crazy idea...

 

Imagine 3 houses next to each other. say the each have a wireless router connected to a different ISP, and each house has 2 computers with wifi cards. house B is in range of houses A and C, which are both out of range of each other.

 

would it be possible/advantageous (i'm talking theory, not current tech) to set the three networks up to co-operate, and form a small 'internetwork'?

 

So, for example, if house A is d/ling something and maxing out their connection, and house B is currently not using their connection, house B's router could supply one of the computers in house A with internet connection, whilst the other computer in house A could use house A's router?

 

If house A want's to IM with house C, it could be bounced off of the router, or an idle PC (using it's wifi card) in house B, rather than going through the internet?

 

If house B's internet went down, it could leech the spare bandwidth in house's A and C?

 

maybe even (not sure wether the same information would follow different paths if sent simultaniously from house A and B, as they're on different ISPs or wether they'd still go through the same servers initially) if you're trying to establish a secure connection from house A to somewhere, you could send one half of a secret word out through the internet, and ask house B's router to send the other half out, thus avoiding a 'man in the middle' attack in one of the first servers your connection goes through?

 

in certain cities, i'd wager you could set up a huge internetwork spanning alot of the city like this. it'd be slow, but maybe useful on a local level? also, you wouldn't have to pay to access the local wireless internetwork, so could probably email someone a couple of blocks away whilst disconnected from the internet.

 

tho there'd obviously be security conserns.

 

so, yeah. feasable?

I think if you owned a larger switch (i.e. a Cisco switch designed for a datacenter), it can use BGP to decide the best connection to use.

Sounds like you're describing mesh wireless

 

And yes, it's the FUTURE OF WIRELESS! Yay

more-or-less.

 

a couple 'see also's away:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_community_network

 

you could probably get a meaty one going in a student hall...