Make Your Own DSL

Logic Bomb writes: "Robert Cringley's latest is a striking set of instructions on how to create your own DSL service, or even your own "socialist Internet Service Provider". A cookie goes to whomever manages to implement this first! :-D" Cringley is on a roll.

um, yeah, whatever

[kaisyain]

Notice that part where he says:

So now we have a two megabit circuit but no Internet...But to turn that into an Internet connection, one end has to be plugged to an Internet backbone. There are many ways to do this. Put one end of the circuit at your business. Put one end at your school. Put one end in the machine room at a local ISP.

You're kinda missing the whole if you think this article offers any useful information. Broadband without access to the internet is somewhat less than useful for the majority of people. And having DSL between me and Jimmy down the block doesn't do much good when it's just slamming into my 56k modem to get to the "internet".

Re:Tech Questions...

[curmudgeon42]

It is SDSL technology. And to learn more, I would check out "DSL for Dummies," which is actually a decent book. I worked in Network Ops for a year or so at a national DSL provider, and you'd be surprised how many of our engineers had a copy of that one. :-)

Re:um, yeah, whatever

[SagSaw]

I Am Not And Never Ever Hope To Be A Lawyer, but it seems like you and your 20 best friends (and probably the landlord as well) could form some kind of legal entity which could then contract for business T-1 access.

Re:um, yeah, whatever

[4mn0t1337]

This is no indication of what the distance this kind of thing is capable of. Does anyone know? Is it the same as a DSL line from the phone company?

Well, let us presume that it is about the same as what the phone company offers, which is around 17,500 ft. (NOTE: This max distance is not the limit of transmission, but rather about as far as the phone company feels they can guaranty to provide the minimum data rate. They could extend service, but would not be able to provide a stable data rate above their minimum.)
So, what happens if you live 30,500 feet away or even 18,000 ft away. Either way you aren't getting DSL. Unless you use Robert's idea and hook into a friend. Then you all of a sudden can have a distance from the C.O. of up to 35,000 ft (and even further if you don't care about 384k minimum).

And, what about sharing the costs with someone. Let's say that you and your friend are *both* within range and could otherwise get DSL. Rather than both of you getting basic DSL with variable IP's for 50$/month, one of you can get enhanced (5 *fixed* IP's) for 65$/month, tack on the dry pair art 15$, and split the costs. This makes it 10$ *less* each and both of you get 2.5 *fixed* IP's.

And you have the added bouns of fraggin' the crap out of one another from your own homes without having to packup your server and tote it anywhere.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Bandwith without connectivity is worthless

[Tim Doran]

Funny, I thought the 'dry pair' stuff was the boring part of the article. I happen to be in telecom and that's all a no-brainer.

What was fascinating was the potential (admittedly) limited uses for roll-your-own DSL. Read the Lariat [lariat.org] homepage - what an amazing project for a small town!

I think the main points of the article are:

1) There are lots of last-mile solutions, and they don't all have to come from your ILEC.

2) Innovative uses of these solutions can have come really cool results - like Lariat, like paying for only one broadband connection, like establishing a neighbourhood network then networking these networks... makes you think ;)

Important point about the tariff

[Anonymous Coward]

The companies can tell you they don't offer the service, but sometimes they will be lying (as Cringley notes).
Telcos are regulated. Unlike a regular corporation they can't just stop offering a service that they don't like. They can just neglect to train their staff in it and hope eveyone forgets about it.
But if you push them they have to comply. The services that Verison can offer in New York is specified by the tariff in that state, and it's state law. There are some really nit-picky regulations (down to standards for signal strengh and placement of network interfaces in apartment buildings). In exchange for all these budensome regulations Verison gets a monopoly on New York state phone service for all intents and purposes.

The Public Service Commission is the state body in New York that oversees this, using both carrot (deregulation) and stick (fines) to motivate Verison. In my experience, Verison-people CARE about getting in trouble with the PSC, and more people should know that. The evaluation of managers at all levels includes a measure of PSC complaints.

So if the phone company denies you your "burgler alarm" check with your state's equivalent regulatory body to see if you are being lied to. (You may also want to do research on the actual tariff itself to see if it's still on the books where you live.)

Phone companies are wise to this trick.

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to work for a local phone company (ILEC). We realized that one of the ISP's in town was ordering alarm circuits and using them for ADSL, effectively bypassing us. How did the phone company respond? By adding load coils to ALL alarm circuits. It still met the tariffs, and worked fine as alarm circuits, but no longer worked for ADSL at all. Sneaky, but effective.

On a separate note, I think phone companies charge far too much for T1 service (point-to-point), and there should be reasonable tariffs for dry copper lines. Phone companies don't want to lose their monopolies on high-speed data, though -- it's very profitable. Lobby your state's public utilities commission. They're the ones who ultimately decide these things...

Re:um, yeah, whatever

[ChaosDiscordSimple]

Cringley is in talking about getting some sort of service in areas where you can't get DSL. Sure, you still have to pay for it, but maybe it will let you get DSL speeds to your home when previously you couldn't. His previous articles on the subject discussed how he set up a long range wireless link to another house which does has high speed access, and he is paying the owner of the other home for bandwidth. I don't think he's advocating taking bandwidth without permission. He's advocating working around telcos which refuse to provide high speed service.