't rave enough about living this way.

I'll look up the math book as well :-)

oh wow...beautiful jason_slack. how...how do you do that prioritize thing? how LTE connects to the internet? do i need to set-up a BTS?

I use a Cradlepoint modem with a SIM card in it to connect

Prioritization is done with traffic shaping using pfsense 2.

but then...the SIM must camp to the nearest BTS site to get the signal. how do i bring the strength closer enough to picked-up by the router?

I have thought about using an LTE modem, but currently I tether. I run my whole connection through a VPN so I can use truly unlimited data with T-mobile. I'm using 300+ gigs a month for around $100.

how did you just do that?

This might be a bit much for a single person, but your question reminded me of a piece[0] from last November which covered the creation of a local ISP, the Doe Bay Internet Users Association[1], on the Orcas Island after the residents had poor experiences with CenturyLink.

The ISP also has some technical details on their website[2].

Previous discussion on that piece[3].

[0]: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/how-a-...

[1]: https://dbiua.org

[2]: https://dbiua.org/technical-details/

[3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10487419

How a colleague of mine managed to get internet access in rural Uruguay https://blog.scrapinghub.com/2016/04/27/a-not-so-short-story...

Reminds me of this: http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/09/man-builds-house-the...

I looked into this a few years ago when I was entertaining the idea of bringing better-than-dsl speeds to a rural town. Here is what I learned:

Getting high speed internet to a rural location is a mix of cool tech, line-of-site, politics, roof rights, friendly farmers, and chasing whoever controls the nearest fiber. Oh, and $$$$$ MONEY $$$$$

Routers and network:

  - http://ubnt.com 
  - http://mikrotik.com

Both sites have user forums that discuss not only the hardware but also all of the above.

line-of-sight between what and what? can't internet be accessed through satellites? how much money may i expect to offer to the project?

based on your questions, I recommend you hire a professional to implement your project. As for money, how can you ask that question if the goals, location and scope of your project have not been defined?

"I want to build a WISP covering an entire multi-county area in Montana with 200Mbps+ last mile services"

"I want to build a single point to point link with $95 ubnt radios 3km to service an island"

totally different things.

How rural? Is money a top concern? You could cobble together a bunch of wireless broadband devices (or cell phones), a router and some load balancing and voila. That's not really useful if you're too rural for cell service or money is an object.

rural enough to not to get a line-of-sight from a BTS (zero signal strength in cellphone overthere) can spent money enough to serve, can not bear much loss.

This may be helpful, depending on the geography of the rural area:

https://www.ubnt.com/

thanks. please share if you found any content on how to develop such a network on my own

You're basically asking "How do I start a WISP?". What is your existing level of networking knowledge?

during my graduation in telecommunication engineering, i has studied relevant subjects such as "Telecommunication Switching, Traffic and Networks", "Computer Networks", "Digital Signal Processing", "Wireless and Mobile Communication" Topics such as OSI Layer, Network Topology, RF Engineering, Microwave engineering,

Uhhh. Have you ever worked for an ISP in any capacity? Personally worked with fiber or microwave transport systems?

That list of stuff looks like something a person would copy+paste on a resume.

Not trying to dissuade you, but your initial question is really vague. Exactly what are you trying to accomplish and where?

exactly, i need to access internet at a place where you can not find even a single cell-phone tower or a fiber-optic link in 100-150 km radius through VSAT dish antenna (as only DBS-TV works over there).

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