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Warning: this is probably offtopic. There is an interesting initiative in Spain (http://guifi.net/en/what_is_guifinet http://guifi.net/en/what_is_guifinet) tha
by kilburn 16y ago
Warning: this is probably offtopic.
There is an interesting initiative in Spain (http://guifi.net/en/what_is_guifinet http://guifi.net/en/what_is_guifinet) that's trying to build an open (wifi-based, mesh-structured) network. Although the idea always seemed really cool to me, I thought that it was a hopeless effort. On the one hand, the "mainstream" network is much faster and reliable. On the other hand, you need a proxy node to reach the actual Internet.
Nonetheless, this specific news has opened my eyes about the importance of such non-government-controllable networks. For one, it would allow citizens to get in touch with eachother, escaping the government control. Additionally, a single proxy in a neighboring country would be enough so that news could leak.
For these reasons, I'm going to try to join this network asap. Further, I encourage you all to join any similar project going on near you, or try to build one if it doesn't exist.
Let the networking begin!
- a0004 16y agoI remember reading recently about a similar project in Germany. Thankfully my failing memory allowed me to google an even better link. Shame they don't seem to have anything in my city. Tech center of the Netherlands, my ass! Related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_netw...
- idlewords 16y agoAll networks are government-controllable; the only difference is how easy or hard it is for government to do it. Ultimately networks run on physical hardware and men in black boots can go pull the plug (or install a wiretap).
- InclinedPlane 16y agoCompletely wireless networks only require power. The only way to take them down is to take down every node, when every household in the country could be a node that means the only way to take down the network is to start a civil war.
- Swannie 16y agoTrue, but there are still the options to set up strategic frequency jammers, set up rogue nodes transmitting /dev/random to each other at max speed, nodes with routing black holes, randomly sabotage every TCP stream... etc. Where can that be fixed? The nodes need to have the intelligence to route around potential rogue nodes. In the UK the spectrum regulator is looking into "white space" use - basically even though this frequency is licensable, if you are using it in an area where no licensee's are, and you're under a certain power, that's fine. Assume that we can disconnect from their geo-location control databases, and burst transmit across many frequencies - jammers become an unrealistic problem.