Two roofs, one measured link, one donated service box.
MESH COMMONS · EL SEGUNDO · 2026–2028
Make a network before you make an ISP.
The least-expensive honest mesh is not a 25-mile blanket. It is three consented rooftops, three directional paths, one donated service computer, and local things people want to use when the upstream internet is gone.
Planning horizon, not promised coverage. No active physical mesh yet.
25mile horizon
24months
$295first-link floor
3roofs make a mesh
Internet transit is optional, separate, best-effort, and only shared with provider permission.
A radius made of paths
Touch the horizon one visible roof at a time.
The marks below are candidate directions, not approved sites or radio predictions. Every line begins with permission, a safe panorama, a spectrum check, and Fresnel clearance.
EL SEGUNDOMANHATTAN BEACHWESTCHESTERPACIFIC25-MILE PLANNING RADIUS / NOT TO SCALE / LOS UNVERIFIED
Cash floor / donated labor
Buy nothing until two roofs can see each other.
NYC Mesh’s current average equipment cost is about $240 per install. Our first-link floor lands in the same territory by using two $65-class outdoor radios, donated compute, and a small allowance for cable, protection, and mounting.
Three to five roofs, three paths, a spare, and five local services.
Two small clusters with volunteer support and no paid tower lease.
Hardware floor for 12–20 roofs and four to six useful hubs.
- 01Directional 5 GHz radios$130
2 × Ubiquiti LiteBeam 5AC or MikroTik SXTsq 5 ac
Current manufacturer pricing begins around $65 each. Use US-certified hardware and settings. - 02Outdoor cable and weatherproofing$50
Shielded outdoor Ethernet, boots, drip loops
Planning allowance; exact length depends on the legal cable path. - 03Surge protection and grounding$50
Site-appropriate protectors and bonding materials
Planning allowance only; a qualified installer determines the safe method. - 04Small router$40
MikroTik hEX lite or donated OpenWrt-capable router
The manufacturer lists hEX lite at $39.95. - 05Mounting contingency$25
Reuse an approved mast or pay for light mounting hardware
Never improvise an unsafe roof attachment. - 06Local service computerDONATED
Donated mini PC or laptop running Linux
The mesh should begin with donated compute and a replaceable SSD backup.
Cash floor excludes professional roof/electrical/grounding work, structural engineering, permits, insurance, tower rent, unusual mounts, and internet backhaul.
Two-year build clock
Each phase has a stop condition.
No equipment count is success by itself. A phase closes only when neighbors can operate, repair, and explain what they built.
- 01Months 0–3
$0–$200
Find the triangle
25 interested hosts · 10 safe panoramas · 3 candidate rooftops- Publish a join form that asks for neighborhood, roof or balcony access, a panorama, and permission status—not a public street address.
- Score line of sight before buying radios. Reuse NYC Mesh’s potential-node → panorama → viability → install rhythm.
- Run the local service cabinet on one donated computer over an ordinary room Wi-Fi network.
EXIT WHEN: Three consented sites can see one another well enough to justify a field test.
- 02Months 4–6
$295–$395
Prove one link
2 roofs · 1 measured directional link · 3 local services- Bench-configure and label every device before roof work.
- Install one short, clear, legal path; record signal, throughput, uptime, channel, and a rollback photo.
- Serve hello.mesh, map.mesh, and play.mesh locally, then unplug the upstream internet and prove they still work.
EXIT WHEN: The link survives a two-hour local-only drill and both hosts can restore it from the runbook.
- 03Months 7–12
$950–$1,500 total
Close the loop
3–5 roofs · 3 independent paths · 10–25 people · 5 services- Add the third site and route with OSPF so the first cluster has a second path.
- Hold one open install clinic each month and publish every configuration with secrets removed.
- Start a spare shelf: one radio, one injector, cable, boots, labels, and a printed recovery card.
EXIT WHEN: One failed radio no longer takes the mature cluster offline.
