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I think it's pretty amazing the way that certain technologies that might be considered bleeding edge by some, are being adopted more in the developing world out

I think it's pretty amazing the way that certain technologies that might be considered bleeding edge by some, are being adopted more in the developing world out of practical needs. Even more so as the costs of maintaining aging copper/fibops grows, the less perceived incentive to move towards more modular and decentralized systems ("we invested all this money already") for the increasing burden of maintaining that would be placed upon on others in developed countries. Though this makes me wonder, the routers are running some kind of openwrts firmware[0], it would be interesting if someone had the chance to unsquash/decompile it for backdoors because from a sigint perspective (especially in the horn of africa) being able to tap into these networks (like via uav recon ops) will probably be on the table. Edit: Looks like they are funded by the New American Foundation[1] with Eric Schmidt as chairman, interesting… [0] https://commotionwireless.net/download/routers https://commotionwireless.net/download/routers [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_America_Foundation#Funding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_America_Foundation#Funding

sOuqq 13y ago
the project is open source so you can also take a look through the source code: https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router
- cinquemb 13y ago
  This looks like shell scrips for patches and config files. Is there another place with the source that actually used to compile the binaries like this: http://downloads.commotionwireless.net/router/1.0/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-ubnt-bullet-m-squashfs-factory.bin http://downloads.commotionwireless.net/router/1.0/ar71xx/gen...
  - sOuqq 13y ago
    It uses the OpenWRT build system to produce those binaries. Try pulling the source code and building it yourself :) https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router#installation https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router#instal...
    - cinquemb 13y ago
      I would be more interested in the decompiled binaires at this point, you know the stuff being released directly into the wild from the site :) Unless you could point me in the direction of a repo that looks like this[0] (posted in this thread, and project I've been following along with others), that corresponds to the binary I posted above. [0] https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
      - elation 13y ago
        Hey, I am one of the developers of the Commotion project. OpenWRT can be a confusing system. Let me help you find what you are looking for. The Commotion-router repo above is contains our setup scripts that make it easier for new users like you to build our software from source. If you look at the feeds.conf file you will find the exact sources we are pulling in to the openWRT build system for compilation. The most important line, for your concerns about backdoors would be the third line of that file. That line pulls in the master branch of the repo commotion-feed. This repository is full of makefiles. These makefiles specify how to build the source code into the compiled binary your pointed to before. If you follow the follow the install instructions that were poster earlier and then explore the curses (command line GUI) menu for make menuconfig you can explore the exactly what packages are going to be built for the specific architecture. (If you are curious about tampering we sadly have not had the time or funding to do deterministic builds, so I suggest you build it from source yourself so that you can examine the code.) Now, each item in the menuconfig references a "feed." You can look at the feeds.conf file in the current directory, and the various makefiles in the feeds folder to explore where exactly things are being pulled from. Our source code will use the git repo's specified in the makefiles in commotion-feed on the master branch. You can find all of those in our github, because we are an open-source project. If you have any concerns about specific lines of code that have been implemented I beg of you to submit a bug to the repo you find a problem with. We want every possible opportunity better our code. While we have done internal testing, I hope that with eyes like yours looking over the code we will find more bugs that we can address in the future. If you have any questions I will try to follow this thread the best I can, and am elationfoundation on github. You can also find most of the developers and our field experts on freenode at #commotion. I have built, and debugged, far too many openWRT images. So, If you do need assistance jump on #commotion during Americas East Coast working hours and I will be glad to help you. I hope this helped. OpenWRT's build system is a beautiful, but complex being.
sliverstorm 13y ago
There are very good reasons the developed world uses hard lines, and none of them are "we already spent so much money on them". The drawbacks to this sort of network are much less of a problem in the developing world right now. I mean, my word, you think the interference on your WiFi from neighbors is bad now...
- cinquemb 13y ago
  >There are very good reasons the developed world uses hard lines I wasn't saying they wern't good reasons, mostly just pointing out that the economics aren't getting any better (for consumers or companies), you know, C.R.E.A.M and all that… >and none of them are "we already spent so much money on them". Gotta love absolutes: >…The rapid expansion of this so-called distributed generation deprives utilities of revenues while leaving them liable for maintaining the grid. [0] , NRG Energy chief David Crane [0] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/who-will-compete-with-energy-companies-in-the-future-apple-comcast-and-you/281109/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/who-wi...

