On 25/06/2020 18.45, James Knott wrote:
On 2020-06-25 12:23 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Then there are the legal implication ....
Technically, it would be perfectly possible for a building to share an internet connection with a bunch of neighbours, sharing the cost and the infra. You would need one VLAN per home, I think, isolating each home from others.
The problem would be that the Telco companies hate this (and their local laws protecting them). You can not share a home connection, you would have to hire some other type of connection, if they have it.
In fact, there are villages in Spain where all neighbours share a single WiFi setup done by the council, gratis (ah, socialism! ;-p). They do this because the Telcos refuse to do home connections or they ask impossible prices. Possibly, they don't even have fixed phones at the houses.
Years ago, someone from Russia commented in this mail list that they had an Ethernet connection network spanning entire blocks on the city. A big intranet, free. For connection to Internet they needed to pay and connect to a dedicated gateway in that LAN.
First off, WiFi isn't known for long distances. It doesn't take much to block it. In fact a friend of mine can't get a signal from one room to the next, because of the wall construction. Reinforced concrete tends to block the signal. Also, in many areas, only utilities are allowed to cross properly lines, roads etc.
"property" I guess ;-)
What may be possible from a strictly technical perspective, might not be from a practical or legal one.
I know.
As I mentioned, I live in a condo. There are 48 units in my building. That means there will be a lot of people sharing the signal. Depending on location, some may get better signal than others. Also, I'm on one ISP, my next door neighbour might be on another, the next on yet another. Whose ISP do we go with?
One ISP for the building, that's all, with a commercial contract, not a home contract. Similar to what an hotel does. Some engineer would have to do the planning and setup several APs in the common corridors, with proper frequency and pattern distribution (single SSID). More work for us chaps ;-)
BTW, I had a bit of an interesting encounter this morning. One of my neighbours said someone had been putting notices on people's door, telling them to turn off their WiFi, for whatever wacko reason.
:-o (maybe blaming wifi for the virus?)
I then used a cell phone app to show her all the WiFi signals I could receive, while standing in front of the building. There were dozens. I also mentioned there were some point to point WiFi links connecting the buildings, for the security cameras.
Of course. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.1 x86_64 at Telcontar)