This question is more a garage based question, and not something an IT Pro is asking (man you guys aren't even allowed to be high-tech anymore), but I don't know where else to ask...
I remember being about 2 or 3 years old when I went with my dad to watch a presentation of a speaker from national captial freenet (well if my memory goes back that far that's where he was from) at my local library. He was explain how the library terminals were just that, terminals, or I guess now a days Remote Desktops.
He also went on to talk about the internet and how this technology was going to change the world (and it has). The best part he said, was that the internet was free for anyone with access to a computer to use. I have seen about 2 or 3 other videos online and on T.V. of people saying the exact same thing about the best part of the internet "The best part about the internet is that it is free for anyone with access to a computer to use".
Let's not dick around here. When they say this they are not talking about this new "Net Neutrality" B.S. that just needs to be forgotten. The price itself is free for with anyone with access to a computer to use. How? because if you can access a computer that means you have power to the machine, which means your are connected to the power grid, which is connected globally to every other device with power. And lets be honest here the aluminumfiber cables the power lines use are some beastly cables with a hell of a lot of juice pumping through them.
So why do you pay an ISP for your internet access then? Because they set it up correctly for you. So why isn't this information easily available? Because some people are greedy, and as soon as they figure out that they can re-sell their free connection to other people, they do. Like what if I told you you could be the next Bill Gates because you could take a free Open Source Operating system that is still under constant development and Re-Sell it under a new name with re-arranged features and limitations. Well thank god those people haven't figured that one out...
Honestly, I'm O.K. paying my ISP $100 a month for internet access even though my ridiculously overpriced power bill is $80. However when I was 16 years old I decided I was going to perform the menial task of sending an e-mail myself, without the help of Hotmail, g-mail, my ISPs e-mail, or anyone else. Turns out I couldn't because of the limitations in place by ISPs, not necessarily my ISP in particular.
This lead into a deep spiral down the rabbit hole of how to do something as simple as send an e-mail could be achieved by my one sole machine. I learned a lot and got pretty far, even far enough to earn a B.S. degree in Computer Science which won't teach you a god damn thing about any of this, so I have no idea how anyone learns this.
Most recently my best guess as being a free and independent entity on the network or internet (Autonomous), was to have my machine become a Gateway.
This isn't friggen easy. You need 2 machines for DCs 2-3 for CAs, 1 for website and e-mail, multiple cross site machines for gateways etc. etc. etc.
Well that's how the current implementation is documented anyways, but you don't.
All of those things used to be able to run of a single shit box 386, and now I have a single shit box 2.93GHz dual core. Yeah that's GHz not the MHz we used to count with.
I am now 25 years of age, and have spent every week over the past 9 years searching for the answers, and I come soooo close, but never succeed.
I give up.
Someone just tell me how do I use the "best part about the internet" so that I can live my life as freely as possible without the limitations imposed on me by paying for it.
Thank you!