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Tibet's Mesh
siriuskase writes "Volunteers are building a low-cost wireless mesh network to provide cheap, reliable data and telephony to community. I would love to see a free wireless mesh that's not dependent on any government or corporation take over the world."
If you want to set up a mesh network in your own neighbourhood then you can take a look at a free, open source mesh network software package from Mitre corp. I used to use it in a past life to build networks that were adequate for VOIP with some tuning (and a lot of broadcast voodoo), and the ability to route traffic via more than one end node is fantastic. Set up a base station in every home with an 802.11g backhaul (and decent antennas) to provide the basic mesh, terminate in one or two houses with a fast cable/DSL connection and bang, instant multihomed network for everyone worth pi geek points.
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
Wouldn't we all?
Ultimately, those mesh networks are going to be tied into Gov't or corporate owned backbones. Mesh networks are not going to be the solution for developing countries and I don't understand how anyone expects an independant mesh network to magically appear.
Like anything else, it will require (expensive) investments in infrastructure. Or am I missing something?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
With purchase of Tibet at regular price.
(As an aside, I was hoping this was an article mentioning my friend's enterprise AJAX platform: TIBET.)
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Oh no, here we go again.
"Instead of technology, we should [provide food for the starving children / free the oppressed people / solve everyones problems]."
I know this will generate many doh's, but you are missing the point: with access to the internet comes actual freedom.
Or will they be just another convenient excuse for even harsher Chinese military oppression.
And if the Chinese Government spins it as "those communist Tibetians aren't paying MPAA and RIAA royalties and are pirating Windows with this network", I bet the Bush administration will back them 100%.
The article seems to be /.'d, so here's some additional information on this.
The submitter of this article said, "I would love to see a free wireless mesh that's not dependent on any government or corporation take over the world."
I'd love to see everyone in their dream house with a luxury car getting 250 MPG that's not dependent on any government or corporation.
I think both those statements have the same likelyhood of coming true.
I'd guess that 98% of Americans consider sewer, water, and electrical essential no matter where they live. I would guess that internet access still falls below those three. Fat-pipe internet access may eventually be a true utility that is natuarlly expected to exist anywhere, but it isn't there yet. Even when it does, why would anyone think it wouldn't depend on any government or corporation? All major utilities require BOTH government and corporations. If anything, it will move further away from small local ISP's (like internet and electricity started with). Huge infrastructure with high reliability and reasonable cost demands this type of change.
Having recently come out of a community planning meeting, our small town of 600+ has determined that wireless internet access for all could be a big another way to try and lure younger folks (like myself) that are choosing between other small towns in the area. I'm in the very first stages of feasabiltiy - looking at all the options. The problems of course come down to who pays for it. In the case of our aging community, a lot of folks don't see the need or even want access. That means they don't want any of their tax dollars going to fund it (never mind that my tax dollars fund their senior center and senior bus). On top of that, the local telco isn't very excited to see their individual DSL subscriptions go away either. Then there is the issue of hardware and support. With a town of this size, it is nearly impossible to have 24x7 support. These are just a few of the things that go into the hopper when you're looking at building the infrastructure of small towns which at the end of the day really are what make up the mesh between the 2-5 metro locations in each state. Doing this without local government or a corporate sponsor will be difficult. If this article has any detail (when it's available again!), I hope I can learn some slick new tricks.
I will contribute 20 km to this network. I have a free wifi zone about 2km radius around my house, and two 24db antennas that connects to nearby users upto 10km away.
a in.cgi
You can find me in San jose, CA.
Maybe sombody can carry me to google in Mountain View?
What you need and where to get it:
Link analysis for free:
http://www.ecommwireless.com/cgi-local/wireless.m
Single antenna AP: Dlink DWL-2100AP
Good low cost antennas and accessories: http://hyperlinktech.com/
(Dlink connector is called RP-SMA)
Times Microwave will ship you a free sample of 20' of LMR-400 with connectors (DIY)
Suggestions:
1. Dont use "Cantennas".
2. Yagi is better than parabolic
3. Use spark arrestors when you go outdoor
4. Use 2.4GHz splitters and hook up more antennas to one AP.
5. Use filters when co-locating APs
Applications:
Asterisk: Free phones for the neighbourhood
VLC media player: Everybody shares their movies
Will not really need that big of a neighbourhood before you dont even need to connect to the net or the phone sevice or TV!
"Fix it"
The article's not about Tibet, it's about Tibetan exiles in India. This is made clear in the very first paragraph. This is a sad commentary on how few Slashdoters RTFA. In this case, neither the submitter nor the editor did, or else they wouldn't have put "Tibet" in the title. And not a single poster has commented on this mistake so far. Very sad.
I second the above poster, Dharamsala, INDIA will never be Tibet. Yes, the article is about bringing WiFi to Tibetans (in exile) but it certainly IS NOT about bringing WiFi to Tibet.
Nevertheless, thanks for posting it, I enjoyed the article. For those who have never been there, if you ever visit India consider going WAY out of your way to visit Dharamsala. Himichal Pradesh is probably one of the poorest states in India (after Bihar), but it is rather pretty up in the mountains. It certainly does not have the climate of Tibet either, don't worry about freezing to death in the winter, etc. To sum it up, if you ever read Tintin in Tibet as a kid (and liked it) Dharamsala is worth a visit. That said, Dharamsala is about the only thing worth seeing in HP (not kidding). If you go, bring some old computer gear to donate.
If you go, stay at the guest house down the hill from the Dalai Lama's monastery, it is run by a cool Geshe (Geshe is like the equivalent of a Ph.D. in Tibetan Buddhism) who speaks English well and who is also quite kind.