About the network
Furnace Hill covers about 35 blocks of Cleveland’s northeast side, mostly public housing towers and the walk-ups around them. The network was built by a mutual aid network after a school district survey found students doing homework in fast-food parking lots for the signal.
Schematic
Uptime
99.99% uptime over the last 90 days, with no days of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- Furnace Hill Mesh Cooperative
- Legal home
- Community land trust program
- Members
- 1,494 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- Third Tuesday of each month, 7:30 pm, at the recreation center
- Annual assembly
- Every February
- Maintenance fund
- $8 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Maya D.Network steward · since 2016
- Zoltan C.Treasurer · since 2021
- Azadeh T.Membership steward · since 2025
- Desmond W.Training steward · since 2017
- Juana G.Rooftops steward · since 2025
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-19-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | Cleveland internet exchange | 25% |
| LT-19-BH2 | Licensed microwave, 11 GHz | 2 Gbps | Tower site, Cleveland | 36% |
| LT-19-BH3 | Fiber, donated by the library system | 1 Gbps | Public library network | 36% |
Maintenance log
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Annual assembly: 147 members attended and elected two stewards.
High winds: 7 rooftop mounts checked and re-secured.
Battery modules replaced at 2 hubs ahead of winter.
Hardware refresh: 28 nodes upgraded to Stoop R6 over the year.
Cable to N-0677 replaced; squirrels again.
Hardware build night: 21 Stoop nodes assembled from parts.
Annual assembly: 69 members attended and elected four stewards.
Expansion: three new nodes in 2024, mostly in grids B4, G2 and G5.
Dish on N-1180 re-aimed after a neighbor’s new extension blocked the path.
Rooftop agreements reviewed; 4 renewed with new building owners.
Ice storm: 8 nodes offline until power was restored.
Radio on N-0927 replaced after water got into the enclosure.
Installer workshop: 13 residents trained and climbed their first roof.
Hardware refresh: 31 nodes upgraded to Stoop R5 over the year.
Backhaul upgraded from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps fiber.
Expansion: three new nodes in 2022, mostly in grids A2, D5 and F5.
Firmware 4.0 rolled out to every node.
Hardware refresh: 20 nodes upgraded to Stoop R4 over the year.
New hub on the parish bell tower: N-1540.
New hub on the public housing tower roof, under a housing authority agreement: N-1132.
Expansion: five new nodes in 2015, mostly in grids B4, D5 and G1.
Firmware 3.0 rolled out to every node.
Network switched on: 36 nodes installed by 145 volunteers over a weekend.
Founding assembly: the Furnace Hill Mesh Cooperative adopts its charter and elects five stewards.