Could a neighborhood get group WiFi? (phones, loading, microwave, installed)
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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.
Wouldn't you be sharing the bandwidth? If so, there could be a hog among you who constantly is doing gaming or video streaming and it could slow things down for everyone.
If you had neighbors you trust and aren't maxing out the bandwidth why not?
I'd worry about both of those because you don't want to be the guy with the ISP bill in your name if your neighbor is downloading something illegal and because we sometimes overload the network with just our household's use.
"What happens if the neighbor with the service is on vacation when a problem develops?"
"First of all, how well do you trust your neighbor? And their kids? They could download something illegal," (Whoever pays the bill bears the legal ramifications of anyone they allow to connect to their connection)
"Finally, your ISP would almost certainly object. After all, they're losing money in this arrangement. If you read their Terms of Service, you're bound to find something banning such behavior. If they catch you, the consequences might be serious"
"Finally, your ISP would almost certainly object. After all, they're losing money in this arrangement. If you read their Terms of Service, you're bound to find something banning such behavior. If they catch you, the consequences might be serious"
That probably works the other way for most people. Stealing from Comcast or Verizon would make me at least a little happy.
There are plenty of "remote" communities who are doing just this. They form an LLC, train a few people in the co-op to handle the equipment/troubleshoot issues and then get larger feed lines (fiber, microwave, whatever) to their head-end.
As for "sharing" your residential connection, it's against your terms of service with whomever is your ISP.
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?
Or the creepy person next door is downloading questionable material?
Or several neighbors have guests over and share the password with all of them, and you now have overloaded the router with users?
When my own kids come home for the holidays and connect all their computers, iPads, and phones, not to mention gaming devices, and then start watching Netflix and start gaming and are watching YouTube videos, I experience major Internet slowdown...and that's only 4 people!
I was thinking more of like the way a hotel's wifi works, or the local Mall, or the corner coffee shop, where one source provides multiple access. I suppose someplace like a mall might pay a lot for this, but I don't know.
A lot depends on the size of and who is in your neighborhood. An apartment complex could have it just like that of a hotel, however who maintains it, pays for it and controls it? The other issue is most people don’t even know their neighbors, who they are, and don’t want to deal with them. There are a number of cities that have installed wifi for the community, it’s part of the “public services” they provide which is an idea I personally like.
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