[HacktionLab] discussion on community run communication

justsomename at tormail.org justsomename at tormail.org
Wed Jun 5 19:43:47 UTC 2013


Hi, this is only addressing part of your topics, but here's me butting in
with my experience on this.

I have been invested quite heavily in mesh networking projects, as I am
sure many people on this list have. There are also several darknets, and
several projects which are somewhere between a darknet and a mesh network
(really all darknets are a form of a mesh network, sort of...)

For up to date updates on all these projects, reddit.com/r/darknetproject
is excellent.
These guys work on a network called cjdns, and a darknet they call
hyberboria which runs on top.

There are loads of darknets out there, I have played with a few, i2p, as
far as i can tell is perfect, I am not an expert and it would be stupid to
take my word on it, but as far as I can tell, short of owning your PC
there is no way to see what traffic you generate and what traffic someone
else does. The only problem is, it's only implemented in Java, which has
recently developed a bad rep, but I can't tell if and how that effects
i2p.

another project which looks very promising in gnunet, but it's too early
to say on this one, though if you like reading technical documentations,
this one makes an interesting read.

for wireless mesh networks, there are a few projects, commotion looks
promising, it's essentially an extension of olsr, there are a few others
like that, which essentially just open an adhoc network with a shared name
and implement some more complex routing on top.
I hear good things about BATMAN implementations too.

I am very heavily invested in resurrecting a project called netsukuku, in
fact I was hoping to find people to play around with it in the camp, what
I dream of is setting up a wireless mesh network in cities, and to some
extent cjdns people have already done this in Seattle.

from a technical perspective netsukuku looks like a powerful solution to
complicated routing problems, from a practical perspective however, it is
dead, it needs a lot of people with much more technical skills than I
have.

The way it works in a nutshell (or should work) is by grouping nodes
together and then joining those groups together with node members of those
groups. it floods the network with what they call tracer packets which
keep track of which node is connected to which other. the addressing is
done by using the routes, so if you have a group group1, and it has 3
members john.group1, alex.group1, michael.group1 you will address them
this way.

suppose john can connect to harrison who is in group2, for addressing
harrison, alex will address harisson.group2.john.group1

with this in theory you could set up a service which is roughly only
visible on your block of flats, or in your local area or borough or city
etc, by only allowing connections from 2 or 3 or 4 groups away (though in
some situations like a VPN one group away could be on the other side of
the world).

Anyway, I hope people are into this, it's been on the back burner for me
for a very long time now, and I am desperately needing an outlet for this.

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>
> Hi,
>
> I'm a big fan of wireless mesh networks so am happy to see proposals
> for workshops etc. using this technology. There is a problem however
> with using the 430-440Mhz band. The bandwidth requirement is 22Mhz for
> 802.11b/g. You would spill over into neighbouring bands. In the UK
> these are already used by emergency services, the MoD and others.
>
> The link below is for the UK frequency allocation table.
>
> http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/spectrum/spectrum-information/UKFAT_2013.pdf
>
> Maybe this isn't such a good idea :-(
>
> Another approach is to use plain old wifi but with innovatively
> designed receivers/transmitters: cantenna, woktenna etc.
>
> They've achieved ranges of several kilometres. e.g.
> http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/
>
> Satellite dishes can be modded easily enough also and cantennas can be
> combined with satellite dishes. See below.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantenna
>
> Cheers,
> John
>
>
> On 01/06/13 21:30, ameba23 at riseup.net wrote:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I know its short notice, but i would like to propose a discussion
>> for barncamp, on community run communication networks.  The idea is
>> to look critically at existing electronic communication networks
>> (eg: interenet and mobile phones) and identify problems, such as
>> centralisation of control, survaillance, advertising, environmental
>> impact, problems with mental health of users.
>>
>> Then a discussion of different approaches to community run
>> alternatives. Which could include storytelling, distributing
>> newsletters on paper, PMR radio, CB, amateur radio, and wifi
>> point-to-point networks.  I have recently visited some community
>> wifi projects including guifi.net in catalunya and tetaneutral in
>> toulouse.   I would also like to propose ideas for a mesh data
>> network on the 430MHz amateur band.  I will be bringing along two
>> 430Mhz routers, with the idea to do range tests, but I have some
>> software problems with them and hoping to find some help with that
>> at the gathering.
>>
>> I put on more or less the same discussion at last years chaos
>> communications congress in hamberg, a bit more blurb about it is
>> here:
>> https://events.ccc.de/congress/2012/wiki/Community_run_communication_networks
>>
>>  also more ideas like this on my website ameba.ehion.com
>>
>> let me know how it works with timetabling things thanks, peg
>>
>> _______________________________________________ HacktionLab mailing
>> list HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org
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>
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