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Afghans Build Open Source Internet From Trash
An anonymous reader writes "Residents of Jalalabad have built the FabFi network: an open-source system that uses common building materials and off-the-shelf electronics to transmit wireless ethernet signals across distances of up to several miles."
For the win. P2P win, that is.
proud caffeine whore
Why are posts accepted that have no damn information? How, exactly, do we duplicate this setup?
I'd have thought there would be well paid contractors over there doing that with expensive, subscription based routing equipment. :P
This is the reason I'm proud to call myself a geek. This is why I contribute to groups like EFF. This is why I tinker with networking hardware and try out Maker projects, even though I'm a software guy, and not necessarily a great one- because I'm sharing in the culture that can build a digital commons in the middle of the desert in one of the most war-torn regions of the planet using /scrap/. I mean, I'm sure Afghanistan is a great country, but the neighborhood's kinda rough- I have nothing but pride and admiration for FabFi and the people of Afghanistan.
It's probably going to get slashdotted pretty quick, so I'm going to copypasta some of their front page stuff here, and provide some of the links from their homepage at http://fabfi.fablab.af/;
FabFi is an open-source, FabLab-grown system using common building materials and off-the-shelf electronics to transmit wireless ethernet signals across distances of up to several miles. With Fabfi, communities can build their own wireless networks to gain high-speed internet connectivity---thus enabling them to access online educational, medical, and other resources.
In the summer of 2010, the Fab team set out to show that Fabfi could be both reliable and sustainable. Choosing Kenya as a pilot site Fabfolk seeded three Fablab students with the hardware to begin deploying a network as a community-operated business.
FabFi is a user-extensible long range point-to-point and mesh hybrid-wireless broadband transmission infrastructure. It is based on the simple idea that a network of simple, intelligent, interconnected devices can create reliable networks in unstable environments. We use simple physics to make low-cost devices communicate directionally for very long distances (physics is cool!), and flexible configurations to adapt to a large variety of conditions.
They build their own parabolic dishes to increase antenna gain, much like the coffee-cantennas, wok-antennas, and pringles-cantennas we've all heard of.
Their blog is at http://fabfiblog.fabfolk.com/
Their Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140474289914
No OS on the planet can protect itself from a user with the admin password. - Yvan256
...if they are using any pre-Taliban C-64s in their setup, and if Junis is involved?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
They made a WAN using wireless technology. Big fucking deal. And don't say that 'they are in a third world country so it's a big deal'. It isn't about money when it comes to technology, it is about brains, it doesn't always require money to be smart. I'm sure everybody I know makes more money than most people in Afghanistan and not a single one of them could do this, so money makes people dumb as far as I can tell.
When are people going to realize that making a big deal about what country a person is from when they do something is a big reason for xenophobia. All humans have the same genes and therefore the same ability to do the same exact thing. It shouldn't matter if you are from California or Zimbabwe.
And, all this time, I thought that porn was outlawed in most Muslim countries.
In the US, we do the opposite: take the Internet and make it INTO trash.
Table-ized A.I.
They totally discovered radio!
I respect the Afghan ingenuity. It might be in some future point and time that the combination of laws (broadcast copyrights to lock down the public domain, ACTA, son-of-ACTA, COICA, etc.) combined with ISP interest in trying to make a buck from anything, and the fact that it will be easy for people to become persona non grats (and denied access to the Internet) will end up forcing people in the US to do exactly what is being done overseas.
Want to watch that YouTube video without paying your ISP for a "non premium visited site" fee, a streaming video fee, a fee per second, etc? The Afghan system may be the only way for you to see it, or any content not sanitized and sterilized by Big Media.
It might be that the *only* thing that will stop the Internet becoming like Compuserve (or more accurately Prodigy because Prodigy required each post to be reviewed and pass a censor before being able to be read) would be technology like this.
Plus, LAN stuff is cheap. A wireless router for a subnet is dirt cheap. Wi-Fi is quite inexpensive compared to WAN stuff.
If people started adding point to point links coupled with caching and other techniques to keep as much traffic on the LAN as possible, we (as in people who want to use the Internet for more than a passive TV and want content other than what Fox News wants to present us), this is something we really need here in the US as well.
Of course, latency will be hell and gone, but that's better than no connection at all.
Afghans have been through a lot.
They are a resilient and resourceful people.
That is why empires go to Afghanistan to die.
