Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Shared community internet service

[Lyle Scheer (wonko]

Hi,

    Here at Ashland Cohousing Community in Ashland, Oregon
(www.ashlandcoho.com), at the end of construction we ran 2" conduit to
all of our 13 units... the building contractor was not willing to do any
of it other than putting a single piece under a sidewalk that allowed
connection from the north side to the south side.  Then I pulled cat6
cable to all of the units.  Since it's all in conduit, we should be able
to pull other cable for our internal network should the need arise.

    We share a business internet connection, and our ISP is OK with our
sharing... we're not allowed to re-sell, so we gather just enough to
cover the ISP fees and our own equipment and electricity fees.  I also
maintain a server on our fixed IP address that handles our web site and
email as well as a number of individual web sites and domain names for
community members.  It also does things like run a Pocket Minecraft
server on the internal network that a number of the kids use, and a
MythTV installation that will capture TV over the air, automatically
edit out the commercials, and serve the shows to any community members
who wish to watch.

    We have a wifi router in our common house, and a number of
households (most) have individual wifi access points for their homes.

- Lyle

On 3/31/14, 8:07 AM, Alan Goldblatt wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> This is somewhat related to last month's community wide wifi discussion; we
> here at Cobb Hill have been sharing our wired internet service for the past
> 10 years.  We have two houses that subscribe to DSL and then we pipe it
> around to all the other buildings.  Anyone who wants can plug in a wireless
> router in their house to have wireless.  This has worked fairly well, and
> our provider is now installing fiber for much improved speeds.  Which we
> were initially excited about...
>
> Unfortunately, they don't like our sharing scheme, and really want each
> house to purchase its own service (of course).  I'm curious what others
> have done about this.  Do you subscribe to a "business" plan that allows
> shared usage?  Make everyone purchase their own service?  Other scenarios?
>
> Thanks much,
> Alan
>
> _
> Alan Goldblatt
> Cobb Hill Cohousing
> Hartland, VT
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