Building A More Human Internet in NYC | Still Connecting

One day, a bus severed the cable that provided internet to Daniel Heredia's neighborhood. The large ISP said it would take two weeks to reconnect - he knew there had to be a better way - a more personable, community-centric, human internet.
Fast forward to today, as Motherboard joins NYC Mesh, a group building their own decentralized, wireless mesh networks across NYC, and volunteer Daniel Heredia to see how they spread the mesh across New York City and plan provide affordable and universal internet to all New Yorkers.
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[@anonymous_youtuber378]

I've set up two NYC mesh installations in separate buildings that I lived and both nodes had great internet speeds. I recommend everyone in NYC set one up where they live.

[@spiralfractr]

Thanks, what's "great" in Mbps?

[@jong9379]

@@spiralfractr It ranges from 60 mbps to 1 Gbps for wifi and upto 20 Gbps for fiber. Also like any other wifi signal, it heavily depends on the area. If you live in Manhattan, then speeds will obviously be good, but in places like Harlem or Brooklyn, it can be slightly less outside of the hotspots. .

[@Calypso993]

what about latency ?

[@wallythewall600]

​@@Calypso993 It's wireless. It's not gonna be cabled-level latency from client to first hop, I'd expect something similar to the numbers Starlink's touting. That being said, this is clearly meant as accessible internet for the under-served first and foremost, so that people can actually do a lot of important things that are increasingly becoming impossible to do without internet (like even being able to submit an application to a job). I seriously doubt an extra 10ms is gonna mess with your AWP peeks sans placebo/nocebo effect unless you're at the very least ranked LEM, if that's why you're asking.

[@Carterthielftw_]

@@spiralfractr I mean, I would go as far to say that most residences in America have something below 100mbps.

[@mrarduino2977]

I really like to see the updates from these kind of projects, keep them coming.

[@houseplant1016]

It's dumb, big corporations are better .

[@mrarduino2977]

@@houseplant1016 more options and compertion is better.

[@Carterthielftw_]

@@houseplant1016 that's a funny joke

[@SanoKei]

I saw a project like this in Detroit and heard that one was being built in NYC and I'm very happy that it is a reality

[@LeeeroyJenkins]

Can’t believe this guys are saying WiFi is a human right when there’s people without food or a home. You won’t die without WiFi, but food in the other hand. That’s a killer.

[@zardian]

@@LeeeroyJenkins well... You won't also die due the lack of privacy or freedom of expression. But those are also human rights.. eh!

[@FreeSpirit90]

@@LeeeroyJenkins You need the internet to find jobs. it's not the 90s anymore gramps.

[@NYCMesh]

We've been going for over 7 years!

[@SanoKei]

@@NYCMesh I've really been thinking of switching over :D Support you guys either way

[@benja2a]

Me: "So it double the capacity? My ISP: "Yeah, I'm not even exaggerating"

[@Tobi_Jones]

Internet should be classified as a utility

[@nvysel24]

It was then it was rolled back by trump

[@pseudonym3396]

Food should be classified as a utility too. That way inept bureaucratic machines and oligopolies can dominate there as well.

[@TomasPetkevicius94]

This is a must in the 21st century.

[@plushiie_]

@@pseudonym3396 UN Did try and vote for food being a human right. Guess the countries that were against :)

[@carademarcus]

@@nvysel24 you act like trump does everything. You mean people in his administration trump just golfed and ranted on teittwe

[@fluffywarhampster]

its interesting to see a wisp (wireless internet service provider) growing in a city like new York with well established existing infrastructure. cool none the less.

[@Napstone]

And the more people add their node to the mesh, the stronger it gets! Decentralization baby!

[@finnrowden3341]

I LOVE THIS PROJECT

[@KAMI__KITSUNEE]

^this

[@Kenabukanyo]

Are you friggin' kiddin' me ? Neighborhood networks appeared like mushrooms after the rain in Romania's 90's and 00's .. They became obsolete when the big corps bought them all and preserved the same prices . I'm glad it becomes a thing now , but abroad this time .

[@LimitedWard]

That's not how we do things in the US. If big corps want mesh networks gone, they'll just send over their lobbyists to regulate them out of existence!

[@Eye-it-azz]

You think this thing will see the light of day in any US City

[@AdamBedell]

@@Eye-it-azz there already are other cities (like detroit) ... and a fair amount of private rural mini meshes exist out there

[@chrislanejones]

This is awesome, I would love to set up a mesh network in Louisa, VA. Most of the town does not have internet... And we are two hours from DC.

