Satellite internet question [RE-wrenches]

[Allan Sindelar]

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Out where we live we have no community water, no natural gas, no mains
power, no land phone lines, and dark skies at night, but we have high-speed
satellite internet. It still kinda boggles my mind; sorta like we jumped
right over the twentieth century somehow. A regional nonprofit network was
set up about 20 miles away, with a mutual self-help structure, highly
democratic. I heard about it and helped set up two PV-powered access points
("AP"s) that bounced the signal around our local mountains and up our way.
Anyone with line-of-site access to either AP can get a fast and reliable
signal. Occasionally it goes down and needs to be "burped" (rebooted) but
generally reliable. $40/month to the association, plus cost of hardware
(mine was about $270 to get set up with a wireless router, antenna, PoE,
cable, etc.

The primary drawback is that the entire network is so popular, and the
waiting list has become so long, that there is a moratorium on new hookups
for the time being, and many of my offgrid neighbors will be waiting for
awhile. Because it's a nonprofit, and nobody gets paid, there's nobody to
complain to either...The general rule has been that after a prospective new
member helps hook up three others they get hooked up; in my case getting the
PV systems running qualified me.

For anyone who is curious about this system, check out
http://www.lcwireless.net/.

Allan at Positive Energy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ezra Auerbach, DragonSun Consulting" <ezra at lasqueti.net>

Wrenches -

Our island is looking into a wireless WAN, I'll keep you all posted if it
proves to be feasable from an energy and financial perspective.

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