Starting own Point of Presence

[pbuckne 0]

Hopefully I have used the term correctly. I live in a fairly rural area of the United States, we have only one highspeed internet provider locally, and only two that provide dialup, but neither one have coverage for the entire county.

 

Here is my question: I am interested in knowing what it would take to start up a 'Point of Presence' if you will, DUN/RAS that would log people in to AOL (yuck) and other national providers. I understand that I would need to contract with them to set this up, but a lot of people would like to have alternatives to the local brand of internet, whether they want faster or cheaper.

 

Are there websites I can visit that are informative or documents or books I should consult?

 

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[AndyFair 0]

It depends on how many people you want to service at the same time: you'll need one modem and phone line per user. You can get modem cards that contain multiple numbers of modems on them, and you'd also need a server capable of running the cards, and user accounts for each of the users.

You'd also need to pay for an internet connection (bear in mind that the more users you have, the more bandwidth you'll need, and even though you won't be making any outgoing calls on the modem lines, you'll probably end up having to pay line rental.

 

So the short answer is yes, it can be done, but it'll take time, effort and lots of money

[pbuckne 0]

The idea of working with national providers like AOL, Juno and PeoplePC is exactly what I am after, I would rather not sign up folks myself and the like, too much hassle, and far too many end users just don't know what they are doing, I would rather see them making that support call to someone else, and continue to work as the 'node'.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I have a small business doing computer repair that has a good name and makes good money, but I would like to see something else going on for the community that also makes me money.

 

Does anyone know any books, any online resources I can get my hands on that will help me get started? I have a couple of guys who can configure the software, but they have no experience with licensing or other things than I do. I am a hardware guy, and I know I can build whatever servers are needed, etc, I just need direction on configuration.

 

Thanks, Pbuckne

[felix 0]

I'm a little surprised that you don't have national dial-in numbers for the large ISPs.

 

Here in Aus, all major ISPs have either 13xxxx numbers or 0198xxxxxx numbers which you can dial in from anywhere at the cost of a local call.

 

Apparently it does some automatic cool thing were it locates the closest POP for the ISP and hooks you in. If you approach those ISPs and offer them some rack space in your business and allow them to hook up the required telco lines, you might be surprised how enthusiastic they are.

 

Essentially you don't even need ever to talk to a customer as all you are doing is allowing these ISPs to use some of your space and put in some cables. If you make the rent attractive, you should be on a goer. Then all you need is a foil hat and and cod-piece to protect your important bits when you enter the room and you'll be sweet.