[Mesh] This Week in Mesh!

Wed Jul 10 17:44:28 PDT 2013

The way the splash page works on 510pen mesh network is pretty good in my
opinion. It hijacks the first request from a MAC address on port 80 to show
the splash page, but allows all other traffic to flow unimpeded, e.g. HTTPS
requests on port 443, email, chat, filesharing, etc.

--mark B.

On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Mitar <mitar at tnode.com> wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I would just raise concerns about captive portal/splash screen. We had
> that for some time and it was much more an issue than worth. It was our
> primary reason why people said that the network does not work.
>
> People wondered why things don't work. For example Skype and e-mail. And
> the concept that they have first to open some webpage. And then Skype
> will start working. This was made easier now since OSes detect captive
> portal and display information about that. But still. Smart phones still
> have this issue.
>
> It does not work with HTTPS. And we should encourage users to use HTTPS.
> So if they are using Google over HTTPS and we have captive portal and
> they want to open Google (what is what they do in practice first) over
> HTTPS, you have two options:
> - you block 443 (and all other ports) until they confirm
> - you intercept and have some untrusted SSL shown (which is really bad
> to get people used to that)
> - you leave through all traffic before the captive portal, you intercept
> only 80, but then it is very strange why everything works, except 80
>
> In general captive portal is a very bad moment to display any
> information. People want at that moment to connect to the Internet, they
> will just click anything and continue. What you would want is to display
> something after they finish working with anything. So like captive
> portal people maybe read first time, but later on it is useless to use
> it for some messages and notices.
>
> And the most important thing: If you have captive portal on nodes, then
> every time you want to upgrade captive portal, you have to upgrade
> nodes. (You could maybe make some system which syncs this automatically,
> but then nodes are getting more and more complicated and you might want
> that things are stable and don't change once they are deployed.)
>
> Captive portal also makes things harder when uplink to Internet fails.
> So then in such situations people have to confirm the captive portal
> just to be able to connect to the network, not even Internet. This is
> hard to explain to people. This difference.
>
> Captive portal makes it really hard for Batman roaming between nodes.
>
> So we removed captive portals from all nodes. Currently we don't have
> anything. What we are planning is to intercept first request on port 80
> on the Internet gateway and redirect to our social info portal called
> PiplMesh:
>
> http://dev.wlan-si.net/wiki/PiplMesh
>
> So the idea is that people can still use the network and Internet
> normally. You just hijack first request. But it is not a captive portal
> (so no button to confirm to get access). Just to display information
> about the network. But even more important: to display a portal which is
> useful to people using the network. If you have such a portal, then
> people will be using and reading things there and you will get people
> engaged into the network and then you can communicate two-ways with your
> users.
>
> So the idea is that on that portal all connected people to the mesh can
> communicate in real-time, share information (like "hey, this event is
> happening there and there, come", or even "hay, I am sitting in this
> coffee shop, anybody for a chat?" or "I am a CouchSurfer and got
> stranded in the city, can anybody offer me a couch for a night?" And you
> can share this based on the distance in hops from the node you are
> connected to (for example the message about chat is relevant only to the
> node you are on, the message about the event is maybe useful to more
> people, and CouchSurfer might want to address the whole city). So the
> portal again introduces the physical nature of "voice" into virtual
> sharing. How load you are, so far you are heard. And distance is hops
> between nodes.
>
> And next to that you can also display local relevant information for
> people.
>
> So the idea is that captive portal influence is minimized (only 80 port,
> firs time) and that the content of the portal is made useful to the
> people. So that they might even use it outside the captive portal use.
>
> But yes, this is again possible because we have a centralized gateway
> and we don't have issues with central services if the network can still
> operate without them. They then just add a value to the network and make
> adoption and usefulness of the network higher.
>
> (The development of PiplMesh sadly stopped and we will probably rewrite
> it from the scratch. But the idea I believe is still valid.)
>
>
> Mitar
>
> > Hi all!
> >
> > Thought I might start sharing what's been getting added to our wiki each
> > week, as well as general mesh-related links I come across. Feel free to
> add
> > to this thread!
> >
> > *Wiki:*
> >
> >    - Tunabananas added Mesh/Oakland
> > <https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Oakland>for Oakland-specific data.
> > Currently this links to a spreadsheet of local
> >    organizations [schools, churches, etc] as well as a 157-page document
> from
> >    2009 on the feasibility of providing municipal wifi in Oakland.
> >    - Tunabananas updated
> > Mesh/Other_mesh_projects<
> https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Other_mesh_projects>with
> > more info on the abrupt rise and seeming fall of SF Lan.
> >    - Juul created Mesh/Firmware
> > <https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Firmware>with lots of ideas and plans
> > for the firmware we'll be developing for the
> >    mesh!
> >    - MaxB added some system configuration details on the
> > Mesh/BATMAN-adv<https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/BATMAN-adv>page.
> >    - Tunabananas updated Meeting
> > Minutes<https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/04_July_2013>with last week's
> > minutes.
> >    - Tunabananas created Mesh/Naming
> > <https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Naming>to document potential names for
> > our group.
> >    - Juul created Mesh/Bylaws <https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Bylaws> -
> we
> >    could **really** use some feedback and input on these potential bylaws
> >    so we can become a 501(c)3!
> >    - Mitar added information about wlan-slovenia to
> > Mesh/Other_mesh_projects<
> https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Other_mesh_projects>
> >
> > *Some recent news on mesh:*
> > <
> http://www.networkcomputing.com/next-generation-data-center/servers/mesh-networking-revival-sparked-by-nsa-p/240157635
> >
> >
> >    - Mesh Networking Revival Sparked By NSA PRISM
> > Program<
> http://www.networkcomputing.com/next-generation-data-center/servers/mesh-networking-revival-sparked-by-nsa-p/240157635
> >
> >    <
> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516571/build-your-own-internet-with-mobile-mesh-networking/#comments
> >
> >    - Build Your Own Internet with Mobile Mesh
> > Networking<
> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516571/build-your-own-internet-with-mobile-mesh-networking/#comments
> >
> >    - The Serval mobile mesh project is currently
> > crowdfunding<http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/speak-freely>
> >    - Stop overbroad patents that would put limitations on the progress of
> >    mesh technology!<
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/mesh-networking-good-overbroad-patents-bad
> >
> >
> > ---------
> > Jenny
> > http://jennyryan.net
> > http://thepyre.org
> > http://thevirtualcampfire.org
> > http://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
> > ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mesh mailing list
> > mesh at lists.sudoroom.org
> > http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/mesh
> >
>
> --
> http://mitar.tnode.com/
> https://twitter.com/mitar_m
> _______________________________________________
> mesh mailing list
> mesh at lists.sudoroom.org
> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/mesh
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://sudoroom.org/lists/private/mesh/attachments/20130710/914a0bfe/attachment.html>