4 ms·

> My dream was that we'd eventually get a similar local BBS culture back in the form of small neighborhood wireless mesh networks Less anonymous than phone lin

by jolmg 4y ago

> My dream was that we'd eventually get a similar local BBS culture back in the form of small neighborhood wireless mesh networks Less anonymous than phone lines, I would imagine. Kind of curious how hard it is to find the source of a wireless signal.

autoexec 4y ago
I think it'd be pretty easy to see who was connected to what network, at least for someone else in range and collecting wireless traffic, and triangulation could track down any one of them. Phone lines might even be worse though since that would mean having a record of your every call and its duration handed directly over to the state by the phone company and maybe even sold to any number of interested third parties as well. Total anonymity wouldn't really be the point though. In the BBS days we used to have regular meetups/events and so at least for most of the frequent users you could already put a face to a username/handle. Making meatspace friends with the people near you was often a part of the appeal.
- jolmg 4y ago
  > and triangulation could track down any one of them. You know, I used to think that, but I'm not sure anymore that triangulation is easily done with radio signals. I mean, if we're talking about triangulating as measuring the difference in time of reception of a signal between 2 or 3 antennas, because light travels so fast you need an impractical distance between them, like the distance between GPS satellites, or maybe at least cell towers. There's probably other techniques that are more achievable though, like measuring changes in signal strength as you change positions, or using a directional antenna and pointing it in different directions. > Phone lines might even be worse though since that would mean having a record of your every call and its duration handed directly over to the state by the phone company and maybe even sold to any number of interested third parties as well. Was thinking more about anonymity from the general public you're communicating with. You know, the threat model being someone taking offense at some comment, political or otherwise, and deciding to do something extreme. Death threats for dumb stuff like opinions are seemingly not super rare. > Total anonymity wouldn't really be the point though. In the BBS days we used to have regular meetups/events and so at least for most of the frequent users you could already put a face to a username/handle. Making meatspace friends with the people near you was often a part of the appeal. Yes, but I imagine you had the level of control for not anyone to know your physical address, at least. I didn't mean total anonymity.
  - Zacru 4y ago
    >I'm not sure anymore that triangulation is easily done with radio signals. Maybe not easy, but as you said, there are other methods that can be very accurate. Look up Wi-Peep for an example.
encryptluks2 4y ago
You could use a form of overlay networking over WAN that would provide more anonymity.
e808 4y ago
Lora would be an interesting text-based communication method. Although closed sourced, its dirt china cheap.

by jolmg 4y ago

autoexec 4y ago

I think it'd be pretty easy to see who was connected to what network, at least for someone else in range and collecting wireless traffic, and triangulation could track down any one of them. Phone lines might even be worse though since that would mean having a record of your every call and its duration handed directly over to the state by the phone company and maybe even sold to any number of interested third parties as well. Total anonymity wouldn't really be the point though. In the BBS days we used to have regular meetups/events and so at least for most of the frequent users you could already put a face to a username/handle. Making meatspace friends with the people near you was often a part of the appeal.

jolmg 4y ago
> and triangulation could track down any one of them. You know, I used to think that, but I'm not sure anymore that triangulation is easily done with radio signals. I mean, if we're talking about triangulating as measuring the difference in time of reception of a signal between 2 or 3 antennas, because light travels so fast you need an impractical distance between them, like the distance between GPS satellites, or maybe at least cell towers. There's probably other techniques that are more achievable though, like measuring changes in signal strength as you change positions, or using a directional antenna and pointing it in different directions. > Phone lines might even be worse though since that would mean having a record of your every call and its duration handed directly over to the state by the phone company and maybe even sold to any number of interested third parties as well. Was thinking more about anonymity from the general public you're communicating with. You know, the threat model being someone taking offense at some comment, political or otherwise, and deciding to do something extreme. Death threats for dumb stuff like opinions are seemingly not super rare. > Total anonymity wouldn't really be the point though. In the BBS days we used to have regular meetups/events and so at least for most of the frequent users you could already put a face to a username/handle. Making meatspace friends with the people near you was often a part of the appeal. Yes, but I imagine you had the level of control for not anyone to know your physical address, at least. I didn't mean total anonymity.
- Zacru 4y ago
  >I'm not sure anymore that triangulation is easily done with radio signals. Maybe not easy, but as you said, there are other methods that can be very accurate. Look up Wi-Peep for an example.

encryptluks2 4y ago

You could use a form of overlay networking over WAN that would provide more anonymity.

e808 4y ago

Lora would be an interesting text-based communication method. Although closed sourced, its dirt china cheap.