151–160 of 237 posts
More power to you, NYC Mesh.
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I've worked for an ISP for about six and a half years. In that time, I have received I-don't-know-how-many e-mails about people torrenting and so on. I've had one conversation with a Special Agent from DHS investigating credit card fraud. Over this same period, I have given out a customer's identifying information zero times (if more than 24 hours have passed, there is a very small chance that I am able to identify t…
> if more than 24 hours have passed, there is a very > small chance that I am able to identify the customer Hmm ??? Could u please explain. I always assumed that all ISPs will store all DHCP (PPPoE? PPTP? IANANE) allocations by IP & time.
The group also knows there will be growing pains as they challenge the status quo and that it's only a matter of time before the big ISPs take notice, which could bring new challenges. I'd like to imagine this would be competition on price and service. Sadly, that won't be the case. They can expect everything from spurious CALEA requirements to rooftop lease shenanigans to unwarranted radio interference claims. Event…
I don't think mesh makes sense from an economics perspective. The number of edges scales O(n^2), where n is the number of people in the network. That's not very efficient. Even if you think wireless internet is feasible in dense urban areas (I think this is still an open question) it seems like a star topology connected by wireless backhaul to fiber makes more sense. This scales O(n).
I don't see how this is true for any reasonable definition of "edge". It's certainly not the case that every node directly communicates with every other node; if they did, you wouldn't need a mesh.
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This thread has to be one of the most overtly hostile threads I've read on HN in a while. What is your concern here? Why do you seem to feel they shouldn't even be trying? What ISP are you affiliated with?
We bypass traditional ISPs by connecting directly at an internet exchange point (DE-CIX IXP) and peering with other networks. This is basically how the internet is formed, by networks peering with each other. We don't need this ISP layer.
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Yeah, I just figured that a pro-anonymity, pro-startup, pro-charity, anti-monopoly, anti-comcast community would see this as a win on all fronts. At least that was my read on this community.
My reading of the negativity in this thread isn't "here is why I am opposed to your project" but rather "here is why your project seems like it will fail". The latter isn't anti-startup or pro-comcast at all.
...but why Dropbox? We already have google drive/OneDrive/WebDAV.
...but why an Airbnb? We already have BnBs, hotels, and hostels.
I really don't understand the HN reaction here. Why all the presumed negativity? This is tech, the best encyclopedia in the world is built on volunteer work and donations. A genius builds the de-facto version control system on his own in 3 months for fun. 2 guys in a garage build revolutionize search. Certainly there are logistical differences between these things, but I don't understand why one would assert with con…
I love HN but there is a very healthy level of suspicion for developing different ways of attacking already-solved problems. May not be the best example but look at the comments on announcing Dropbox. Doing > Wanting to do in nearly every instance. So to borrow from popular culture, Just Do It, and Haters Gonna Hate.
This is the opposite direction. Mesh NYC is saying that ISPs are useless because anyone can string up some APs and get access to the Internet.
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Sure thing. And I offer free WiFi access to all my household members, houseguests, and next-door neighbors. The main thing holding me back is scaling up the number of installs too. I'm hoping a billion dollars of donations can square that away for me and my wider-area neighbor.
I get that you're joking, but this is basically how public wifi works. A bunch of businesses and nonprofits offer free wifi to their customers, and over time you build up a big enough blanket that pretty much anybody can walk into a coffee shop or library and check their email. Tons of security risks, of course, but... I mean, I've used public wifi before during personal emergencies, and I was pretty grateful it exis…
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So what's the Wifi NAME in Manhattan?
The public access point SSIDs are usually "-NYC Mesh-" or "nycmesh" followed by location.
“We don’t have any use cases that show how nice it can be if you have enough users.”
They are going to need software. The supernodes are still a symptom of the thinking that you need the signal to go to another stage in order to communicate locally.
I think there should be more software that works on a local network, like things used to work before broadband.
This is what I’m talking about:
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> The majority of their work is coming from volunteers. > the difference is that people and companies donate their time/money because they want the project to succeed. And that volunteering time and energy are probably valuable then, especially if they can do the work of a real ISP. I think one real question to ask though is what is actually more efficient—donating volunteer time and energy to a nonprofit, or donatin…
> I think one real question to ask though is what is actually more efficient—donating volunteer time and energy to a nonprofit, or donating money and having that nonprofit hire professionals instead? That's a good question. Judging from software development (which may or may not map perfectly to hardware infrastructure) both seem to work pretty well. Depending on who you ask you'll get different answers about whether…
One response/workaround: Guerrilla networking.
Why, in part? Because there's nothing much to target, financially. In some ways, legally. Instead, the incumbents have to elicit suppression through regulators and law enforcement, if they can.
Google has deep pockets. But it could spend years trying to get access to poles. Incumbents don't just pay to oppose; they pay to slow things down as much as possible. Good luck deploying, when you have to wait 6 months for a court case, that's then going to get appealed.
Stay under the radar. That's a whole different approach.
And communities are getting desperate enough to try anything that might actually work.
While I cheer them on, I simultaneously hope the press coverage doesn't bring the corporate mercenaries down on their heads.