The American empire will die soon, and history will be vindicated.
Nice sensationalist headline, with a summary that contradicts it.
This guy lugs his desktop around: How to publish a Hindu newspaper in Pakistan
Well okay its Pakistan, not Afghanistan, but I suspect the poorer parts of both countries have similar challenges.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Junis, is that you? Shades of 2001.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Yet, in Afghanistan, the authorities REFUSED that OLPC are equipped with WiFi connection, refusing kids a free access to the Internet, base on the false pretext of the dangerousness of its content for kids.
and so it is patently obvious that it (and its penis) are in the back pocket of the Afghan government.
Fabulous Fidelity
Best Buy might come a calling with a lawsuit.
Seriously though, I am basically in Jalalabad right now. Temps regularly are above 100 degrees F by 1000 and are at 140 degrees F by the afternoon.
These guys are doing awesome stuff.
Also note the black box used in one of the pictures on the site is a "Gorilla on Wheels" toughbox regularly sold in US Army PX's at bases across Afghanistan.
This kind of "good enough" tech, also seen in the Arab Spring internet cafes, depends on access to used, refurbished, and re-marketed electronics cast offs. A new bill just submitted to Congress (Green-Thompson) will ban trade with these "geeks of color". Do-gooders say that American jobs will result (Americans will begin using "trash" to make our own internet), and the geeks in the emerging markets, freed from the "ewaste" exploitation, will then leapfrog into 4G.
As a former Peace Corps volunteer, nothing makes me happier than to see kids who studied technology textbooks use the schematics to increase internet. Geeks of Color Entrepreneurs need SBA more than they need AID.
Gently reply
You thought Afghanistan had social problems before? Now, without the benevolent oversight of the copyright holders, the Afghans will be filesharing like crazy, thus causing their entire country to collapse and the birth rate and life expectancy to plummet. Buildings will crumble into rubble, roads will take you to the wrong destination etc.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
It would probably still be cheaper to buy pre-built stuff from China. The most expensive component they are probably shelling out for is Pringles.
I have yet to see fully functional wifi routers in the trash around here.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I'm not really that impressed. If you RTFA, the only thing they are building from scrap are the reflectors/antennas. Hell, I know a bunch of people who did similar crap with pringels cans and clothes hangers.
Uhm, aren't those case-hardened OLPC laptops supposed to be for the poor, deprived kids? I hope this guy is helping his son (I suppose daughter not likely) do his homework?
If not, it appears the OLPC theft problem has not been solved.
Then again, maybe we (via Nicholas and his brother John) meant to supply Afgan insurgents with an insecure means of communication?
Preposterous, I'm sure!
Everything and its opposite is true. Get used to it.
Welcome to Slashdot.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
There's a reason it's called Anonymous Coward.
So close, yet so far.
I've been doing that by dumpster diving and using linux for years.
This entire project will fall by the wayside in America because it's not wrapped up in pretty little buzzwords and it's not backed by grinning suits. I swear that the entire country is suffering Stockholm Syndrome as far as internet access is concerned.
Boredom is bliss.
The Tibetan refugee town (seat of the Dalai Lama) - Dharamsala in India - has a similar wifi network built from off-the-shelf equipment.
Originally started by an Israeli hacker - Yahel Ben-David - they have successfully managed to deploy a long running 45km, 5mbps network.
repels me.
Well, you know what they say about two magnets with the same polarity, mister first-world-slashdot-poster. ;D Since you care enough to flame people who make positive posts about Afghani efforts, I encourage you to send some of your comparatively enormous paycheck to charitable organizations in the third (or even the first) world. There's plenty of orphans (Oxfam, CCF) and broke geeks (EFF, CBLDF, FabFi) who could use your money more than I can use your vitriol. Or, you could try suggesting to people that repel you some things they could do to make a substantial difference in the world. Good luck!
No OS on the planet can protect itself from a user with the admin password. - Yvan256
I request http://www.open-mesh.com/ to help them out
If they create their own internet in a war torn country, what's our excuse?
We've already got one.
- Are you sure you've got one?
Oh yes, it's very nice!
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
The HeliOS Project
Ragtag bunch that's rebuilt and given away over 1300 computers to poor Texas kids.
Wait, which "National Science Foundation" gave them a grant for this? The U.S. one? Anyone else a little confused by that?
That explains the sudden influx of people twittering about their sheep.