How can a group of volunteers build at least the tech for a replacement for the internet?

I was hoping that each individual user could run and maintain a piece of the infrastructure in a decentralized grassroots way.

How can users build a community owned and maintained replacement for the internet?

I hope that we can have our own servers and mesh/line/tower infrastructure and like wikipedia/internet-archive type organization and user donations based funding.

How could this be realized?

Can this be done with a custom made router that has a stronger wifi that can mesh with other’s of it’s kind? like a city wide mesh? or what are ways to do this?

Edit: this is not meant as a second dark web but more like geocities or the old internet with usermade websites

  • qyron
    16·
    1 day ago

    Every single time I stumble upon topics like this i can only remember: ZeroNet

    You hosted your own piece of the internet on your machine.

    If the target is to just bypass the regular ISPs, that is an entirely different task. The closest I could think about would be creating wide LAN networks, capable of interconnecting with each other, in parallel.

    But I risk you’d quickly step on some communications regulation. Laying out cables requires permits. Wireless signals occupy signal bands.

    • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
      7·
      1 day ago

      Big mesh networks are ‘easy’ but I think the reality is most people don’t want to be responsible for it. They want to use utilities not run them.

      Another aspect is that different people will have significantly different burdens, if you live in a dense apartment building, it can be easy to wrap up the infra for the building into an HOA or other collective, but people in suburbs or less dense areas will need huge long range antennas and underground cables that have a disproportionate cost.

      I think more than a community run physical internet layer, we need neutralized, municipal internet as a utility.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
      1·
      22 hours ago

      The closest I could think about would be creating wide LAN networks, capable of interconnecting with each other, in parallel.

      Something like this was being pushed around in Wisconsin a decade ago but I forget what it was called. I only remember this guy talking about a little router-like device and said he had installed several all over the city for an alternative to the mainstream internet. But take this with a grain of salt as I don’t remember details.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      2·
      1 day ago

      Wireless links can be done on certain parts of the spectrum without a license. Just need clear line of sight.

      It’s a knowledge issue. Network admin skills aren’t easy, and good network admins make a lot for a reason. Coordinating to build even a regional network is difficult, much less crossing a continent or a planet. It’s harder than you think, even if you already think it’s hard.