Connect the next house

Nobody installs anything to use this network. A house joins by getting this Wi-Fi signal, and passes it on with one device in a window.

1. Can they already see this Wi-Fi?

Stand in their house with a phone. If this network shows up in the Wi-Fi list, they join it and they're done. Move the router to the window that faces them first; that alone often reaches the houses on either side.

2. If not, put one relay device in their window

Use the first one they own. It goes in the window that faces the house they're getting signal from, plugged into power.

Wi-Fi extender (best)

Reset it, plug it in, and use its setup button or setup page to join this network. Everyone in the house connects to the extender.

Windows laptop

Join this Wi-Fi. Then Settings → Network & internet → Mobile hotspot → On, sharing "Wi-Fi". Set the laptop to never sleep. The house connects to the laptop's hotspot name.

Android phone

Join this Wi-Fi, then turn on Hotspot. If Wi-Fi stays connected while the hotspot is on, it works; leave it on a charger. Not every phone can do both at once.

A spare router with a "repeater" or "bridge" mode

Set that mode in its admin page and point it at this network.

3. To cover their whole house, feed their own router

Run a short network cable from the relay device (an extender or laptop with a network port) into the port marked Internet or WAN on their own router. Their usual Wi-Fi now carries the town network for everyone in the house. Their router keeps the town network outside, the way it keeps the internet outside. Anything they have opened to the internet on that router, such as port forwarding, a DMZ, UPnP or remote access, is open to the town network too: switch those off first.

For the house after them, use the router's guest network. Switch it on in the router's admin page and share that name and password, never the home Wi-Fi password. In the guest settings, leave access to the local network (some routers call it the intranet) switched off, so a guest reaches the town page and nothing in the house.

Check before sharing it. Join the guest network with a phone. The town page should open. The router's own admin page should not, and the phone should not find the home's printer, TV or other devices. If any of those shows up, or the router has no guest network, don't share this router: the next house joins the relay's own signal instead.

If the relay is a laptop, it has to share its Wi-Fi out of that port. Windows: open the Wi-Fi adapter's properties, Sharing tab, allow sharing and choose the Ethernet adapter. Mac: Sharing settings, Internet Sharing, from Wi-Fi to Ethernet. This is a different switch from Mobile hotspot.

If pages don't load, their router is probably using the same number range as the one feeding it. In their router's admin page (login is on the sticker), change the router's own address to something different, like 192.168.57.1.

4. Check it

A phone in their house should pop this page by itself. If it doesn't, type http://10.77.0.2 into the browser. On an iPhone, if it complains about no internet, choose "Use Without Internet".

Start a second hub where the signal can't reach

Across a wide street or an empty lot, someone runs their own copy of this program. That makes a second net, and phones carry the news between the two: see Other nets.

The program files aren't on this hub. Copy the whole kit folder from the operator's USB stick instead.