VPS Hosting In Antarctica

[Asphyxia]

I am sure many people are looking for VPS Servers, Dedicated Servers, Web Servers, Shared Hosting, VPN Servers, Proxy Servers, and all of that awesomeness in Antarctica. I have sad news for you though. It does not exist readily. Do not misread what I typed, I said readily as in there is nothing apparent which currently indicates such a service provider exists. I would like to change that though. That would be cool, right? Alright, enough joking.

Here is some background information on Antarctica and some preexisting hosting setup (TLD/DNS):
TLD information: https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/aq.html
Their main DNS server pings to "203.119.56.132", which is located in NZ (New Zealand).

Spoiler: Contact Details

Delegation Record for .AQ
Sponsoring Organisation

Antarctica Network Information Centre Limited
2116/26 Albert Street
Auckland Central Auckland 1010
New Zealand
Administrative Contact

Peter Mott
Antarctica Network Information Centre Limited
2116/26 Albert Street
Auckland Central Auckland 1010
New Zealand
Email: [email protected]
Voice: +64 21 279 4995
Technical Contact

Peter Mott
LocalCloud Limited
P O Box 105 271
Auckland City
Auckland 1143
New Zealand
Email: [email protected]
Voice: +64 21 279 4995

Topography? Well, fuck --- according to Wikipedia as of 2010, Antarctica did NOT have undersea submarine cables. These are fiber cables which connect the world together, to the Internet. Here is a quote from someone educated on the matter.

I think most (all?) of the Antarctica base stations get Internet access via satellite. I don't believe there are any undersea cables servicing Antarctica (probably because of ice instability and perhaps also because of the temperatures in the winter time).

"ISO 3166 Code", Antarctica, 4,403 IP addresses available.

Spoiler: Antarctica IP Ranges from countryipblocks.net

46.36.195.0 - 46.36.195.10
46.136.153.0 - 46.136.153.255
77.91.227.224 - 77.91.227.255
84.22.96.0 - 84.22.96.191
84.22.96.252 - 84.22.97.19
84.22.97.32 - 84.22.97.59
84.22.97.64 - 84.22.97.67
84.22.98.0 - 84.22.98.7
84.22.98.32 - 84.22.98.119
84.22.98.128 - 84.22.98.131
84.22.98.136 - 84.22.98.143
84.22.99.24 - 84.22.99.47
84.22.99.56 - 84.22.99.63
84.22.99.72 - 84.22.99.87
84.22.99.120 - 84.22.104.63
84.22.104.72 - 84.22.105.15
84.22.105.40 - 84.22.105.43
84.22.105.52 - 84.22.105.55
84.22.105.248 - 84.22.105.251
84.22.106.0 - 84.22.106.255
84.22.108.0 - 84.22.125.255
84.22.127.16 - 84.22.127.23
84.22.127.40 - 84.22.127.55
85.195.224.0 - 85.195.255.255
149.154.156.21 - 149.154.156.21
166.82.73.0 - 166.82.73.255
204.120.204.0 - 204.120.204.255
213.155.20.160 - 213.155.20.167

Here is some further insight into potential network systems in Antarctica from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Antarctica

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): Argentine bases have WiFi provided by Argentinean internet provider Speedy a fiber cable on polar plateau planned to finish in 2009

Data access to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is provided by access via NASA's TDRS-F1, GOES & Iridium satellite constellation. Marisat F-2 provided data communications until it was retired in 2008. For the 2007-2008 season, the TDRS relay (named South Pole TDRSS Relay or SPTR) was upgraded to support a data return rate of 50 Mbit/s, which comprises over 90% of the South Pole's data capability, which is used primarily for scientific data return.[1][2]

See Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station#Operation for more info.
Argentine bases in general: Marambio Base has wireless internet and 2 mobile phones servers

Orbcomm satellites pass over Antarctica which can relay short messages to and from transceiver units to email or XML over HTTP.

