And no, I'm not talking about pirating on the internet, I'm talking about getting your internet connection to the outside world without paying or having a subscription or license. Something like a mesh network with your neighbors with the exit node being one person's high-speed fiber line, or even an exit node through a free public wifi network that you've hidden a little repeater device within range of... something like that could be interesting. I've been thinking lately of a world where decentralized networks become more common, and where people can freely use the internet without paying an ISP. What are your thoughts?

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[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

First 6 months of marriage (first one, late 2010), we found an open wifi connection in our apartment complex and used that to our hearts content. This was when some people still didn't understand why securing your wifi was necessary.

[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 7 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

I miss the early days of WiFi, when routers were unsecured by default. If you lived in the city or suburbia, you were pretty much guaranteed free wifi.

Back in the 2000s I lived with my grandma for awhile, and even though she had internet, I would use the wifi from a few houses down. I only got 2 bars and was limited to 1.5Mbps, yet it was still over 5x faster than her 256Kbps DSL line.