Citywide LAN party? Sounds cool as hell.

Citizens making an open source intranet solution for everyone. THAT is innovation.

This is what true gaming journalism looks like, not sitting in an office 95 percent of the time typing press releases and talking to PR people. Journalism is going out into the world and connecting with people and telling everyone about those connections, and you have done that splendidly.

I am proud to be one of the creators of snet

Imagine getting in a argument with someone in Cuba online and saying “I know where u live” and then walking a few blocks to their house

Jesus - Connecting People...

I'm Cuban (from a different city) and this is all true. I used to play WoW with homemade antenas and usb-wifi. It was really a great thing, because since the community on the servers is so small, you can actually get to meet them in person and have a lot of fun. So it had the benefits of gaming without all the social struggles it can bring. We also had a social-network called "the social" with no more than 100 active users, where, once again, you felt more safe and warm than when you use facebook.

The only Private Server Blizzard wouldnt be able to take offline xD

"Downloading one game here, 1 GB..." *Dramatic hand gesture* "... Long time." As someone who grew up with shitty dial up from the mid '90s, I completely felt his pain.

Somebody ship these guys a HDD full of games!

Next: North Korea Underground gaming community Hardcore independent journalism

17:00 -Translator: "Somebody travels to anoter country, they buy games.." - Cuban: "a lot of them (games) are pirated" a good translation there

"The alcohol in a paper bag of connectivity." Brilliant as always, guys.

"It's not really a felony. Per se."

As a Cuban that came to America years ago I am happy to see how Cuban s are very smart and work around real word issues thank you for spotlighting my Beautiful country And the amazing people that live there

I was born in Cuba and I've been going pretty regularly. Last time I went was 3 months ago after a 5 year hiatus. I was so impressed by the networks my cousins and their friends had setup in our small town , Just so they could play Call of Duty and DOTA. Thanks for making this.

Foreigner: I can't access to internet Cuban: Call Jesus for help Foreigner: Wait...What?!

This is truly incredible. It really shows how us in the US so easily take our access to something as ubiquitous as the internet for granted. Power to our Cuban gaming brethren!

16:36 He says "Remember when they got caught selling a gun?" Kinda glad they didnt translate that lol

Damn, is there any way to help or donate to SNET? I've got a Diploma in Network Admin, and 14 years in IT, I'd love to help these guys. Thats a beautiful thing they're doing.

in russian in late 90-early 2000 almost every little town had some sort of local nets like this

This video really shows the importance of LAN capable games and being able to host your own servers. Not everyone in this world is privileged to be connected 24/7 to someones 'cloud'. I hope game developers will someday come back to the good old times of LAN games!

The BorgChat is a chat made in Romania. Nice to see a Romanian software running in Cuba. Last update for the software is from 2013 :)

It reminds me so much on the days in East Germany before the wall fell. I remember the village priest traveling to West Germany buying two satellite receiver and antennas with the money collected from a small neighborhood. The electricians in the neighborhood built the main station and the signal distributors, the welders built the tower and the rest helped digging trenches for the cables. We connected about 150 houses with West German TV. For those who don't know, yes that was perfectly legal in East Germany after around 1988. Great collective work, people helped each other because they had to. The wall fell, capitalism arrived and by about 1992 many of the neighbors got into fights and arguments. Some neighbors did well after the wall fell, some did ok, some had a hard time. Jealousy took over and the spirit of helping each other died quickly. If you needed something you could just go and buy it, rather than asking a friend or neighbor.

This reminds me of the late 90s/very early 00s, when having access to something like cable or ADSL(with a flat rate!) was almost magical.

Man, playing with your neighborhood friends on a local network where new games are shared by one device to many devices in copies is just a beautiful nostalgia. There is no better gaming experience than playing with your homies.

only 27ms from node to client? wow ok, I thought it would be slower.. that is faster than our connections 20 years ago..and this is everything "self-made" ! I'm impressed :)

Jesus in 30 AC : "Drink this wine, for this is my blood, and eat this bread, for this is my body" Jesus in the 21st century : "Come to my place, for this is my WiFi tower, and join this game, for this is my LAN party"

Jesus is a genius. MIT should give him a free scholarship!

