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New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

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Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#51
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there codexarcanum, My partner and I are NOLA based programmers / lawyers who have been researching this matter for a few years. We own the domain nolamesh.net and would love to work with you to navigate the political / legal / business issues to deploy a similar network in the New Orleans metro area. Please reach out to us at nolalawcorp@gmail.com and let's set up a meeting.

your website is down

>own the domain

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#52
post #4

Are there similar efforts to follow in other cities? e.g Boston, SF

Sudomesh - Oakland - https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh

Althea - Portland - https://althea.net

Freifunk - Germany - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freifunk

Open Wireless - Global - https://openwireless.org

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#53
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you're using TLS it shouldn't matter if someone is monitoring, right?

Do these mesh networks support TLS? Even if they do support TLS, it might be possible for a node on the mesh to successfully carry out a SSL strip attack. Or aggregate leaked metadata from the requests that pass through it. I am not familiar with these mesh networks, there may be many lurking attack vectors if the creators are not particularly concerned with privacy / security.

TLS is layer 7, so any network will support it.

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#55

This is a great use case for crypto. You can earn by supporting the network and spend it to use the network. It helps the incentive layer. Those supporting the network can pay for support personnel as they grow, or there can be a network tax that goes towards this. You can also decentralize the support personnel by rewarding people that successfully answer tickets and offer a premium for when questions are answered w…

We are doing exactly this with althea.net

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#56

While I am in favor of increasing competition among ISPs. I don't see how making it volunteer-based is actually good. All this does is take away presumably well-paying jobs from those who need them. IMO, a for-profit company developing a new mesh network would be more compelling. Not only would it provide local jobs, but it would also drive down the cost of internet for all. Somehow though, I feel this is a minority…

At a certain scale they will hire from the same pool as the ISPs. Labor is never saved, it's just moved around. Cooperatives are always better than traditional for-profit companies because you dont have an executive class that does nothing but soak up value generated by the laborers.

At very worst, this sort of volunteer operation will not change the relationship the workers have with their labor and only change who's paying them to do it.

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do these mesh networks support TLS? Even if they do support TLS, it might be possible for a node on the mesh to successfully carry out a SSL strip attack. Or aggregate leaked metadata from the requests that pass through it. I am not familiar with these mesh networks, there may be many lurking attack vectors if the creators are not particularly concerned with privacy / security.

TLS is layer 7, so any network will support it.

I wasn't making the assumption that their mesh was based on TCP. I should really just read the article and linked materials, but I am trying to ingore that temptation since I am supposed to be working :-P

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#58
post #56

While I am in favor of increasing competition among ISPs. I don't see how making it volunteer-based is actually good. All this does is take away presumably well-paying jobs from those who need them. IMO, a for-profit company developing a new mesh network would be more compelling. Not only would it provide local jobs, but it would also drive down the cost of internet for all. Somehow though, I feel this is a minority…

At a certain scale they will hire from the same pool as the ISPs. Labor is never saved, it's just moved around. Cooperatives are always better than traditional for-profit companies because you dont have an executive class that does nothing but soak up value generated by the laborers. At very worst, this sort of volunteer operation will not change the relationship the workers have with their labor and only change who'…

Cooperatives are for profit companies. I'm unsure why you think they're not or why they did not fall under my definition of 'for profit' company.

That being said. Cooperatives do have executive classes and they do soak up value from labor

Also traditional for profit companies would theoretically allow local stakeholders to reap profits but I do agree that due to unjust sec rules about accredited investors designed to protect the rich, this can not happen

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#59

This is a great use case for crypto. You can earn by supporting the network and spend it to use the network. It helps the incentive layer. Those supporting the network can pay for support personnel as they grow, or there can be a network tax that goes towards this. You can also decentralize the support personnel by rewarding people that successfully answer tickets and offer a premium for when questions are answered w…

Why is crypto better suited to any of this than... money?

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#60
What is impressive here, that it's a "mesh" or that it's a volunteer for driven?

Years ago all Minsk was covered by volunteer maintained local ethernet networks, I was accessing internet through one. Today most of them are bought out by commercial providers, some turned into providers themselves.

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