[@___echo___]

@corey Babcock my experience with lte has been shoddy at best, I had a lot of lag spikes during gaming, and short cut outs during video calls, though I don't know what its like at other locations

[@freedomf1ghter77]

This is so admirable, Im so glad great people exist.

[@Mr--_--M]

I love this!!! I only hope that he's being preemptive in countering the big tech providers(Verizon and Comcast) who aren't strangers to lobbying and taking independent Internet movements through the courts to suck them dry. They only like each other as competition.

[@arnavjindal3021]

Make this a worldwide organization (volunteered), helping other groups (in other parts of world) facing same issues, ramp up such meshes easily.... loved the docs on website though.

[@AdamBedell]

We got a place in Blissville between sunnyside and greenpoint with a large rooftop mast we installed. Would love to see if can offer a node. So wonderful seeing growth of #nycmesh ... you people are making a real difference. Thank you.

[@dilbyjones]

Thank you motherboard for picking this up.

[@falconeagle3655]

Excellent project. Love this.

[@skydivekrazy76]

Such an underrated and awesome thing. Thank you for making the world that much brighter.

[@fairinternet]

Bravo NYCMesh! Love to support your project and help spread the word!

[@kinanhamwi]

Dealing with amazing people working in this industry on a daily basis, I can say that I'm happy this is reaching mainstream media finally Hoping that connectivity as a human right is not something far from our reach

[@jannamwatson]

Never heard of this before! Looking forward to the follow-ups!

[@ikiyytours2320]

Wow...am amazed with what you guys are doing?

[@bharatpenumutchu6487]

Really curious about Backhaul speeds between a Root AP and Mesh AP (1 Hop setup).

[@thomascrabtree]

They use 60GHz links for the backhaul, you can see the Ubiquity equipment in the video, it's quite cheap actually.

[@derrickforeal]

@@thomascrabtree correct

[@papusa9878]

@@thomascrabtree how much dbm

[@jamesjones2212]

In Norway internet is a fundamental human right and thus subsides by the govt to ensure everyone has it.

[@HShango]

Same here in the UK

[@KhanSharief]

I really love watching content like this, I am also small internet provider in our place.

[@dosadoodle]

Wow, I just checked their site: Free with a suggested donation. That is, free for both installation (recommended donation of $290) and monthly service fee (no specific donation recommended). Heck dudes, if I was in NYC, you could have my same Comcast fees to help the organization expand faster, because screw the corporate a-holes from Comcast (oh, sorry, _XFINITY_), Time Warner, Charter, etc that have tried to maintain their localized monopolies. Edit: added "localized" before "monopolies".

[@thegreenguy8837]

That is awesome! Loving it.

[@uuuu260]

How do I start this in a different location than NYC? This is cool, I’m very interested in doing this

[@erickm119]

Amazing work

[@grandpaseed]

good on you we need to take care of each other because no one else will even if we pay them to do it.

[@antoniocastaneda3347]

I feel like this would be an amazing concept to do here in the city

[@HatiaArms]

Gr8 work, keep it up👍👍

[@olagunjujoseph213]

Please give us more of still connecting

[@zebilonmarunyane6621]

This is amazing 👍🏾

[@JohnySilverhand]

Great one🔥🔥

[@Prabeen-Raj]

End screen with all the languages is nice

[@StevieCooper]

I’d really like to share my home internet with my neighbours as I have more bandwidth than I need most of the time. I’m worried about someone downloading illegal content and it being traced to me. It’s a shame, I live in a very high density area. Id happily pay for it for the common good.

[@jonathanmajdi9126]

If you do set up guest networks or VLANs to separate your main network from the shared one.

[@collodionpositive554]

Keep records and connection logs, not saying log traffic or DNS requests but that should be enough if anything did happen you can prove you're not the sole user of the connection.

[@JyoPari]

Awesome, very impressive!

[@asap761]

Great job

[@zandatsu07]

I love their Place,seems like if your Internet has been lost there's a troubleshooter that you can Call anytime

[@huntermaxwell3086]

I ❤️NYC MESH!!!

[@dorb1337]

Great enterprise! Wish it would spread all over the globe

[@abdmuhaimin]

Wow amazing

[@drankenstein5241]

Wow I love in Washington Heights but I don't have internet only on my phone plan I'm gonna look into this mesh thing I'm gonna need it for School when I start hopefully it's available up here. This is so awesome 😎

[@peaceloverchap]

Internet is the fundamental rights of human being like water, electricity, gas. Kudos to the NYC mesh team to take completely different route and refraining from corporate greed.

[@jacobcec]

i would like to understand more of how a mesh network works and contribute in any way i can, is there a discord for nyc mesh?

[@proletaire6442]

Please update us on this project in the future.

