Ask HN: What alternatives to the internet are there?

[Y_Y]

The internet is nice, don't get me wrong, but suppose you couldn't use it for whatever reason, what remains? Of course any network could be bridged to the internet, but I'm talking about something that could function independently, for example; the telegraph network, sneakernet, siprnet (maybe?).

What I'm thinking of is something like a global mesh or LoRa devices with enough caching to ensure delivery or something crazier that communicates via power lines or visible light or something, but doesn't depend on Tier-1 ISPs and telecom fiber and BGP etc.

[Karrot_Kream]

You can use NNCP http://nncpgo.org/ over the internet or over any shared filesystem or serial link. It supports store-and-forward semantics by default like DTN. I use it frequently to grab (purposefully low quality) Youtube videos on flights, but have also used it to write to airgapped machines at home before (e.g. before they had internet access.)

[mac3n]

look at DTN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-tolerant_networking

message-oriented network that doesn't assume end-to-end connectivity motivated by Interplanetary Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet

for example, wait for planetary alignment, then transmit also, messaging via "data mules"

[mattl]

Fidonet -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet

[CableNinja]

Theres Internet over HAM, idk its usefulness though

[mac3n]

used to be usenet/uucp