Seeking technical advice on several router / wi-fi / Free-NAS / co-op ideas.

submitted by JasonCarswell from self.DIY

I have a D-Link DIR 835 router. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=D-Link+DIR+835

I've been sharing my wi-fi with my old Luddite neighbour on the top floor of my place. He can only pick it up in the front of the building.

I want to turn of the wi-fi radiation in my place again but run a long cat-5 cable out my window, and mount it up somewhere with a wireless thing there. That way he, and maybe my other neighbour(s), can use my wi-fi for free. I have no idea what that wireless thing might be, or if we'd need to waterproof and/or disguise it as a bird house or what.

I don't know how to do this, but I would like to share free wi-fi to anyone, without password - but 1) I also want to firewall it securely from my own use and stuff, 2) I'd want to monitor how much is being used, and 3) I might like to throttle it if necessary.

I've also considered building a Free-NAS router with an old computer and a few old hard drives to cache everything for less redundant traffic. I figure the Free-NAS would be far more custom configurable than the D-Link. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Free-NAS

We're supposed to be getting fiber this year. If I can get a bunch of people in my building and the apartment next door to pitch in, maybe we can all share a line or few (somehow) with our own VPN (somehow), and provide free wi-fi to the neighbourhood too (if possible). They may have to wait out contracts or whatever, but over the course of a few years I'm sure other folks might join in. With combined contributions the expense would be less than all for themselves, and eventually we might be able to set up a decent server and service with backup batteries, etc.

There's a lot of dreamy wishful thinking in here but any leads are good on technologies, softwares, tech co-ops etc.

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[–]friend 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Offering freely accessible wifi might expose you to legal concerns if someone used it to harm someone or attract legal attention to your ISP account. Something to consider.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If he's clever he will use one network for himself and put everyone else on another. Like how Comcast broadcasts customer's wifis that any other customer can connect to. But for the single original customer there's a separate network.

[–]ikidd 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Openwrt or ddwrt can allow you to create subinterfaces that you can set firewall rules against. but I don't think that router is supported by either, though you can pick up an inexpensive one that is.

[–]James_Kuhn3rd 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Everything you're wanting to do can be done. It's generally much easier with enterprise grade equipment, such as ubiquiti or microtik which are on the cheap side.

As far as the computer and FreeNas, unless that computer can run ECC ram(server grade) you might be better off turning that box into a pfSense router/firewall. FreeNas is designed for enterprise grade storage. If your looking for simple, easy storage you could much easier take that old computer and turn it into a Debian or CentOS caching server much easier than using FreeNas. You'd probably want to look into a gig our fiber NIC card, you can get used server ones pretty cheap on eBay still.

If you want to stick with your D-Link, you probably need to look into building or buying some type of waterproof box since it will be exposed to the elements, and you need to look into ddwrt or tomato.

But generally running an open Wi-Fi box isn't that hard. Most routers rented or sold by Comcast or Cox or the other ISPs broadcast a separate Wi-Fi network for their customers that anyone can connect to.

I'm pretty sure, you're ok if you run an open Wi-Fi. Of course you might get your equipment confiscated until they clear you, especially if you're doing something like running a TOR node or endpoint.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think a standard wifi router would work, but maybe you want something more powerful or something designed for outside use. You gotta nail down the constraints.

Maybe the upstairs neighbor could put the wifi in his place, then you just have one wire from your place to his, and you don't need to interact with the roof.