About the network
Ferrywood covers about 34 blocks of Norfolk’s west side, mostly brick rowhouses. The network was built by the community garden committee after a provider’s fiber build stopped six blocks short of the neighborhood.
Schematic
Uptime
99.93% uptime over the last 90 days, with 1 day of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- Ferrywood Mesh Cooperative
- Legal home
- Nonprofit corporation with a member-elected board
- Members
- 926 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- First Tuesday of each month, 6:30 pm, at the YMCA multipurpose room
- Annual assembly
- Every January
- Maintenance fund
- $6 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Dorothy S.Network steward · since 2026
- Ibrahim Y.Treasurer · since 2026
- Esther O.Membership steward · since 2026
- Wendell R.Training steward · since 2026
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-63-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | Norfolk internet exchange | 16% |
| LT-63-BH2 | Licensed microwave, 11 GHz | 2 Gbps | Tower site, Norfolk | 22% |
Maintenance log
Power injector for N-3400 replaced after a surge.
High winds: 2 rooftop mounts checked and re-secured.
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Battery modules replaced at 6 hubs ahead of winter.
Upstream outage. The network’s transit provider had an outage of its own. The mesh itself stayed up, and local services kept working.
Expansion: 23 new nodes in 2026, mostly in grids A2, A3 and B2.
Heavy rain: water ingress found and fixed in 5 enclosures.
Installer workshop: 8 residents trained and climbed their first roof.
New hub on the former bank building roof: N-3423.
Network switched on: 23 nodes installed by 109 volunteers over a weekend.
Founding assembly: the Ferrywood Mesh Cooperative adopts its charter and elects four stewards.