A Portable Satellite ISP in the Middle East? 59
charyou-tree asks: "I'm a US Navy doctor deployed with the Marines in Afghanistan. I and many Marines have brought along our own laptop computers, but hooking up non-government machines to the network here is prohibited. Consequently, we're all stuck waiting in long lines for 15 minute blocks of time on a few designated 'morale' computers to send email home. What I'd like to do is set up a bidirectional satellite connection (like what DIRECWAY offers in the US), and then have individual computers hooked up over 802.11 - completely bypassing the Army network and its restrictions. In the sense that I'll be providing network access to other people I'll be an ISP, but I'm not interested in turning a profit on this. What other hardware and service provider options are there?"
"The absolute requirements are:
1) Needs function in Afghanistan and Iraq (since we expect to go there next)
2) Needs be reasonably portable
3) Needs be end-user installable
4) Some way to throttle bandwidth to individual users so one guy can't bog the whole thing down.
So far I've only found one bit of hardware (the Hughes Personal Earth Station) but no service providers; what else, besides 802.11 cards and an access point do I need? "
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:1)
Now,honestly, don't open your eyes please, as it would be doing the rest of the world a favour, and you surely don't want that, do you?
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:2)
Ad-hoc initiative in a battlefield leads to randomised variables outside of executive control. Thats fine in a safe urban environment - worse case scenario you fuck up and some fat geeks steal your bandwidth. In a hostile environment, its another ballgame and can be deadly.
Think: Loose SIPs sink ships?
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:4, Informative)
In addition, a nearby Marine unit has already set up a privately-funded satellite link. However, they went through a local company based in Kabul, who did the installation and charged an enormous sum of money for a system to support 130+ people. We want something cheaper, for fewer people, with greater portabitity (this Kabul-based company won't make house calls to Iraq next year).
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:2)
About 20 people in my unit got together on a satallite package. Total cost worked out to about $800/year each (a little higher than I paid for comcast in the states, but we happen to not be in the states)- including splitting the hardware and setup costs. This gave each individual thier own IP address, and at least DSL access speeds.
When you get to Iraq, I would go with that, rather th
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:2)
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:1, Funny)
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:2)
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:1)
Dirty little secret #2: They haven't yet begun cracking down on peop
Re:You Need A Good Lawyer (Score:2)
Iridium? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Iridium? (Score:1)
It would be totally unreasonnable to share this connection with 10 or 20 people, even for email.
Re:Iridium? (Score:1, Informative)
Look into amatuer radio? (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? (Score:2)
-psy
Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? (Score:2)
Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Isn't this sort of thing frowned upon? (Score:2)
Re:Why not two seperate services? (Score:1)
Re:Why not two seperate services? (Score:2, Insightful)
Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY (Score:5, Informative)
VIASAT [viasat.com] I have no idea on the expense, but that's what's powering your morale computers. It's the best solution you're going to find out there bar none. The ISP they're using is called Segovia [segovia.com], but there are other ISPs who will sell you access to VIASAT. The dishes are huge (6ft+), you need a SAT phone to engineer your link (three way call between your ISP and a VIASAT tech), and I think the cost will be prohibitive. But I don't know how crazy you want to get
While we were stationed in Iraq, we bought a Direcway system from one of the locals. It was about $3k for the equipment and another $300-400/mo for the service. But you're an officer so you can afford it
As far as your reqt #2: The dish is about 1.5 meters and the TX/RX assembly is about 2.5ft long. Hopefully you'll get a decent free standing base, but the better they are, the bigger they are unfortunately. The modem we had was three parts (TX/RX/net) each about the size of a normal cable/dsl modem. It was all 110/220 exept for the mini-hub they gave us which had a 220 only wall wart.
3: You can use any of the numerous aiming programs out there. To see the signal strengths on the modem itself you need a F-F null modem serial cable, so either buy two of them and splice or get the appropriate adaptors. The menu system, once you connect is pretty self expanitory. Get your TX and RX to at least 90 and tighten your bolts carefully.
4: You'll have to handle throttling yourself. Our system came with about 10 IPs, but we used a single IP as firewwall/NAT just to be safe.
Service was OK. Your connection will likely hit the ground in Germany, so most slowdowns happen according to their timezone. You will have to be death on infections. A single computer (sans throttling) will completely dominate the connection. Good luck!
Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY (Score:5, Informative)
This sounds about in line with a system we're looking at from a UK company - Bentley Telecom [bentleytelecom.co.uk] sells a hardware package for about $1700 (1.2 m dish & receiver) plus about $300/month for a business class 512/128 connection.
If you're in Bagram or Kabul, you should be able to find a "local contractor" who will be willing to deal with you. Unfortunatly, most of them only deal in cash.
The problem with using a local contractor is that when we move, we can't count on them to come to us. (And we want to use the same system in Iraq next year.) We want to buy the hardware, pay for the service, and do everything else ourselves.
3: You can use any of the numerous aiming programs out there. To see the signal strengths on the modem itself you need a F-F null modem serial cable, so either buy two of them and splice or get the appropriate adaptors. The menu system, once you connect is pretty self expanitory. Get your TX and RX to at least 90 and tighten your bolts carefully.