[@tymeryder7264]

Great idea for the people

[@anuragvohra5519]

Very inspiring

[@jaycee320]

Amazing stuff 🙂 hope you reach the whole of the US.. or better all over the world 🌎

[@mlceesay1012]

I am really impressed with your hard work bro... I am from the Gambia 🇬🇲 (West Africa)... We have the #worst and most #expensive internet in Africa... I wish to have you and your team the #Gambia 🇬🇲

[@JamesLee-lf4fr]

good job

[@Bet0usky99]

I don't know why I feel like you could be part of a comic book. You are so cool!

[@YHK_YT]

Hope one day I can setup something like this in my own country cuz ISP’s have a huge monopoly

[@enriquemuhammad]

Indonesia?

[@AhmadAinunNajib-IyyanF]

@@enriquemuhammad not indonesia if you are on 'great location' which is possible to have 3+ ISP's around the corner

[@VjSky]

Belgrade, Serbia had this 15 years ago

[@technicalsupport1868]

good stuff

[@gesnow]

Your using some Unifi equipment very cool.

[@islantay5795]

I hope to see more orgs like this come up all of the world. I hope my city could have an organization like this then I can join.

[@bc5891]

I want to host my own internet for myself and neighbors since we have nothing great for internet here. The problem i am having is the cost for fiber buildout. We have 2 good fiber companies I'd like to use but the build out they claim will cost over $100k to bring fiber 1 mile.

[@akash-zg4vj]

One easier method is take a spot closer to their drop and then wireless your haul to your dc

[@DirtyInvestor87]

Essential service i like that

[@MANA2CLIPS]

Dude, this is so cool #MeshForLife

[@mosh1986]

i don't understand, does you subscribe to a fiber broadband and mesh it all over or what? i want to replicate it in my city.

[@HShango]

The internet is literally cables and servers commutating with eachother. The world wide Web is the websites and web pages we see on our screens (every time we visit them).

[@RuhulAmin-xq3bh]

Is it available in bronx borough?

[@jamesorson3872]

Is there a tutorials that we can follow. In our county we have a slow internet connection and signals.

[@dearestdennis]

I was wondering this whole time : “Are these landlords just allowing roof access for free, or does NYC Mesh have a profit sharing agreement?” I hope to see them easily be able to give internet to each apartment in a building. Would be great to stick it to cable and use Ethernet over coax / MoCA.

[@emmanuellysir9401]

Amezing content...

[@houseplant1016]

*Amazing

[@igvloso]

I love those ameizing contents too, bro.

[@LimitedWard]

*Ameshing

[@igvloso]

@@LimitedWard 😂😂😂 you got the spirit!

[@cedivad]

This is beautiful, but I don't understand how regular wifi isn't saturated if you're using it for backbone links? I saw the mmwave antennas but not every installation had it.

[@lu4414]

I like how some stuff (2 weeks with no internet) that happens in the US is outright illegal in developing countries.

[@IvanAkinfiev]

Name one law in one country that makes turning the internet off illegal

[@LouisSubearth]

@@IvanAkinfiev I think he means as in it's illegal for ISPs to not repair blackouts after a certain amount of time because of consumer protection laws (failure to provide service one pays for)

[@narayanjeev]

My ISP, charges a 5% premium over other ISPs but guarantees a two hour resolution of any downtime, cables, routers, it's all covered.

[@lu4414]

@@LouisSubearth precisely it.

[@blackline84]

would love to donate to this project

[@jamesphillips7656]

I wish I can do this. This is really cool 😎 👌 👏 👍 😄 😀

[@ronny4927]

real heroes

[@ansik_]

What sort of speeds are the endusers looking at with this service?

[@AdamBedell]

Gonna depend on a lot of variables, like is your building getting a full fiber, you grabbing from a neighbor, etc... but def much faster than crappy dsl where verizon doesnt offer fios and no cable offered. Like 50+Mbps

[@marcusaureliusepictetus7905]

I would think under 100 mps

[@dannyjones4343]

This is cool

[@EshanManusanka]

Wow ❤️

[@mitchellintrieri]

This is amazing. Truly good people out there willing to help. Thank you for what you do. Could change someone’s life. This could be the next Einstein or Steve Wozniak or satoshi that has access to Internet because of you

[@UE_5_beginner]

But who gives you access to the net? i mean the servers only has a super high cost and also how do you make yourself a provider? do the users have static ip or they share the public use of a big one or they just randomly get one?

[@NYCMesh]

We peer through an Internet Exchange Point (IXP). Peering is free. We also have donated transit and IXP connections in the data centers. We actually pay nothing for bandwidth at the moment. Bandwidth is cheap in data centers and we may have to pay in the future. We can give you a static IP if you really need it but generally you get a 10.x private address.

