About the network
Gravois Bend covers about 26 blocks of St. Louis’s northeast side, mostly bungalows and two-flats. The network was built by a block club after the incumbent provider declined, again, to upgrade the area’s copper lines.
Schematic
Hover over or tap a node for its details, and click or tap again to open it. With a keyboard, move to the schematic and use the arrow keys.
Uptime
99.96% uptime over the last 90 days, with 1 day of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- Gravois Bend Community Net
- Legal home
- Tenants’ association, incorporated as a nonprofit
- Members
- 1,081 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- Last Monday of each month, 7:30 pm, at the housing cooperative’s lobby
- Annual assembly
- Every March
- Maintenance fund
- $10 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Víctor I.Network steward · since 2017
- Alicia P.Treasurer · since 2025
- Raymond S.Membership steward · since 2021
- Monique H.Training steward · since 2019
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-26-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | St. Louis internet exchange | 18% |
Maintenance log
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Storm damage. High winds knocked several dishes out of alignment. Stewards realigned them once it was safe to go up.
Cable to N-1030 replaced; squirrels again.
Climbing safety refresher: 22 installers recertified.
Heat wave: 4 rooftop nodes throttled; all recovered overnight.
Annual assembly: 115 members attended and elected three stewards.
Tree trimming along two backbone paths, with the city’s parks crew.
Hardware refresh: 19 nodes upgraded to Stoop R6 over the year.
Battery modules replaced at 2 hubs ahead of winter.
Annual assembly: 59 members attended and elected two stewards.
N-1038 replaced under warranty after its radio stopped associating.
Ice storm: 5 nodes offline until power was restored.
Power injector for N-1534 replaced after a surge.
N-1527 replaced under warranty after its radio stopped associating.
Expansion: three new nodes in 2022, mostly in grids C2, C3 and H3.
Hardware refresh: 15 nodes upgraded to Stoop R5 over the year.
New hub on the fire station roof, under a city agreement: N-2091.
Firmware 4.0 rolled out to every node.
Hardware refresh: 13 nodes upgraded to Stoop R4 over the year.
New hub on the public housing tower roof, under a housing authority agreement: N-1576.
Network switched on: 24 nodes installed by 156 volunteers over a weekend.
Founding assembly: the Gravois Bend Community Net adopts its charter and elects four stewards.