You can wait for broadband to come to you, you can move to where broadband is, or you can simply bring that high speed connection you've always wanted right to your front step by creating your own ISP. It's becoming increasingly common for communities and individuals who find themselves either underserved, poorly served, or not served at all to simply take the plunge and do it themselves, despite the headaches.

In our forums, one user from Huntington Station, New York was inspired to bring service to his local area of 15-25 homes, converting his LAN configuration into an honest to goodness ISP head end, prompting most of the forum to wish he were their neighbor.



The user explains his gigabit fiber internet configuration: "2 Multimode duplex fiber cables run to central boxes, or nodes as you might call them. There is a media converter that that changes it from fiber to cat5e. There is a 1" Cat5 cable connecting the media converter to a 10 port Linksys workgroup hub. then the cat5e's run from the hub to small pipes to individual houses. From there its up to the customers to what they want to do with it." At 1000 Mbps, that can be just about anything.



He's coined his burgeoning ISP DHFI or Dix Hills Fiber Internet. Users in his general area (within seventy-five feet and you can just run some Cat5) can run cable and partake in the joy of gigabit internet access, provided you have the proper digging permits, and the dinero. For additional detail, or to ask questions about his network, you can visit this thread and ask away. If you're willing to move to his New York area road, perhaps he'll hook you up as well?

Similar projects are going on all over the world. For example you may remember the group of Swedish Slashdot readers who one day decided to create their own 100Mbps fiber network. There is also the Ruby Ranch Internet Cooperative Association's plans to wire a 40 home neighborhood with DSL, their difficult times with Qwest standing as an example that setting up your own ISP is far from easy.

But it is getting easier. Particularly if you're willing to go wireless, like the roaming professor of Hawaii, who started his own wireless ISP on the main island, and now spends his days looking for new locations to place towers in order to expand his 300 square mile homegrown Wifi empire. There are many members of our wireless forum who share similar goals.

And it's not just end users who are fed up with the wait and are doing something about it. It's becoming very common for rural communities, ignored by the mega-corporations because they don't look good on paper, to simply up and create themselves an ISP. Like the wealthy community of Palo Alto, who simply decided to bring fiber directly to the curb of area residents.

For those of less affluent means who can't afford the Palo Alto $1,200 for fiber installation and monthly charge, or the lofty price tag involved in creating your own head end, you shouldn't give up hope. You may want to instead look toward your local government. Communities like Spencer, Iowa, Thomasville, Georgia, and Geneva, Illinois, grew tired of their local offerings and began offering local service (phone, cable, web) themselves, and with great success.

As the threat of telco deregulation looms, the broadband black holes may have a tendency to widen. If you can afford it (or you have a friendly neighbor who can afford it) the old motto "If you want something done right, do it yourself" may just ring true.