Okay, going off the title to start with you're building a WiFi network, that's very cool (I'm guessing it's a mesh network), but will you connect it to the Internet too?
That'd be more of a headline if so, then just building a WiFi network.
this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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I wish I had that near me, but unfortunately I don't live in New York (United States), I live in New York (United States).
ARGH PLACENAMES
The domain has a c in it
I hadn't gotten the idea from the domain name but admittedly the comment wasn't very good regardless
in reality though I did get excited seeing this only to be disappointed that it's only in new york city and I live in upstate new york
I hope they are aware of https://freifunk.net/ and don't start from scratch completely. They've been doing that kinda stuff for over a decade and have developed a modified OpenWRT version and maintain lists of compatible routers
I see freifunk networks more rarely nowadays. They also are notoriously slow. Usually the mobile phone network is faster, even in Germany.
Yeeah it kind of fizzled out, that's true. In larger cities it used to be useful sometimes because of abysmal cell coverage and shady public WiFi. That has improved a lot since then, so yeah nowadays it can't hold a candle to 4G/5G mobile data.
NYC Mesh has been around for more than a decade. I assume they talked to other similar projects when building it.
Ah nice! :D Yeeeah just thought it'd be a shame to not utilize existing work that has been done on OpenWRT. But then again, it's highly unlikely that actors from similar groups haven't met at hacker conferences, GitHub repos, etc.
Reminds me of Wireless Seattle, that must be what, 25 years ago?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Wireless almost had it right.
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Anyone remember ricochet wireless? That was awesome. It can happen again! Why not?
I was just thinking about ricochet while perusing the thread. Ricochet was new when I was starting in IT and I can still remember connecting a ricochet modem to a company laptop and then pulling up our novell netware file share over our vpn. It was jaw dropping to see it at the time. Amazing how far we've come since then.
Reminds me of the time I shared my Internet with my friend who was in another apartment. We just created a Wi-Fi bridge with dd-wrt. That was 15 years ago.
Way way long ago I remember when I lived in Portland that they tried this, it was a pilot program. Idk if it's true or propaganda but it didn't work out because it was slow down because of how much porn people where downloading, so they didn't expand it and just stoped doing it.
Packet shaping.
I heard about some city (NYC??) that has public wifi access points with the terminal thing that acts like a touch screen computer for people to browse the internet. And people were allegedly watching porn on it, like in public on a busy street. So they disabled the touchscreen computer thing and only left the wifi access point on.
wow that's alotta porn to slow down a 10Gb connection
I'm so down for this, especially in condominiums. The challenge is navigating the regulators since they're often staffed with loyalists to the big ISPs.
I am old enough and geek enough to be bothered by the use of the word "WiFi" instead of the Internet or just network.
It's only WiFi if you connect the wireless router at the end.
Edit: just noticed mention of the "antenna at the roof" on the page, but I still don't think it's WiFi, "WiFi" is a name of the technology that allows wireless access by multiple devices. I think it's rather radio communication between the router and the access point. They basically use radio waves instead of the cable, it was often used in rural areas in my country, where putting cables would be too expensive.
But.. It is P2P WiFi...
WiFi is a specific protocol, IEEE 802.11 (with a lower case letter at the end for the version). There have long been hobbyist and commercial methods for using it with point-to-point links. There are some other wireless methods for this, like LoRa/Meshtastc, but they tend to be slower and less developed. Everyone prefers using WiFi.
So, yes, they are using WiFi in a point-to-point way. The antenna is directional to give it (potentially) several miles of range.
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Language is so weird these days...
Everything is "app" nowaways
A .exe install on windows is "app"
A reddit account is "app"
Buying a phone plan and inserting a sim card into a phone is "activation" of a phone
Lol
Its a windows program or software
Reddit is not an "app", its a platform.
You're not "activating" your phone, your phone is already usable, all you did was purchase a voice/data plan and inserted a sim card. "Activation" is a apple internet lock thing, totally separate.
You don't know what the word "application" is lol
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It would seem a lot of people think Wi-Fi is internet. I've heard someone call it "Wi-Fi with exclamation mark" when without internet access.
My eldest when her internet want working confidently told me her computer couldn't connect to the globe
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For a municipal wireless network, I'm not too bothered with how OP describes it if it's accessed through Wi-Fi.
I'm old enough and nerd enough to be slightly peeved that "community built" isn't hyphenated ("community-built").
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Same here and when people refer to the PC tower as the CPU
That I cut a bit of slack for, because prior to the minicomputer let alone the microcomputer, the CPU would likely have been a large component like the whole system is for a desktop PC.
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Does anyone know what other cities are building similar networks? Or how to get started doing it in your city?
KPUD in Kitsap County, WA does something similar: https://www.kpud.org/fiber-internet/free-public-wi-fi/
They also have very affordable public fiber.
I think European has a head start on this. Not sure which US cities are doing it
I've heard rumors (or not rumors) of several cities across the US than outright ban community ISPs. I don't know the truth of it, but I'm sure someone here can enlighten us on it and/or have trustworthy sources of info.
I think it was states banning the cities doing it. Like Tennessee, being ~bribed~ lobbied by AT&T and others doing so
https://www.pcmag.com/news/tennessee-sues-fcc-for-axing-municipal-broadband-ban
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