I want to be an ISP - need help with set up...

[theXing]

I would like to be an ISP for my neighborhood and would like to buy a faster line. My question is this, because it will be my name on the internet account, I want to make sure that those who are paying for it are those who are using the connection, also so I can track usage, log stuff in case people start to abuse it. I am running W2K Pro and will be upgrading to XP in a month. I want people to log into my computer for authentication and to get email and stuff. I already have a wired networked set up, and am going wireless for the neighborhood - anything would be great!

theXing

 

[ScottMac]

This is well beyond the scope of information that can be transmitted in forum postings.

There are so many "Do's and Don'ts"...so many details...

Please, no offense intended, but do you understand what you're getting into? The legalities and such? Have you checked with YOUR ISP to get permission to redistribute their bandwidth? Do you understand the concepts of "service levels?" Are you aware of the laws (Federal, State, Local) regulating this kind of traffic?

This absolutely falls into the "non-trivial" category. Think long & hard about getting into this. And for God's sake, don't try to run an ISP from a single consumer-class PC out of your house.....I'm sure n0cmonkey can give you some horror stories...

Good Luck

Scott

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< I'm sure n0cmonkey can give you some horror stories... >>



Hey! What are you trying to say?!

Ok ok, a customer a while back (tech support job) that used win95 as a router/firewall machine.

 

[Migroo]

:Q! Win 95 as a router/firewall? ...argh

 

[Soybomb]

So assuming you have cable or dsl or something and your isp doesn't catch you reselling their service and terminate your account, what happens when your home line goes down? Are you taking the tech support calls? What all do you know about wireless? Setup any networks with any distance before? Wireless security? How about even the high cost of equipment for the customers?

You need to looking into a radius server for authentication. What are you going to use for the mail server ? Not to discourage you but it sounds like you're jumping the gun here. There is alot of time and money involved with starting an isp, you probably want to read abit more about them before you jump right in.

 

[Tominator]

You would start by getting State and Federal licensing......in about a year we'll take he next question....

 

[theXing]

What if I were to increase my "network" to my neighborhood?

theXing

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< What if I were to increase my "network" to my neighborhood?

theXing >>



How do you plan on doing that? Wireless? Check FCC and local regulations. Wired? Check local regulations (including zoning). Are you planning on connecting to the internet? How? Through a consumer line? Dont think so.

 

[nihil]

<< What if I were to increase my "network" to my neighborhood?

theXing >>



even if you were to bring in a fractional T1 or something i'm pretty sure it's in the telco's TOS that you can't resell your bandwidth.

 

[Damaged]

<< even if you were to bring in a fractional T1 or something i'm pretty sure it's in the telco's TOS that you can't resell your bandwidth. >>



TelCo's sell lines, not b/w. Therefore, TelCos don't care.

Anyways, min you'd need: Cisco 26xx series router w/T-1 WIC; backbone conn to a Tier 1/2 provider or buy some "backbone" from a local ISP (probably cheaper); some NAS (Ascend Max 4xxx, 6xxx, Cisco 5xxxx, 3Com something (Quad box or TC1000, whatever); switch; some machine to do Authentication and Accouting (that's how you "log in" and keep track of stuff in order to bill).

That's a minimum, and all the help I'll provide. You could do it with that though. Anymore info...co$t$. Figure it out yourself.

**NOTE** this assumes you're providing dial up modem service.

 

[nihil]

<<

<< even if you were to bring in a fractional T1 or something i'm pretty sure it's in the telco's TOS that you can't resell your bandwidth. >>



TelCo's sell lines, not b/w. Therefore, TelCos don't care.

Anyways, min you'd need: Cisco 26xx series router w/T-1 WIC; backbone conn to a Tier 1/2 provider or buy some "backbone" from a local ISP (probably cheaper); some NAS (Ascend Max 4xxx, 6xxx, Cisco 5xxxx, 3Com something (Quad box or TC1000, whatever); switch; some machine to do Authentication and Accouting (that's how you "log in" and keep track of stuff in order to bill).

That's a minimum, and all the help I'll provide. You could do it with that though. Anymore info...co$t$. Figure it out yourself.

**NOTE** this assumes you're providing dial up modem service. >>



yeah, but aren't there some kind of regulations that make sure that joe down the street doesn't open "joe blows high speed internet service"?

 

[ScottMac]

Yes, there are. Lots of 'em. The Feds, state, and local government all wanna take their chunk of taxes.

Telcos DO sell bandwidth. The SBC compainies all offer DSL, so do all the other Baby Bells, Sprint...I can't think of any that don't.

Then all the guys that own the wire *must* allow Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) - who also offer Internet - to use their facilities, lines, and service. You have to be a registered and licensed CLEC.

All of the "who can do what" rule are tightly regulated at the state and federal level.

At the very least, if the system is set up, then discovered, a "cease & desist" order is issued, and you must shutdown & your equipment investment goes out the window. Worse case, there'd be some serious fines (State & Federal) comparable to running an illegal/pirate radio station, and probably a civil lawsuit from the organization you were illegally reselling bandwidth from.

Competition is tight, companies are likely to take serious action if they find you are taking their potential customers.

Whatever.

FWIW

Scott

 

[randal]

I work at an ISP [plug: http://www.hpi.net] and our setup consists of the following in our central NOC: Cisco 4500, 4x Cisco 2600, 8-way osicom dsu/csu, 4x Cisco 2948G, a 3com superstack of some sort [for colos], 2x Ascend 4096 RAS units, 4x web servers, monster db server, misc utils machine, accounting machine [running Logisense's "Hawk-I" - http://www.hawk-i.com and Funk Software's Steel Belted Radius - http://www.funk.com], 3x dec alphas [just do routing/firewalling], plus 8 workstations and a couple laptops running around.

Now, that really isn't that much. We have < 3,000 customers. I've seen NOCs 50x the size of that, but to get started from scratch to be just an ISP would put you right around $18,000 in the hole. And that's running barebones. Right now, we have a scratch more than $100,000 of hardware in our WHOLE ISP. Monthly expenses for our uplink [10mbps through e-spire] and our backup [3mbps through qwest], our offices, our wireless roof-rights costs, hardware upgrades/reparations, etc. cost right around $18,000 a month. That doesn't include employee costs, blah blah blah.

It's a pretty serious undertaking, and sure, 3-5 guys can run a small ISP like us with out a huge problem, but I'll tell you -- it's not a small undertaking at all. Being a business major, I would advise you to create a business plan, a corporate strategy and an upfront design and implementation model before even *thinking* about doing anything.

Randal