So, as some of you know, Jenny and myself have invested in the following
hardware:
5 ghz 802.11n hardware:
4x Bullet M5 HP - 150 mbps - needs external antenna
1x Nanostation M5 - 300 mbps - semi-directional panel antenna
1x Nanobridge M5 high-gain - 300 mbps - directional parabolic antenna
2.4 ghz 802.11n hardware:
1x Freestation 2 - 300 mbps - semi-directional panel atenna
Here are my experiences with the gear so far.
The Freestation OpenWRT image has a bug in it that makes it unusable after
flashing. It should be easy to recover from using the serial console
though.
I've successfully put OpenWRT on one of the Bullet M5s. It's easy to flash
the Ubiquiti gear with tftp. Easier than the flashing the Asus routers.
When testing the Bullet M5s I noticed that the original firmware has a
really cool feature. It's a frequency analyzer for the 5 ghz spectrum that
will allow us to find out which parts of the spectrum are most free of
noise and other signals in different areas. We could mount one of these
Bullets on a pole on a bike with a battery and then bike around Oakland to
create a map of how much interference we'll be dealing with in different
areas! I put some info on it on the wiki:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Software_tools
I haven't done anything with the nanostation or nanobridge yet.
As a side note, it seems like the Freestation routers might be going out of
production. Some sellers stopped selling them and the price has dropped to
$60 for the 2.4 ghz models and $70 for the 5 ghz models. That's a bit sad,
as they seem like a pretty good deal, but maybe that means we'll be able to
get them for cheap.
I created a wish list with gear for all price ranges, so you can point
people here if they'd rather donate a thing than cash :-)
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Wishlist
--
Marc Juul
Dear Sudoers,
Give us your old, your broken,
your wireless routers yearning to be free...
We will take them, and make them
great once more (access points too!)
–part of the mesh, the metamycelia
of our dreams.
In the stack of crates
that creates our cubbies,
there is a place...
For your lost ones, potential nodes
in a network more aptly befitting
of the revolution.
Contribute them, anonymously if you wish,
or sudonoymously, be you a phish!
Love,
the Seriously Silly Sudo Society
(https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh)
--------
Jenny
http://jennyryan.nethttp://thepyre.orghttp://thevirtualcampfire.orghttp://technomadic.tumblr.com
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
-Hannah Arendt
"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stéphane Mallarmé
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
Hello everyone! I hung out with dan and bentley from seattle on mumble last
night to clear up some things about cjdns. Most of the following i already
knew but wanted to confirm my understanding before elaborating.
Before i continue, id like to say that while i prefer cjdns, i support
people deploying what they are more comfortable with. There exist several
connected communities with different protocols running. I heard of some in
Italy that connect batman-adv communties through babeld communities in the
middle.
So cjdns is indeed a mesh protocol and does not require the internet (which
is also a mesh net) to work. What it does require is a connection (radios,
wires, switches, etc.). It may have required the internet to get it off the
ground but telecommix helped a great deal with their ethernet interface
contribution.
And cjdns can act as a gateway to the internet or it can be completely
isolated from it. So you can provide internet access or you can have a
darknet (not to be confused with an anonymous darknet). Or you can connect
your local darknet to another local darknet over the internet.
While cjdns differs from other protocols in routing techniques, its not
because the developer ignored the work behind other protocols. Instead it
was felt that a different approach was needed. The approach started slow
but seems to be in a great condition now.
Routes are determined by bitshifting voodoo on the address packets and
lowest latency and lowest packet loss. Every node keeping track of routes
to addresses near its own address space.
As it stands now, cjdns operates on layers 2 & 3. It sets up routing tables
up to 1mb in size and prunes unused & poor connections (not sure if its
only when a limit is reached). It is not meant to anonymize traffic but
instead offer privacy through native encryption. Tor, i2p, and any other
service can operate on cjdns.
Im also told that the code is pleasant on the eyes, so you might like to
start with
https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns/blob/master/admin/angel/Angel.c
It does throw people off initially because its not what they expect
(batman,,tor,internet access, etc).
Any specific concerns, please feel free to raise them. Ill be hanging out
again tonight and Ill see what answers i can get.
Alcides Gutierrez
http://e64.us
Meshfolk,
We'll be installing batman and olsr on our various routers tonight and
getting them to talk to each other.
Let's also make sure to document our processes on the wiki:
http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh
Come ready to make a mesh!
Jenny
http://jennyryan.nethttp://thepyre.orghttp://thevirtualcampfire.orghttp://technomadic.tumblr.com
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
-Hannah Arendt
"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stéphane Mallarmé
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
*Attendees:*
Jenny, juul, substack, miguel, jordan, mark, rody
*Announcements:*
-
We've started an IRC channel on Freenode IRC: #510pen - come chat!
- Check the updated wiki at https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh
*Notes:*
-
Marc researched Freifunk, which is both a firmware project, group
organization and many small meshes throughout Germany:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Freifunk
-
Firmware is interesting – community profiles for a) chipset b)
language and c) city
-
Does the work for you – source code is available.