It is apparent that the only publicly mentioned provider which may offer a fiber line for any sort of hosting is Speedy Argentina, this makes sense when you look at how closely positioned Argentina is to the SOUTH POLE (Antarctica).

Here are some ".aq" TLD websites, .AQ is the country code for Antarctica. It is operated by the Antarctic registry NIC.AQ and can be registered by anyone with an Antarctic address for a minimum two year period.

http://www.internet.com.aq/
http://www.polarview.aq/index.php/antarctic --- This is a very cool map of the SOUTH POLE.

It is my hope that this thread may better educate individuals that hosting in Antarctica is currently unrealistic. Until we have fiber lines into and out of Antarctica that can be plugged into a server, speeds will be unpleasant. The best bet right now is looking at what Speedy Argentina is doing, better funding them or communicating with them for more information on their fiber functionality.

 

[Bierkoenig]

There aren't real antarctica servers but you still can get Servers/VPS with IPs which are supposedly from antarctica. This way you could fool most websites/tools to think the server is located in antarctica but a traceroute will reveal the real location. Other funny locations for your IPs would be "Vatican City State" or those which will get listed as "Anonymous Proxy"

 

[Asphyxia.Cell]

There are only like 4,800 addresses assigned to Antarctica. My interest is primarily in a startup hosting service launching in Antarctica and getting information sorted and publicly available for anyone seeking to proceed on this wild and awesome adventure. If no one does it, I will if it is permitted by law (treaty) if I can raise the initial funds to launch.

 

[Soza]

There are only like 4,800 addresses assigned to Antarctica. My interest is primarily in a startup hosting service launching in Antarctica and getting information sorted and publicly available for anyone seeking to proceed on this wild and awesome adventure. If no one does it, I will if it is permitted by law (treaty) if I can raise the initial funds to launch.

Sounds like a cool idea.

 

[Asphyxia]

I think it sounds cool, pretty damn chilly too. Setup would consist of inspecting the throughput that the cable is capable of if said cable even actually exists and is still in working condition. Seeking inspiration from http://www.apollo-scs.com/ and definitely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SACS_(cable_system) since that is a CS (cable system) nearby where one point of the landing would be.

You can see that the landing of that cable is directly on the coast (Fortaleza, Brazil). It would be important to know where the landing of the Antarctic cable is, then inspect the territory. Calling on CS experts would be a good idea. Knowing what dangers the extreme cold climate brings, what possible defenses there are such as having a special thermal shielding on the cable to prevent cold weather damage from ice. Server racks (decorated with penguin stickers), climate control (ironically keep the servers warm), land/building in Antarctica, beyond that most things should just be the same as any other server hosting provider.

Aside from the subzero temperatures being normal, penguins and polar bears --- Antarctica sounds nice. The onsite IT team would pretty much have a dream job. They could develop software, play games and hike outside for fitness in their free time, since they would pretty much live there --- any time a server issue occurred, they could be tasked with performing any system maintenance/troubleshooting. When they run out of toiler paper, they could just press a button.

In all seriousness though, the hosting company would have to be 100% green (clean/renewable energy), I am pretty sure. I am not even sure whether or not the cabling to Antarctica is in compliance with the Antarctic Treaty, that may be why it is not commonly known of, other than supposedly people have heard that Argentinian scientists have WiFi in their labs over in Antarctica. Familiarity with the Antarctic Treaty would be a great asset to anyone seriously considering starting server hosting in Antarctica, see here: http://www.ats.aq/index_e.htm // http://www.ats.aq/documents/ats/treaty_original.pdf

Here is just a very crappy mspaint.exe render of how I imagine the setup resembling:

 

[kingston]

Would love to work in Antartica. Seriously. Very cool thread and that polarview map is absolutely fantastic, indeed.

 

[0day]

I just want a floating server in the middle of the Atlantic. Ideally it would resolve to, "the great blue wonder" area code 13337. When googling this area code, one would find images of chunky, top hat sporting walruses, enjoying a session of hang gliding over a football stadium full of jello.

If you made it this far, you are awesome.