Sharing T1 with a Few Neighbors (WiFi)

[fatbear]

I live in the country, have a T1 line to my home and want to share bandwidth with 3 neighbors that are within 1/2 mile of my home. I live in a hilly area and these 3 neighbors are in line of site (with a few trees, but I can see the houses). The houses from mine span about 120 degrees.

I'm looking for advice on what I need to buy. I'm not looking for homebrew, but something I can purchase and do a simple install (or hire out some roof antenna installation without having to explain too much to the contractor). I would like to:

1. be able to throttle down bandwidth to individual neighbors if needed. My T1 is for uploading content to my servers located in a server farm, not for hosting directly. Even so, when I need to upload 100MB files, I want some control over bandwidth (one of my neighbors has a kid that wants to do a lot of online gaming).
2. have security in place so that non-participating neighbors don't steal bandwidth.
3. have some kind of web interface for network management.
4. have an omnidirectional antenna that gets good signal to my neighbors, perhaps compensating for some trees inbetween.

I am very Linux competent, so if there is a solution that requires Unix skills, that's okay. Even so, a web interface for control would keep life for me simpler.

Can anyone suggest what I should buy (specific model or part numbers) and where I should buy it? This would include not just the hardware/software for my home, but also for my neighbor's homes.

Thanks,
Steve Amerige
fatbear

P.S I've read the book "Building Wireless Community Networks," but it doesn't address the needs I have above in any practical manner.

[latefreight]

Well, this is an interesting situtation isnt this? How did you get a T1 in the country in the 1st place?

[Adam228]

I think I remember some kind of solution from Cisco Systems, but It costs upwards of 200,000 heh, for a half mile radius. Its basiclly a wifi point designed to work for a half mile (ie skyscrapers) and it has encryption, runs with windows server I think...

[tranz]

You could do a direct line of sight solution such as the one from CannoBeam. This would cover a distance of 5KM but in direct line of sight to the recieving beam, laser light directional. This solution would cost about $60K just from you to the first neighbor. Expand that cost to each additional neighbor. Not practical...

what you are trying to do really isnt possible in your geographic location and distance to the next neighbor. In say downtoen NY and you are across the street from eachother, yes but not in this case.

the amount of funds you would need in order to make it possible just wouldnt be cost effective over the long term.

Now, if you have say $180K to do it..well then go for it.

Good Luck

[RiderMayBail]

It sounds like some of these solutions are a bit out of hand for the use he is looking for. How many war drivers drive around and pick up unprotected wifi networks in neighborhoods. You don't have to be parked directly in front of the house in most cases. I would think a relatively simple 802.11g network may do the trick for you. Put a omnidirectional antenna on your place, these are relatively cheap. For the neighbors that have some issues connecting, you could alwyas add a directional antenna to their place aimed at yours. These antennas can commonly be found for less than $100, sometimes between $100-$200. Signal amplifiers are also available online. Any decent or better wifi router allows for encryption, and may also offer MAC address lockdown. This would keep your unparticipating neighbors from using the connection.

The one thing I am not sure about is the bandwidth throttling, but there may be something you could put inline with your T1 connection equipment that would do the trick, unless the router you find has throttling available.

[tranz]

even some of the solutions that you described wont span the distance that he is looking to cover. At best it would cover half of that or about 1250'

[Ehost4cheap]

/. had an article dealing with just about the same thing, their are tons of responses and lots of solutions.http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/03/212210&tid=193&tid=222&tid=4

[Cow]

I think I know of a company that offers solutions for thousands cheaper of what you would pay for other systems. However, there is some assembly required and a lot of patience. If you're up to do it, I can talk with my partner and find out what the link is to their web site.