-
As a node, you get a static public IP
-
Commotion is based on the Freifunk
-
Available on more devices
-
Also works with OpenBTS
-
OLSR - Layer 3, no kernal module so takes more CPU resources
-
Has an Android, Mac, and Windows version
-
OLSR has a watchdog which auto-reboots
-
Batman-adv is only available on Linux – you could port the protocol
-
Hack to run DHCP to have dynamic IP assignments
-
How to assign IP addresses: We could only run ipv6 – much larger address
space – for random assignments of static IPs
-
Hash the MAC address that's stored in a distributed manner
-
Planned vs dynamic mesh networks
-
Interoperability of protocols – batman as the backbone and OLSR/Babel on
top
-
Open Mesh
-
Pay for faster access
-
Small businesses, schools, RV parks etc
-
Marc is going to buy a Freestation and some nanobridges ($85)
-
Omnis spread the signal too much
-
Ubiquiti sells antennas with 90 and 120 degree – this plus a router
is $160-180
-
Lasers! Temporary permits
-
Cell phone networks – you can run up to 100 milliwatts without a
license
-
Critter (substack)
-
Re-sync once connected to the public network
-
Spot crowd-voting
-
5Ghz Backbone and 2.4Ghz connections between
-
batman-adv:
-
multi-cast: avoids network saturation, allows for streaming that
other nodes can choose to plug into
-
Major issue is latency in hops
*Action Items:*
-
Art, propaganda, manifestos!
-
*mesh detected*
-
Explore batman vs olsr vs robin
-
Mesh reading group?
-
Start here: http://www.wndw.net/
-
Today I Learned? June 8th is available
-
Radio show w/ Interviews? Jenny & Alcides
-
1 page description of mesh to distribute to everyday folks
-
Let's make a mesh!
-
Test batman-adv for next week
-
Throughput and slow-down over multiple hops
-
Signal strength
*Wishlist:*
-
Routers
-
Money
-
Routers full of money!
-
Nanostations:
http://www.ubiquitiworks.com/NanoStation-Loco-M.asp?gclid=CIvbqPTVt7UCFSHZQ…
-
Freestations: http://www.antennas.com/freestation/
Jenny
http://jennyryan.nethttp://thepyre.orghttp://thevirtualcampfire.orghttp://technomadic.tumblr.com
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
-Hannah Arendt
"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stéphane Mallarmé
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
I thought this page was a good explanation of the difference between bridge
vs mesh networks and when you would want to use which,
http://www.connect802.com/meshcompare.htm
Last week we had an epic 9 hour hackathon, installing openwrt and
batman-adv on a bunch of the routers at sudo room. Much learning was had!
Check out our updated documentation at the wiki here:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh
Meeting tonight will be more focused on strategy and planning, though
hacking on projects is also cool :)
Topics include:
-OLSR vs batman-adv vs cjdns
-Updates on stable/high-bandwidth and low-bandwidth projects
-Funding
-Alcides & Hyperboria intro?
See y'all in a few!
Jenny
http://jennyryan.nethttp://thepyre.orghttp://thevirtualcampfire.orghttp://technomadic.tumblr.com
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
-Hannah Arendt
"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stéphane Mallarmé
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
A list of some interesting groups that endorsed battlemesh.
http://battlemesh.org/Endorsements2013
Still trying to find documentation on what happened at battlemesh. There
may not be any :-(
--
Marc
Hi guys,
Here is the README file I kept mentioning last night,
https://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/repository/revisions/master/e…
It gives a simple explanation of batam-adv configuration without getting
into batctl, just the config files. The interesting piece is that you need
to provide an IP address to the bat0 interface.
The idea is that all the bat0 interfaces in the network together act like a
Layer 2 LAN. And just like a LAN you need to provide an IP address on the
same subnet to each interface in order for any packet routing to happen.
This is a problem for our idea of having a standard image that we can flash
onto all routers since each router will have to have individual
configuration.
The standard solution for assigning IP addresses in a network is to use
DHCP, but that is a problem because 1) we don't want any central control,
2) the network will probably end up being segmented into clusters that
don't talk to each other.
I was thinking one idea for assigning IP addresses could be to use IPv6 and
map the interface's MAC address onto it, we could then have a configuration
script to configure the address. But it turns out that this kind of thing
is built into the IPv6 protocol [1] . This seems to be what the Quickstart
guide is talking about when it says "You can now use the automatically
assigned IPv6 link-local adresses on bat0 (usually starting with
fe80::...), modern operating systems should support this." [2], although
when I followed the guide I didn't see any auto-configured IPv6 address.
I'm not very familiar with IPv6, I need to learn a lot more.
Another issue with batman-adv being a pure Layer 2 protocol is that there
needs to be some kind of Layer 3 routing protocol used on top of it in
order to direct packets to where they need to go. It turns out that
batman-adv has implemented such a thing as an optional 'gateway' feature.
The gateway documentation is interesting because it seems to show some of
the controversy generated around their philosophy of having a "clean
network layer separation" [3]. This gateway feature piggybacks on DHCP,
which has the problems I mentioned above.
Anyway, we need to keep reading and testing, there is a lot for us to
learn. It might be that we decide that batman-adv isn't the right choice
for the network we want to build, I think last night was great for getting
us towards making that decision. Though I think it's important for us to
develop a stronger vision for what it is that we do want to build.
Happy hacking.
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_address#Stateless_address_autoconfigurati…
[2] https://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Quick-start-guide
[3] http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Gateways
