Is there any way to connect to this from the other side of the Hudson?
We have a #newjersey channel on our Slack. We need more people there to help organize
NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
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Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought the same was true for the Bay Area, hence why I moved here. I was genuinely surprised to find Google Fiber isn't even available, let alone any mesh networks. In all other aspects of technical expertise though it's blowing my previous city, Houston, away. Companies open to candidates based on technical expertise alone (rather than throwing non-B.S. degrees straight into the garbage), lots of great meetups, l…
Dunno where you are in the Bay Area, but in SF I have Sonic which is synchronous gigabit for ~$40 a month. It's not Google Fiber, but it's close.
For some reason they offering only 10Mbps in my building in downtown SF... compared to the 150 I get through Comcast. I hate their guts, but they do at least give me pretty darn fast internet.
Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#43Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#44CBC has a very good piece on NYC Mesh: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/wifi-nyc-mesh-new-york-cit...
Also André Staltz's TEDx Talk that mentions it: https://youtu.be/UjfWAbGfPh0
I really do hope this succeeds and takes off amid the likely scenario that SCOTUS will eventually kill Net Neutrality for good in the next two years. Things like this are the way to go if we want a bit more freedom in terms of surfing the web.
Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
How robust is something like a laser in the face of weather interference, like rain or urban smog/haze?
Not very. In the (admittedly old) setup I've seen, the total speed would drop to 100s of kb/s when there was any fog.
its better to have it 50% of the time than 0% of the time...
radio waves dont do well in fog either...
how would you run ethernet at a distance greater than 500 feet?
Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#46There's a similar effort gaining traction in the Los Angeles area: https://www.communitybroadband.la/
I've also noticed that local municipalities are getting into the ISP business. Beverly Hills, for example, is currently deploying a city-owned/operated fiber-backed ISP: http://www.beverlyhills.org/fiber
Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#47Stuff like this make me long to live in NYC. Only city in the US with the density, technical expertise, and money for this kind of thing to happen.
Better still, if you live in Brooklyn you can actually subscribe to an independent locally-run fiber ISP: http://bkfiber.com/
It's more of a business product than a consumer product, and it's got limited range, but it's great to know the option even exists.
Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#48This doesn't seem to actually be a mesh network.
You are being downvoted, but this is a good point. People would usually expect it to be a peer-to-peer mesh system without any supernodes.
The problem is that in the experience of the similar German "freifunk" project, which tried this with custom router firmware, this really doesn't scale well, even with a custom developed routing protocol (B.A.T.M.A.N). So many Freifunk communities are also choosing this supernode setup as a compromise between "full" mesh and good connectivity.
Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand what that means, "internet backbone?" Is that a physical location somewhere? I've read on the peering link, are they saying there's an "internet ethernet port" at 375 Pearl St, New York, NY that they plugged their whole mesh network into? Where's the ethernet cable go from there? I'm probably asking a bit too much here (how does internet work lol) but I don't understand how they've bypassed all ISP…
I work for a CDN, but am not a networking expert. I will try to answer as best I can: Yes, it is a physical location. Often called 'an exchange', there is usually a building in major cities that most networks connect together at. You rent from the building owner, and they provide a 'drop' which is basically a cable you can connect to your core router in your part of the datacenter you are renting (your 'rack' or 'cag…
I just wanted to say thank you for explaining this. I've read about this before, but I feel like something finally clicked when reading your comment.
Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not very. In the (admittedly old) setup I've seen, the total speed would drop to 100s of kb/s when there was any fog.
its better to have it 50% of the time than 0% of the time... radio waves dont do well in fog either... how would you run ethernet at a distance greater than 500 feet?
Radio is much less susceptible to fog than light because of the lower frequency.
Usually, at any large distances, you'd try to use fibre optic cables if at all possible.