sOuqq 13y ago

the project is open source so you can also take a look through the source code: https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router

cinquemb 13y ago
This looks like shell scrips for patches and config files. Is there another place with the source that actually used to compile the binaries like this: http://downloads.commotionwireless.net/router/1.0/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-ubnt-bullet-m-squashfs-factory.bin http://downloads.commotionwireless.net/router/1.0/ar71xx/gen...
- sOuqq 13y ago
  It uses the OpenWRT build system to produce those binaries. Try pulling the source code and building it yourself :) https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router#installation https://github.com/opentechinstitute/commotion-router#instal...
  - cinquemb 13y ago
    I would be more interested in the decompiled binaires at this point, you know the stuff being released directly into the wild from the site :) Unless you could point me in the direction of a repo that looks like this[0] (posted in this thread, and project I've been following along with others), that corresponds to the binary I posted above. [0] https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
    - elation 13y ago
      Hey, I am one of the developers of the Commotion project. OpenWRT can be a confusing system. Let me help you find what you are looking for. The Commotion-router repo above is contains our setup scripts that make it easier for new users like you to build our software from source. If you look at the feeds.conf file you will find the exact sources we are pulling in to the openWRT build system for compilation. The most important line, for your concerns about backdoors would be the third line of that file. That line pulls in the master branch of the repo commotion-feed. This repository is full of makefiles. These makefiles specify how to build the source code into the compiled binary your pointed to before. If you follow the follow the install instructions that were poster earlier and then explore the curses (command line GUI) menu for make menuconfig you can explore the exactly what packages are going to be built for the specific architecture. (If you are curious about tampering we sadly have not had the time or funding to do deterministic builds, so I suggest you build it from source yourself so that you can examine the code.) Now, each item in the menuconfig references a "feed." You can look at the feeds.conf file in the current directory, and the various makefiles in the feeds folder to explore where exactly things are being pulled from. Our source code will use the git repo's specified in the makefiles in commotion-feed on the master branch. You can find all of those in our github, because we are an open-source project. If you have any concerns about specific lines of code that have been implemented I beg of you to submit a bug to the repo you find a problem with. We want every possible opportunity better our code. While we have done internal testing, I hope that with eyes like yours looking over the code we will find more bugs that we can address in the future. If you have any questions I will try to follow this thread the best I can, and am elationfoundation on github. You can also find most of the developers and our field experts on freenode at #commotion. I have built, and debugged, far too many openWRT images. So, If you do need assistance jump on #commotion during Americas East Coast working hours and I will be glad to help you. I hope this helped. OpenWRT's build system is a beautiful, but complex being.

sliverstorm 13y ago

There are very good reasons the developed world uses hard lines, and none of them are "we already spent so much money on them". The drawbacks to this sort of network are much less of a problem in the developing world right now. I mean, my word, you think the interference on your WiFi from neighbors is bad now...

cinquemb 13y ago
>There are very good reasons the developed world uses hard lines I wasn't saying they wern't good reasons, mostly just pointing out that the economics aren't getting any better (for consumers or companies), you know, C.R.E.A.M and all that… >and none of them are "we already spent so much money on them". Gotta love absolutes: >…The rapid expansion of this so-called distributed generation deprives utilities of revenues while leaving them liable for maintaining the grid. [0] , NRG Energy chief David Crane [0] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/who-will-compete-with-energy-companies-in-the-future-apple-comcast-and-you/281109/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/who-wi...