16:30 "te acuerdas cuando estaban vendiendo una pistola?" xD

Probably still faster than Comcast + AT&T

This is amazing on so many levels as an I.T. person.

This is pretty incredible. As a non-gamer web developer, I can see these networks being used for things closer to the "craigslist" clone, for markets, community decisions, meetings, etc.

As an IT guy my self I am really impress my heart felt numb

I LOVE homegrown stuff like this. Just community cooperating and putting the work in so they can hang out and so stuff together.

No matter what, people will find a way. I'm happy, as a part Cuban, that my people are this resourceful.

We have it good in the US ... I don't want to hear shit the next time you cant get a signal in some space or your own house. These guys are innovative, and could have been making money but they are working together to grow. Cheers guys this made my day.

Legendas em português! Subtítulos en español!

I loved this one, i want to go to Cuba, their sense of community is incredible.

This history almost made me cry... is amazing seeing how people help each other even for a “simple thing” as gaming, I’m stunned!

Honestly, this is without a doubt one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

It's a shame they are in a position to have to do that but it should be a huge source of Cuban pride that they have become so self sufficient. Whether connecting to each other on computers or building a vehicle out of an old run down washing machine they'll find a way. Imagine what they could accomplish without all the restrictions. But then again limitations breed creativity.

This was awesome. Before they had widespread local networks like this, there used to be "publishers" of a weekly or monthly USB HDD that would be passed around the town (duplicated along the way), loaded with all sorts of good stuff from the outside world. Movies, TV shows, games, news, books - all kinds of media! The principle behind the internet can truly find its way into any society.

This is amazing. I'd really love to learn more about the technical side of this. These Cubans are building stuff I always dreamed about. Decentralised mesh networks over metropolitan areas. In theory, impossible to control or shutdown so long as you can keep physically building more nodes.

I am Cuban, born in the US. Finally went to Cuba for the first time and documented the whole thing. It was SURREAL. Glad you liked the country of my people. If anyone wants to know more about visiting Cuba, feel free to ask me questions! (:

I really like when you cover the gaming cultures of different countries. It is a really unique and refreshing content from the usual 'let's play' and 'review videos' that inundates KZfaq. I can tell the hard work you put into your videos, as they are really high quality and looked like they could easily be part of a televised show.

This is the best Cloth Map video yet. Genuinely fascinating stuff, and beautiful country.

If the network isn't connected to the internet I guess that would mean they are running some kind of World of Warcraft private server?

they gain the knowledge of computer networking because of computer games. that's how i thought myself about computer..because of games.. thanks dad for our first windows95 pc that you bought for us..it is the greatest gift that i have in my life. :)

This guy was going to cry because of this: 12:55 This situation really makes me want to cry too!

This was fascinating. Also, the irony of calling this an 'underground' network made me chuckle

Man, this actually made my eyes water up. People could do really beautiful things when we come together. We seriously need to know who the admins are cause I'm down to send them some networking stuff.

I love how they say "cheating"

I'd say this is your most interesting video yet, Drew. So fascinating to see what the internet is in other countries, and what we take for granted. I look the resourcefulness of starting your own internet, and being a non profit, for games service with the local community around you.

Funny thing is, the 4G Etecsa network in Havana has a higher average bandwidth than the 4G network in Germany. Unfortunately, it's expensive as hell.

I was born in Cuba and I'm so so happy to see what you guys have created! I'd love to play dota 2 over there

the saying "life finds a way" really is true

That´s an incredible Journalistic work. Amazing how they created their own network.

Incredible! These videos just keep getting better and better.

16:30 "you can buy anything in this page, a car... te das cuenta de que estan vendiendo una pistola?" traduction: "u know theyre selling a gun?"

