I am old enough and geek enough to be bothered by the use of the word “WiFi” instead of the Internet or just network.
It’s only WiFi if you connect the wireless router at the end.
Edit: just noticed mention of the “antenna at the roof” on the page, but I still don’t think it’s WiFi, “WiFi” is a name of the technology that allows wireless access by multiple devices. I think it’s rather radio communication between the router and the access point. They basically use radio waves instead of the cable, it was often used in rural areas in my country, where putting cables would be too expensive.
Same here and when people refer to the PC tower as the CPU
That I cut a bit of slack for, because prior to the minicomputer let alone the microcomputer, the CPU would likely have been a large component like the whole system is for a desktop PC.
I didn’t know that’s even a thing.
It was a thing moreso in the '90s.
I was using computers in the '90s. Guess it just wasn’t ubiquitous.
I heard it in computer labs a lot at school. The “CPU tower”.
Language is so weird these days…
Everything is “app” nowaways
A .exe install on windows is “app”
A reddit account is “app”
Buying a phone plan and inserting a sim card into a phone is “activation” of a phone
Lol
Its a windows program or software
Reddit is not an “app”, its a platform.
You’re not “activating” your phone, your phone is already usable, all you did was purchase a voice/data plan and inserted a sim card. “Activation” is a apple internet lock thing, totally separate.
I noticed the gradual shift from program to app over time since the iPhone took the world by storm, but then again it was never incorrect. Applications are synonymous with programs so an executable on your windows desktop is an app as much as it is a program.
I’ve never come across anyone referring to a Reddit account as an app but I can definitely see someone who interacts with Reddit exclusively using the Reddit app referring to both the platform and a means of accessing as the same thing both out of a conscious choice for convenience or ignorance and actually they’d be right either way except in the latter case only accidentally since it you say “I really love using that app Reddit to look at memes and talk to people” despite not actually knowing the app isn’t the platform, your sentence would still be correct.
The activating thing, I jimmycrackcrack declare that I will allow it. Look it’s a sneaky hardware manufacturer and provider term to imply the device doesn’t work until you give them money but then, as a piece of language with utility, well… your phone doesn’t work without a sim, at least in the common understanding of what “work” means here. Since a phone of any stripe, dumb or smart is pretty useless without a sim card, getting that message across to consumers that you have to do something to make it functional, to “activate” it is necessary. You could choose to frame it as unlocking but then again if you’re selling these things you probably don’t want people thinking you locked them up and then sold them the keys and in fact, the manufacturers kinda didn’t, it’s the service provider that doesn’t provide service to a functioning device until they’re given money, who are doing that and given they’re a business, that’s sorta how they have to operate.
I’m old enough and nerd enough to be slightly peeved that “community built” isn’t hyphenated (“community-built”).
For a municipal wireless network, I’m not too bothered with how OP describes it if it’s accessed through Wi-Fi.
Thank you, because it’s vitally important to devote half the content in these threads to arguing about the terminology in the headline.
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I hope they are aware of https://freifunk.net/ and don’t start from scratch completely. They’ve been doing that kinda stuff for over a decade and have developed a modified OpenWRT version and maintain lists of compatible routers
NYC Mesh has been around for more than a decade. I assume they talked to other similar projects when building it.
Ah nice! :D Yeeeah just thought it’d be a shame to not utilize existing work that has been done on OpenWRT. But then again, it’s highly unlikely that actors from similar groups haven’t met at hacker conferences, GitHub repos, etc.
I see freifunk networks more rarely nowadays. They also are notoriously slow. Usually the mobile phone network is faster, even in Germany.
Yeeah it kind of fizzled out, that’s true. In larger cities it used to be useful sometimes because of abysmal cell coverage and shady public WiFi. That has improved a lot since then, so yeah nowadays it can’t hold a candle to 4G/5G mobile data.
I’m shocked this is going through. I gotta imagine at least Tennessee will block it. They’re super pro-big isp.
Okay, going off the title to start with you’re building a WiFi network, that’s very cool (I’m guessing it’s a mesh network), but will you connect it to the Internet too?
That’d be more of a headline if so, then just building a WiFi network.
My friend has been using NYCmesh for a couple years now. He has nothing. It positive things to say about it.
Website literally has mesh in the name, no need to guess. Then would you believe it, but if you open the site it tells you more information and mentions the internet several times.
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Many many good reasons. Intranets are a thing pretty much everwhere.
Mostly for documents and resource sharing. Perhaps its a way to connect locally to a library and its resources without the vileness and enshittification of web2.0 getting in the way?
I wish I were in an area with people I’d like to share an intranet with.
I wish I were in an area with people I’d like to share an intranet with.
This is fucking awesome
Right?
Ditto
I’m so down for this, especially in condominiums. The challenge is navigating the regulators since they’re often staffed with loyalists to the big ISPs.
Getting ready to drop some raspberry pi OpenWRT WiFi 7 with WiFi HaLow around westchester to downtown. Let me know needed areas!
This sounds cool but what exactly will it do and what’s the purpose? What will these devices be connected to for internet? Local stores wifi and then extending it for others to use?
This^
This is super cool! That video mentions heavy rain could cause some interference, anyone know how significant of a concern that is? Like how heavy of rain has what kind of impact on speeds?
How long until the cities’ PDs start busting down peoples doors for this?
Why would they? This is a legitimate business
I wish I had that near me, but unfortunately I don’t live in New York (United States), I live in New York (United States).
ARGH PLACENAMES
in reality though I did get excited seeing this only to be disappointed that it’s only in new york city and I live in upstate new york
Reminds me of the time I shared my Internet with my friend who was in another apartment. We just created a Wi-Fi bridge with dd-wrt. That was 15 years ago.
Now if we could just talk to some EU internet satellites…
That is for sharing! I’m up to see what I can do on the UWS (signed up) but maybe that’s too far
Reminds me of Wireless Seattle, that must be what, 25 years ago?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Wireless almost had it right.
This is what I thought of. I remember they beamed a signal across a lake successfully. I also got into making a cantenna because of them. Used it a lot working security in places that didn’t have wifi.
inb4 they sell it to a telecom and the politicians get a top manager or consultant job at that company
This seems like a bad idea.
What sort of protections are in place against nefarious actors that gain access to this network? Do they do anything to isolate each connected device from each other so that two devices on the network cannot connect to each other, such as making use of subnets? Are users connections throttled, and if so, to what degree? Are certain websites blocked to prevent potential malicious actors from intercepting sensitive data more easily, such as bank sites?
I mean, the idea is a well intentioned one, but I can easily see this going very wrong very quickly.
Me: Expresses concern about potential cybersecurity issues with a free publicly joinable network
Lemmy: Furiously downvoting
Honestly, I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was clearly too much.
You really think this would even have live long enough to write an article about it if it wasnt built properly?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYC_Mesh
This is not a new concept, its been around since 2014 so they will just have copied a lot from existing projects like the german freifunk which i participate in (exists since 2003).Why would you not use TLS to connect to sites on a mesh network?
I don’t know, I find people do all sorts of stuff with their networks all the time that has me scratching my head trying to figure out why they set it that way when I am eventually called to fix it.
that makes sense
but in this case, the bank, or whatever good site, would probably not even allow non-TLS connections
and if the mesh necessitates TLS only on an exit node*. Then yeah, that’s a stupid and flawed network. And it also wouldn’t be transparent (in the sense of using just like a normal ISP)
*I’m not sure how it connects to the rest of the internet, but assuming there are exit nodes that connect to other networks
