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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."

6 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Any real information? by sortius_nod · · Score: 3, Informative

    Maybe RTFA if you are that interested. I seem to have been able to find all the information on how to set it up and even read through the wiki with the server setup required.

    You must really fail at the Internet if you don't know how to click on a link...

  2. Re:Semantics maybe... by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well played, Sir. Let me just add as a biochemist that the genetic differences are too marginal to even justify the concept of "race" in humans. Local varieties that differ on a ultimately meaningless level.

    --
    Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  3. Re:Any real information? by 2phar · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wiki with the tech details here

  4. Re:Any real information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    They're not doing any crappy little cantennas, they're building fair-sized (2 to 16 ft^2) dishes with chicken-wire or window screen stretched over a wood or plastic frame.

  5. Re:What they're really using it for... by cold+fjord · · Score: 2, Informative
    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  6. Re:Any real information? by Gordonjcp · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Rob Flickenger "cantenna" design doesn't work. A Pringles tube is too small to be resonant anywhere near 2.4GHz, and the threaded rod with the stack of washers just blocks the signal from coming out of the end. It actually works better sideways, since the cardboard doesn't block any of the signal (and the silvery plastic doesn't act as a reflector).

    Stopped waveguide antennas *do* work, but for a "cantenna" like that to work it would need to be about 80mm diameter and much shorter. I've built a couple like this, and they give about 6-8dB gain over a dipole. The really neat thing is that you can use them as a dish feed, although on all but the largest satellite dishes you find lying around it will be grossly over-illuminated. If you really want to feed a dish, put a USB wifi (or bluetooth) dongle in a corner reflector at the focus of an old satellite dish - make a wooden block that holds the USB dongle just about 5mm back from the front of where the LNB would go.

    Incidentally, "Cantenna" is the name of an old Heathkit dummy load, so be careful asking radio amateurs about them - depending on the context you could be talking about a stopped waveguide or an old paint tin full of resistors, sand and engine oil...

    It's worth pointing out that it's probably illegal to do this in most countries, without an appropriate licence. In Afghanistan, I suspect it's not a big deal.