- 04Months 13–18
$3,000–$5,000 year-one floor
Make two clusters
6–10 roofs · 2 neighborhood hubs · 8 local services- Extend only toward verified panoramas in the South Bay and Westside.
- Use narrow directional links for backbone paths and sectors only where several visible clients justify them.
- Add a second DNS and service replica; collect link health, never browsing history or message content.
EXIT WHEN: Each cluster remains useful by itself and reconnects automatically when its inter-cluster path returns.
- 05Months 19–24
$9,500–$15,000 two-year hardware floor
Touch the horizon
12–20 roofs · 4–6 hubs · 50+ neighbors · 12 services- Attempt one 15–25 mile engineered proof link only if rooftop height, Fresnel clearance, spectrum survey, and permissions support it.
- Keep optional internet gateways separate from the commons; confirm the upstream provider permits sharing.
- Publish an annual hardware ledger, outage review, coverage gaps, and the next two neighborhood-led chapters.
EXIT WHEN: The network passes a half-day upstream-outage festival with games, radio, library, bulletin, map, and status all reachable locally.
Useful during an outage
The internet can leave. The neighborhood stays.
hello.meshFront porch
Start page, rules, status, and a printable how-to-join card.
map.meshLiving map
Opt-in nodes, link health, outages, and no public home addresses.
play.meshLocal arcade
Chess, word games, scoreboards, and tiny multiplayer rooms that stay on the LAN.
bbs.meshBlock board
Events, offers, needs, lost-and-found, and neighborhood notes.
radio.meshMesh radio
Live community audio, archives, and scheduled listening rooms—not an emergency channel.
library.meshLocal library
Zines, oral histories, maps, manuals, and public-domain media.
drop.meshFile bench
Temporary local file exchange with quotas, expiry, and clear moderation.
garden.meshSmall weather
Opt-in air, wind, garden, surf, and rooftop sensor pages.
atelier.meshArt wall
Local exhibitions, collaborative drawing, music tools, and field-kit rehearsals.
Borrowed from a commons
Free to use. Free to understand. Free to extend.
NYC Mesh’s Network Commons License provides the north star. Network El Segundo adds a low-cost donation floor, property consent, local-first services, and minimal operational telemetry.
- 01
No mandatory monthly price. Suggest $5–$20 or volunteer time; nobody is denied for inability to pay.
- 02
Participants may use the network, understand it, offer services, and extend it to others under the same conditions.
- 03
Hosts choose what equipment enters their property and can revoke access with an orderly handoff.
- 04
No traffic-content logging, ad tracking, open microphones, public residential addresses, or location history.
- 05
Health metrics are limited to link state, signal, throughput, errors, uptime, and aggregate service load.
- 06
Internet access is optional and best-effort. The local commons is the product; an upstream gateway is a separately permitted service.
- 07
Certified radios, legal power levels, safe mounting, grounding, weatherproofing, and owner permission are non-negotiable.
Sources checked July 23, 2026
NYC Mesh is the pattern. El Segundo supplies the terrain.
- NYC Mesh — typical installs ↗
LiteBeam plus OmniTik nodes, nearby omni-only nodes, and two-uplink redundancy per cluster.
- NYC Mesh — new member workflow ↗
Potential install, map, panorama, line-of-sight viability, scheduling, and installation.
- NYC Mesh — internal services and DNS ↗
Local DNS, NTP, files, social services, video chat, and member-hosted tools.
- NYC Mesh — Network Commons License ↗
Freedom to use, understand, offer services, and extend the network under the same conditions.
- NYC Mesh — current rate card ↗
DIY install at $0, optional monthly donation, and best-effort service.
- Ubiquiti — 5 GHz airMAX store ↗
Current manufacturer pricing for LiteBeam and LiteAP examples.
- MikroTik — SXTsq 5 ac ↗
Outdoor 5 GHz CPE/backbone radio, suggested price, power, and included PoE parts.