'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi

Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by mapmap on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:05PM (#16980165)

I'm curious about the technology they are using. Is it an actual mesh network or point-to-point wireless?

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by nycmesh on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:44PM (#16980486)

We are a hybrid of mesh, p2p and point to multi-point (sector antennas). Whatever is most appropriate to give the best connection for reasonable price.

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by walrus01 on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @04:53PM (#16981064)

Considering the 5100 to 5850 MHz band noise floor in metro NYC, it's a minor miracle that outdoor, roof mounted, PtMP 802.11ac based systems work at all. (Or Cambium PMP450i in the same bands, etc).

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by nycmesh on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @06:14PM (#16981618)

Yes the noise floor is bad, but we get about a 2 mile range which covers a huge amount of people in Manhattan. The Ubiquiti sector antennas use TDMA so it is not standard 802.11ac.

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by ybloviator on Thursday May 03, 2018 @01:07PM (#16987723)

Screenshot of a UBNT p2mp at 2 miles in Manhattan please. The dashboard will show the distance. Please post.

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by nycmesh on Thursday May 03, 2018 @04:28PM (#16989609)

https://nycmesh.net/panorama/1.7miles.png

That's a LiteBeam Gen1 installed in the east village on 5th St connected to 375 Pearl St downtown. The gen1 actually has a stronger signal than the gen2, so this is a bit better than our usual connection.

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by crishoj on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:18PM (#16980262)

Seems to be an actual mesh network, based on the BMX6 mesh protocol [0].

[0] http://nycmeshnet.github.io/faq/

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by tlrobinson on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:17PM (#16980258)

Here's a map of their network: https://nycmesh.net/map/ (uncheck everything except "Link" to see the network)

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by dawiddutoit on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:27PM (#16980350)

Down here in South Africa we have a similar network. We have had quite shite connections down here for so long that a mesh network was one of the few ways to get a good connection. Link for our map of Cape Town. https://wind.ctwug.za.net/index.php/nodes

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by ybloviator on Thursday May 03, 2018 @01:12PM (#16987763)

"The network connects directly to the internet backbone, so we do not rely on an ISP."

That makes no sense. I doubt they're a tier-1 backbone themselves, they have to be purchasing transit from an ISP. It feels like lots of the docs are written by marketing-type folks. Also there's a weird diagram that insinuates NAT happens before bgp peering with the not-ISPs they buy internet from. Weird shit.

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Re:'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC wi... by Zekio on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:18PM (#16980259)

Looks like point to point in the video

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