I had this idea earlier about creating a kind of WiFi lattice network. With so many people using WiFi, could we potentially host sites and services through our own connections? Imagine navigating through these connections and routing our data across various overlapping WiFi networks. Is it feasible to set up a wide area network in a city with enough WiFi users? Could this concept lead to a 'shadow internet', almost like a decentralized version of the internet controlled by its users? I know this is a rough idea, but I'm curious if anyone has looked into this before.
5 Answers
So, essentially, what you're suggesting is pretty much what happens on the internet already. Wi-Fi routers send and receive data packets over the same wireless medium. The catch, though, is that wireless connections often suffer from congestion, so they don't perform as well as wired connections overall.
For sure, it could work, but it's tricky. Most consumer radios aren't designed to handle this setup efficiently. Plus, the range is really limited—about 30 meters max before you need another transceiver. Picture trying to cover larger distances; it just doesn’t hold up well after that.
Absolutely, this has been done. While it's not officially called a 'lattice network', we have examples of private mesh networks across neighborhoods and cities, like in Detroit and some parts of New York. These setups allow for community-wide internet access even if performance can be hit or miss due to congestion.
Yes, it does work in theory, but implementing it efficiently is the challenge. Issues like congestion and the quality of consumer gear often lead to frustration. Most people stick to the public internet since it’s easier than managing a personal network. Still, a local network could be handy for emergency situations, like in protests or outages.
It's interesting you mention this; something like FidoNet existed before the World Wide Web took off, which was similar in concept. There’s a precedent for networks like this!
Yeah, that's true! They typically use wired or fiber connections to ensure stable performance, because relying solely on WiFi can get really congested.