The internet seems so easy to get; just plug your computer into your router and off you go. But how do you create your own internet, or even take the place of your ISP and own your own internet connection?
Let's explore where the internet comes from, and how to make your own internet.
Where Does Internet Come From?
You may see red every time you imagine your ISP sitting back in its chair, watching your monthly payments roll in as it apparently does nothing. However, there is a lot of work that goes into delivering the internet to you.
Connecting to Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
First of all, there's the infrastructure. Your internet connection doesn't go straight out into the internet; it has to arrive at your ISP first. After all, ISP means "Internet Service Provider;" you're not getting internet until you connect to them!
To do this, you need to be connected to your ISP in some way. A wired connection is the most common method. This is where a cable transfers data from your router all the way to your ISP.
If you have fiber, it's likely that you have a copper cable that runs from your home to a roadside cabinet or pole on the curb. Once it reaches this point, it uses fiber the rest of the way to your ISP.
However, some lucky people can get a connection directly to their home. This means they have fiber from their house all the way to the ISP, which is a lot faster than a fiber/copper mix.
These technologies are called "Fiber to the Curb" (FttC) and "Fiber to the Premises" (FttP) respectively. If you use the latter to run a connection all the way to your house, it's usually called "Fiber to the Home" (FttH) instead.
You can read more about these methods in our article about the difference between FttC and FttP.
Getting an IP Address
Now that you have a connection between you and your ISP, you need an IP address. Your ISP assigns this, which gives the servers you connect to a way to contact you back.
When you get an IP address, your ISP won't pull four random numbers out of a bag and give you the result as an address. Your ISP has to register with your country's IP address organization and get a block of addresses that it can distribute to its customers.
Each geographical region has its own IP organization. For North America, your ISP needs to talk to ARIN to get its addresses. Europe has RIPE NNC, and Asia has APNIC.
Sending You Where You Want to Go
Now that you have a connection to your ISP and an address, it's time to go out into the world. Your ISP will help identify where your connection wants to go and sends it off to its destination.
To do this, your ISP provides you with a Domain Name System (DNS) server. This translates the URL of a website into an IP address, which the servers can then use to direct your request to where it needs to go.
We covered more about this technology on what a DNS server is, and why they become unavailable.
As you can see, there's a lot your ISP does to help get you online. However, if you really wanted to, can you make your own internet?
How to Make Your Own Internet
Let's say you wake up one day, and decide that you've had enough; you want to make your own internet connection. You don't want to pay your ISP anymore, and you want to do all the technical stuff yourself.
To do this, you'll need a server that can take your connection and direct it to the internet. You could buy all the hardware yourself, or hire someone else's server instead.
Then, you need to apply to your country's ISP organization to get an IP address. Unfortunately, you can't just ask for the one; you'll need to buy a bunch of them.
Once that's done, you need to connect your server to your home, so you can get on the internet. You can do this by laying down your own fiber cables (very costly!) or hiring another company's infrastructure.
At this point, it's likely you've already spent into five figures, perhaps with some costly rental fees too. You'll likely go heavily into debt unless you start offering your service to other people, too.
After all, you have that big batch of IP addresses; you can get customers on-board to pay you monthly to use your service. That will hopefully offset the costs and help you earn back your sunk costs.
There's just one problem; you've become the very thing you swore to destroy! You're now officially an ISP, taking on customers to help cover your costs.
You've finally managed to get rid of those annoying internet bills, but now you're managing an entire business instead. Probably best to pay an ISP to do all that hard work for you!
Orcas Island, an Example of a Community ISP
While it's not a grand idea to make your own ISP just for yourself, there are examples of people banding together to make an ISP for their local community. This is the closest example of someone setting up an internet connection for their own use.
Ars Technica covered the story of fifty people on Orcas Island. They had internet via an ISP, but because they were on a rural island, the connection would be spotty.
The residents of Orcas Island took matters into their own hands. They noticed that a microwave broadband tower sat on a shore 10 miles away, owned by StarTouch Broadband Services. All the residents had to do was attach themselves to that network.
They spent $11,000 to get permission to use the microwave tower, then constructed their own using a water tower as the base.
The signals would then be sent to trees near people's houses, which was wired into their home. Orcas Island residents eventually had a stable 30Mbps download---not bad for a remote island!
So in a way, you can make your own internet; however, you'll need a big community push to fund and set it up, instead of trying to find ways to shave money off of your monthly bills.
How to Create an Internet
While the above information is relevant for people who want to create their own internet connection, it doesn't answer the question some people have on how to generate your own internet.
If you are wondering how to do this, it's likely that you want to achieve one of two goals; either you want to make a website that other people can visit, or you want to make a "small internet" for your home.
Making a Website on the Internet
If you want to make a website, you're not really creating a new internet to do this. What you are doing is making a web page that lives on the internet. It's like going into a real estate agent and asking for a Planet Earth when all you really want is a house of your own!
Fortunately, making a website is a lot easier than making an entire internet. Be sure to check out our guide on how to make a website for more details.
If coding isn't your thing, you can use a website maker to build your internet presence. Just take a look at our ultimate guide to setting up a blog with Wordpress and save yourself the hassle.
Making a "Local Internet" for Your Home
If you want to set up your home computers so they all connect to each other in a "local internet," this is possible.
However, we need to move away from the term "internet" here. Typically, you use the internet to connect to devices outside of your home; here, you're trying to contact devices nearby.
There is a term for this kind of "internet:" a Local Area Network (LAN). The "Local Area" part of the name is the key here; we're only connecting to devices that we could physically walk to.
If you'd like to learn more, check out our article on how to play LAN games on your Wi-Fi network.
Taking Control From Your ISP
While it is very possible to make your own internet connection, it's very expensive and only worth the effort if you want to become an ISP yourself. As such, it's best to only make your own internet if you're planning on bringing an entire community on board with you.
If you still want to reclaim some control from your ISP, don't worry. There are plenty of reasons why you should replace your ISP's router with something of your choosing.