Could a neighborhood get group WiFi?

[WestieJeff]

Originally Posted by PeachSalsa

What happens when you have to power cycle the modem and/or router and the neighbor who is housing it is gone on vacation for 2 weeks?
Or you need to get online for work, but your neighbor's kid is doing intensive gaming and using all the bandwidth?

Even cheap home Wifi routers have the ability to have many different Wifi network names (virtual wireless networks) setup, each with different passwords, and bandwidth restrictions. My Asus N66U home router (<$100) can do all these things. I used to have a roommate. I setup him up his own wifi network along with my own. He was maxed at 10mbit/sec and his network was completely separate, he had no ability to even talk to my computers.


The other issues are valid, but it's easy to set it up where people can't monopolize the bandwidth.

[nightcrawler]

we live in an apartment building, I have my next door neighbors code to get on her wi-fi. I now have my own and gave her our code just in case she needed it. But if she shuts it off, its off, so its always better to have your own.

we are like a back up for each other, and a few times it did come inhandy when my wi-fi went down because of the box in the courtyard, whatever.....

[otterhere]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

I have been wondering about this for awhile. Every house in our neighborhood is paying for locked, WiFi. Why couldn't a cluster of houses just share it and split the cost? I've never heard of this, but it seems silly for each of us to pay separately.

You could and it would be a smart thing to do, but I think you'd find most people irrationally resistant to the idea. Even if they logically know better, they seem to feel it would be "an invasion of privacy." Jeff Yaeger suggested this on "Extreme Cheapskates" and was refused, as was I when I suggested to it to my neighbor.

[mdovell]

Technically speaking most ISP's know people move around. Major providers allow for guest access *if* you have an account with them. I lived in an apartment for years and since my name is on my parents account I had access. Now the apartment wifi wasn't the best and it was an old building but it did well most things considered. I moved and technically we can get a bit of the wifi but I'm paying for my own. why? Because I don't know if the neighbor might kick it off and slow down etc.

I'd recommend testing of signals of 5ghz vs 2ghz. Are we talking basic web browsing or 4K streaming and smart devices? I'd argue that smart devices that are really important should have their own system. God forbid a smart lock doesn't work because someone changed internet plans.