[@YaoiSupporter000]

I wish I could help out. I’m not even from New York but I do live on the east coast. I’d be great to do work that helps others.

[@UE_5_beginner]

Over here aside of fiber optic which is the common thing, cable, dsl we have WiMax that looks like those antenas.

[@samthingvlog888]

All is ubiquiti product can i ask which router you use that can handle thousands of PPPOE client.

[@mrrice117]

I would love to help, im obsessed with network infrastructure but i dont have the experience. This would honestly be the next best thing and i would be so happy to be a part of it

[@NYCMesh]

We train people! Many of us had no network experience before starting

[@MarkWellsindxgo]

Reminds me of what they're doing in Cuba for internet

[@phillipcoplen8051]

UniFi is the backbone for so many of there services

[@WilliamShinal]

Table Top, the local ISP in Seligman, unwittingly got themselves a monopoly after Verizon decided they didn't want to go through the trouble of supplying a rural area. Thankfully we have Starlink, but your efforts in New York are still most commendable, and very necessary to combat the greed of ISPs.

[@ijexx]

Dope

[@monfrezo]

will the outdoors antenna-setup withstand storm weather conditions?

[@MikePowlas]

Yes.

[@henryhawke]

This guys gets it

[@Rey_R_]

In Indonesia, if you are not in the mainland of Java, there is only one state-owned ISP which provides 20 Mbps for eqv. USD27 and 400GB FUP with many intermittent problems every single month. They ban this kind of thing where you share your internet with people.

[@eskanderx1027]

Good people.

[@phanCAbe]

A few things... 1. More people need to hear about this. 2. There needs to be an easy way to donate. 3. There needs to be a training program for high school kids and kits for young people to get this going. Those three things would turn this into an unstoppable movement in cities nationwide. The problem would then be to keep it pure and out of the hands of the big ISPs because the only reason this still exists is because it's tiny and the ISPs don't care yet.

[@georgertheexplorer4114]

I wish there was something like this for rural areas. Verizon was the only provider in my area for at least a decade, and they continued to raise prices and never repair broken lines. It was copper wire, so on a good day I could get 5 mbps with outages every hour or so.

[@MikePowlas]

It can be start one of your own.

[@rizkiadipratama8031]

If it is in Indonesia, it's called as RT-RW Net, or Neighborhood-Net

[@paulamicel]

Tell these guys to put on harnesses!

[@harimomchilov9395]

Hey, I'm from the other side of the world and I love this work. I have one question! When the weather is really bad ( I know in NYC tends to snow a lot and rain aswell) how does that affect the signal? What equipment is being used to mitigate those environmental effects?

[@NYCMesh]

Our sector antennas are 5 GHz which is fine in the rain. Our gigabit backhaul is 60 and 24 GHz which is affected by rain. We set up lots of redundant connections so if the 60 GHz goes down there will be a 5Ghz backup connection to take over. Also we try to keep distances short on the 60 GHz.

[@NirvanaFan5000]

this is great. wish we had this in Seattle. I think a LOT of people would sign up. and lots of tech-savvy people around. ... cause really, screw comcast and the rest. biggest red flag is that the industry sells their plans by a *maximum* speed instead of a *minimum* speed.

[@alexjones1017]

Yes! Same in the Bay Area. This is super needed

[@michaeljones5681]

I feel traditional providers failing to keep up is the same reason why Africa has some of the best connectivity and that Is that og providers have tonnes of equipment that cost a lot and scrapping it all and starting again isn't a feasible option. This NYC mesh is starting with the newer technology and can set it up in a way that the of providers currently can't.

[@carlosaruiz7105]

Their using UniFi APs I wonder if they manage all of these on a single controller or multiple Controllers for regions

[@NYCMesh]

We use a lot of airMax / UISP with about 1000 devices. We also have about 50 unifi APs spread across two controllers. It's easy to swap sites in the one controller.

[@MikePowlas]

@@NYCMesh We use UISP and it works great.

[@adike5]

the experience depends on your lco

[@Elizaelpr]

What about the security of de network?

[@bearshane4698]

I think it's funny when they say these guys are volunteers someone's making money here! No-doubt-about-it

[@NYCMesh]

Sorry, but we are a non-profit with no employees. This will change soon as we are taking on some huge projects that will require employees.

[@bearshane4698]

@@NYCMesh that's great more power to you guys

[@capone_rd_809]

how fast is the connection and how secure is the connection ?

[@NYCMesh]

Average speed is around 80 Mbps up and down. We use standard encryption and firewalls