Suppose each John Doe has some home antenna that transmits and sends packets into the airwaves, which each other John Does receive and retransmit. I'm wondering if its technically feasible to have a scalable network of such nodes. Feasibility means not only the possibility of implementing standard protocols inside such a network, but also the security drawbacks

In principle such a network would be highly insecure, because theres nothing stopping others to sniff all your incoming and outgoing packets, but suppose you could use a encoder signal by safer means between neighbouring nodes (like a light pulse, or a traditional wire), then you could regain some robustness on the security

I'm trying to get to the technical aspects of this idea, so lets please put aside (at least momentarily) the political aspects of the problem, including the fact that the hertzian bandwidth is controlled by the States.

"including the fact that the hertzian bandwidth is controlled by the States."

I'm going to ignore that trolling remark.

If you are asking is it possible to have an offline network that is connected to the internet at various different locations, then is is already being done and has always been done.

The most common form is company intranets. Others that have been existence in the past include FidoNet and UUNet.

So, it's not that it's a bad idea, it's just more expensive in most cases.

I don't get what u mean with trolling, in all countries usage of the hertzian bandwidth is restricted by the State, which gives permission 'to whom may see fit' to use them.

Im not sure how each implementation is 'expensive' relative to others. For example, to a small town in alaska for which a satellital connection may be too expensive, a small radio-driven network may make a lot more economical sense.

ah look what i found:

http://wiki.personaltelco.net/index....56d5f400cca0af
http://www.wirelessanarchy.com/#CommunityGroups
http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~mesh/


this is exactly what i was wondering about. So this exists, very very cool