Man, I love your work! I only wish you the best! Hugs from Brazil.

Awesome work, Drew and Joey!

These guys really deserve a lot of respect, making the best of a bad situation. Doing what they can for a better tomorow. This makes you really appreciate freedom of speech!

Great content. Hopefully these guys don't get in any trouble. I bicycle toured for a couple weeks in Cuba back in January and it was a wonderful country, the people were fantastic.

this video bring me back to when i was on that network, thank so much bro for this video...

This is community spirit. All those issue you see around the world can be solved a lot if a community get together and help each other achieve a goal (grow food, farms, security, buildings, sports, just about anything). Unfortunately we live in world where social media keeps us close digitally as long as we stay away from each other physically.

Awesome Video, awesome project. This remainds me of the late 90's... We had very often a 150 person LAN running, and it was fun as hell. These guys are living my past, and somehow i really felt like beeing again a teenager while watching this :D

Well that was interesting. Almost looks cyberpunky, buncha internet cables and radio towers poking out amidst palm trees and old Havana cars and streetlights, DIY weird hub/DSL/cable hybrid internet and networking

10:10 The legend of zelda breath of the wild on the PC. Is he running dolphin? edit: Zelda at 14:24 Nice to see our cuban brothers getting their game on. :)

Would be nice to know how they run the DHCP/DNS for 20,000 connections off what looks like some really old kit. You feel the sudden need to ship them a ton of ex-corporate networking gear which might be getting long in the tooth here but would be a 10fold upgrade on what they have going.

Thats insane... Citizen powered mesh network

I fondly remember the good old times with LAN and Warez, in Scandinavia. This is amazing!

Cubans are resourceful people... Honestly I have them pegged as a hotspot of invention.

This was a great documentary. Thanks for showing how people's enginuity and necessity for communication and technology has made it possible for the people of Havana to have access.

It's a beautiful thing they are putting together for gamers. Cuban peoples' technical mastery over what limited resources they can scrounge together is always amazing.

This is really impressive, the lengths to which these people go, just to be able to connect with each other and enjoy their passion for gaming is really something else. Shows just how resourceful and united gamers can be, even in the most restrictive environments.

This is so underrated, really great quality content!

Drew, this was fascinating, keep up the great work!

This is incredibly resourceful and fascinating. Thanks, Drew!

Fantastic Documentary Drew, the homemade internet section was fascinating.

Hope to see Cuba one day. Be cool to see this for myself.

Ah... Reminds me of early 2000's when me and my friends were having LAN parties. It was always pain in the ass to get things working for everyone.

OK! I'll stop to complain about internet in Brazil and Australia. GREAT WORK DREW!!!

Their whole internet situation is fascinating. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Buen video,uno de los mejores q eh visto sobre nuestra red ,saludos de parte de un integrante de Snet !

Such great work guys! Can't wait for the next ones :)

I cannot even imagine what a Broadcast storm on that Network will be lol

so basically they started with LAN parties , OG's :)

like first 5 seconds immediately got a good designed vibe

Great job guys! This was very interesting!

Dude has a rig that can run ARMA 3? I am hella impressed.

At 16:37, Roberto says "Te acuerdas cuando estaban vendiendo una pistola (...)" this translates to "do you remember when they were sealing a pistol? What a fucking nice video man, kinda wish i could go to Cuba and leave a pen drive with 500 gbs worth of games. like baldurs gate, mass effect 1 and such.

No profit gaming. I love that.

Another fascinating video! Thanks Drew!

I love my country Cuba thanks for this documentary asere i really like it

Wow Drew, this was maybe the most interesting one yet!

Amazing video, Drew, I loved it!

This is really outstanding stuff. To have such love for your community is something really special is rare. Making me even more proud to be half Cuban.

Cuba is a fantastic country. If anyone here ever gets the chance to visit, don't hesitate!

i love how roberto refers to trolling/griefing/etc. on the snet server as "shitting." some concepts are universal, i guess