Tibet's Mesh 82
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."
DIY! (Score:4, Interesting)
More info on this... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Enough talk; Here is my 20km (Score:3, Interesting)
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/ [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!