Hi all!
We've had some great hack nights these past three weeks, and I apologize for not posting notes regularly. I'll put these up on the wiki later tonight.
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September 19 Hacknight
Attendees:
Juul, Steve (playing w/ SDR for radio astronomy), Luis (frontend web
interfaces), Chris (building an exit node), Deekoo (secure messaging
client), Max (admin page for nodes, tinkering with OpenWRT), Rhodey
(script to automate regeneration of SSH host keys), Jenny (501c3 &
grantfunding stuff, working on documentation presentation), Sam, Paige (working on outreach & flyer/logo design)
=Network name / SSID=
PeoplesOpen.net
=Decide organization name=
*SudoMesh++++
*FreedomUptime+
*510pen
=Activities=
*Refine stickers
*Admin interface
*SSH key generation
*Firmware generation
*Websites
*Network diagram
*Documentation fair poster
=Notes=
*Paige and Chris suggested donating CPU to projects such as SETI, or number crunching of DNA,
September 12 Hacknight
Attendees: Juul, Steve, Max, Chris, Jenny, Patrick
More thoughts on names:
- *PeoplesWifi.org --> SSID
Branding for People's Open Network
What we're working on now:
- *We have two working nodes at current, running through a Linode we can share access to for anyone who wants to experiment.
- *Fake captive portals on the exit nodes to welcome users to the mesh.
- *If disconnected from the Internet, can connect to the unique address of different nodes
From GuiFi:
- *Layer 2 doesn't scale beyond some limited number of nodes
- *Running BMX6 to connect between the nodes
Low Bandwidth Mesh:
- *Using BeagleBones as receivers
- *Meant to be used in emergency situations
September 4th Hacknight
Attendees: Michaela, Isaac, Jenny, roger, pau, mitar,
What we've been working on:
*Presentation on Saturday was rad! We now have video documentation.
*Marc has been working on:
- *Autogeneration of firmware / kit to be finished up in ~ a month
- *Fake captive portal by capturing inspection traffic
*Pau from Guifi.net - working on the qmp firmware - clouds of about 50
nodes working on this system. Beginning to collaborate with Argentina
and Italy on a new firmware project: LibreMesh - Using batman-adv, buhttp://www.guidingtech.com/10346/transfer-android-apps-between-phones-bluetooth/t
Layer 2 has problems with scalability, 30-40 nodes hit peak congestion
through conflicting ARP requests. So they're using BMX6 (Layer 3)
protocol to make connections between Layer 2. They discover Layer 2
clouds and join them. Layer 2 (batman-adv) still helpful to create
continuity between nodes.
*Shadhi working on an OpenBTS network in Papua, isolated community -
100,000 txt messages sent since February. Using hardware from range
networks. Base station cost ~$4-5k. Cost is the biggest problem.
*Isaac from Kansas City - their community network is used daily by a
few thousand people. Adapted qmp firmware to the Kansas City network.
Has been playing with GNU MediaGoblin. Thinking about how to do diverse
authentication. WOrking on a Network Commons license.
*Mikaela interested in sharng tokens for access to the mesh
*Nader working on building a network among the UC Berkeley co-ops
*Miguel working on firmware
*Mitar built slovenia network on top of an abundance of fiber
Funding:
* OpenTechFund
* Need to procure outdoor UV-resistant cable, colocation for the VPN exit node
Legal Issues / Network Commons License
- * Ownership of the actual nodes to be retained by the people themselves
- * Enforceable agreement that gives the community the right to disconnect a problematic node
- * Industries want security on their investments (Guifi input)
- * Part 97 of FCC Rules - License by rule, any purpose that's industrial scientific or medical - 2.4 & 5.8 GHz
- * Creative Commons, pros and cons:
*Pros: Umbrella definition of a spectrum of licrnses that share some basic principles; easier to change
*Cons:
Assumption that basic Creative Commons license is enough, when it
really implies a wide spectrum; keeping it simple allows room for growth
*How to interconnect a free network with a proprietary network?
- *Guifi.net:
Internet access as a service - all services must be allowed (net
neutrality) - businesses make the network sustainable, so we need to
accomodate them, too.
- *Organization that maintains and educates around use of this license
- *Distinguishing between the Foundation and the Network(s)
- *Internal Versioning Number for the NCL (Network Commons License) is at version 0.2
- *Goal is to share definitions
Breakout Groups
- *Communications / Remote Participation for IS4CWN
Guifi.net Operational Structure
- *Open project - no membership fee or policies - you're a member if you decide you are
- * Ownership of the network is distributed
- * License is also important
- * Tries to automize as much as possible, to avoid manual intervention
- * Use the tools available to solve problems, avoiding manual operation
- * Nodes have a physical location, and can become supernodes
- *
Ad-hoc mode not really used. To propagate the network, you must have at
least two radios to receive and propagate - this model is sim[ply more
supported
- * No central point of authority - theoretically. Source code public and open, anyone can also set up a network infrastructure
- * Technology-agnostic - strives to be as inclusive as possible
- * Tools to check on the statistics of the network
- * Have routing problems - every day, hour, minute! BGP not meant for wifi
- * Funded by itself - those who want to join must pay the cost of joining it, in charge of upgrading hardware, etc
- * Up to the people themselves to keep up with maintenance
- * Normally if a supernode goes down, it will be fixed within the next 48 hours
- * They have a fundraising option to request money from the network
- * Mostly run as a web of trust - mostly one degree of separation from each other
- * Monopolistic mentality is internalized in Western culture -
- * When they first connected to the Internet, started receiving DDOS attacks
- * Guifinet Foundation is the umbrella of many small ISPs in the network, using GuifiNet Foundation to connect to the Internet
- * GuifiNet Foundation as an incubator for small businesses seeking to become their own ISPs
- * Interested in cultivating a fair competition within the network
- * Separating organization (run by benevolent dictator) from network (owned by community - can mutiny)
- *
How to deal with legal issues : Refer to EU directives; Telecom
directives; referring to govs to get permission to deploy fiber - more
complicated because not a traditional ISP; need to keep IP logs - data
retention policy - what's the information content of that Ip address,
what's discoverable from there?
- * Who's the ISP, and how is that defined? Usually by size, or commercial interest
Ideas thenceforth:
- *Give away nodes or sell them for $5 in exchange for attending workshop
- *The bigger you are, the more weird things you're going to face
- *CALEA: Comms Assistant for Law Enforcement Act -- local requirements for logging and reporting via industry best practices
- **Could say we don't log NAT because the technical requirements are too high
*People own the equipment
*Slovenia has a lot of fiber
*overabundance of connectivity led to desire to share the bandwidth
*What if someone takes my link? steals my data? makes a stupid thing on the internet and i'm blamed?
*soution: vpn tunnels
*when a person donates a node, he hosts bandwidth - not IP
*Had to develop their own VPN, as the throughput was too slow
*300 vs 21,000 nodes - but slovenia is very small :)
*international link to austria and to croatia
*longest hop is 40km
How to get wider participation?
- *Reach out to networks we don't even know about yet
- *What are some networks we should definitely
- *Roger Proposal: Commons For Europe
- Code For Europe / Bottom-Up Broadband
- Org
of Orgs - at the Euro level? nah - talked to some other communities (eg
Ninux, Freifunk [difficult as they are separated by city], Funkfeur -
toward creating an organization to federate amongst.
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