This is the only thing holding us up. Realistically, how hard is this? I'm not an engineer - while I'm fairly computer literate (longtime Linux user, competent c programmer, able to set up firewalls & web proxy servers, etc) I have never pointed a dish in my life.
Is this something that I, as a "pretty smart" guy, can reasonably expect to do? The disastrous scenario in the back of my mind is that we plonk down $2500 for everything and can't figure out where to point the dish. The comm guys at our (battalion) level don't have experience with this sort of thing. I have their blessing and encouragement, but I'm on my own.
Which of the aiming programs do you recommend?
4: You'll have to handle throttling yourself. Our system came with about 10 IPs, but we used a single IP as firewwall/NAT just to be safe.
I'm not too worried about this. We have few enough users that I think an informal courtesy policy, coupled with voluntary use of download managers that can throttle speed (like GetRight), will work OK.
Service was OK.
Anything that works consistently at speeds over
Many thanks for your input.
Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY (Score:3, Insightful)
I almost want to say use something like Netlimiter (netlimiter.com) to use for your bandwidth limiter on each computer. Have them each set a limit on the Global download/upload speeds, and that'll take care of all sorts of traffic (including BitTorrent, Kazaa, Web, and any other application running locally on your computer.)
It's only for Windows, though... and not usable as a bandwidth shaper for a single computer sharing the connection out (I know, I've tried).
As to dish pointing:
Got a com
Re:Two options: VIASAT or DIRECWAY (Score:3, Informative)
Aiming the Direcway system was quite easy. The guy who came over was able to get it to about 75/75 without even a compass or inclinometer. The menu system isn't too complex and you can ask the place you buy it from for a setup guide (and a F-F null-modem cable
Considered INMARSAT? (Score:3, Informative)
You might be better off working a deal with your onboard Satcom crew for a 64kbit internet stream. Not sure how much you guys normally pull, but I think if you do have a satcom crew, you guys are usually pulling 384k.
I'm not sure how things work in the Navy, but in the Army, we Satcom guys always have our own dedicated internet separate from everyone else with our own laptops. Talk to them, mabye you can work something out.
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Sure enough (Score:1)
It was a big surprise while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store thumbing through the pages and then there's your bro' in full color and 3/4 of a page.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Thank you (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a Marine and am damn thankful for the things you and your Corpsmen do for us. Believe me, I wouldn't be humping around the country side with only a 9mm.
You are welcome to my DirecWay dish (parabolic.. about 2' x 3') and the RX/TX unit (a DW4000). See the dish [direcway.com]. The dish weighs 80lbs approx. Aiming the dish is usually done by a professional installer with a special signal strength meter. Anyone have a good POC for getting one of those? Little yellow device IIRC.
I don't have the DW4020 (right model number?) which has the built-in router so a Windows machine would be required as the RX/TX unit is USB with no available OSS drivers. A headless mini-ITX machine would be perfect. It could do bandwidth control and NAT/DHCP as well. I've run this same setup (albeit stationary) without any trouble. Download speed is great but capped to 169Mb per four hours (see more detail [copperhead.cc]. Upload is good enough for email and the all important pr0n.
As long as the motor pool would allow it, it could be mounted to the side of a hummer or 5 ton very easily. Setup/takedown would be minimal. It's bright white so motor T may need to donate some paint as well. Might be a bitch getting cami netting over it.
Can the rest of Slashdot see any problems or offer any other help?
Re:Thank you (Score:4, Interesting)
I wish the submitter luck-- unfortunately, it's going to only be served by little LEOs (expensive service offerings) and regional geosynchronous providers that we're not familiar with here in the states. It's a shame that the military doesn't have a little more infrastructure for morale for everyone who's putting it on the line for us.
Re:Thank you (Score:1)
UPLOAD pr0n? (Score:2)
swe-dish? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:swe-dish? (Score:1)
But I sent off an inquiry to them anyway. Thanks for the link.
"I'm a US Navy doctor ..." (Score:3, Funny)
Oh yeah, no interservice rivalry problems forseeable here. :-)
Why do this yourself? (Score:2)
Well how about this: figure out a way to buy the equipment. Buy it yourself, organize donations, get the Army to pay for it, whatever.
Give the equipment to locals who would like to run a business.
Let them charge money to serve coffee and Internet access to American soldiers.
The bonus is that the more people you set up in operation like this, the lower the prices get, and the shorter the lines get. And you've taught them how to be A
Hardware here (Score:3, Informative)
DISCLAIMER: I don't work for Last Mile Gear, and won't get any commission or kickback; but they are business associates of mine.
Inmarsat BGAN (Score:1)
very portable.
"How much does Regional BGAN cost?
The satellite IP modem costs about the same as a notebook PC, with costs for transmissions in line with GPRS roaming tariffs."
144Kbps
Re:Inmarsat BGAN (Score:1)
If you are mainly interested in email also look at UUPlus [uuplus.com] software. Basically their software sets up a POP3 server on your local network that stores and compresses your outgoing mail until you next connect to the satellite. When you do connect it forwards any incoming mail and sends your outgoing mail. They are priced very reasonably and it is definately worth the money you save on SATCOM charges (you can really rack up a big bill fast with Inmarsat). We use
Tachyon? (Score:1)
Don't know about pricing, but they have coverage in the area, and unlike some of the other names mentioned, they focus on data....at broadband speeds....