
How to Build a Low-Tech Internet - lispython
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/how-to-build-a-low-tech-internet.html
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scarmig
Interestingly, the TCP/UDP alternatives they're talking about (delay tolerant
networks) are also very important on the other side of things, interplanetary
networking[0].

Hard problems have a way of cropping up in lots of places...

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet)

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Johnythree
Incredible that an entire article could be written without mentioning the
Amateur Radio Packet network which dates back to the '70's.

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dfox
In my experience there is (or at least was) very strong animosity between HAMs
and people who build networks of this kind. To some extent I view that as
conflict between doing things "the right way" and "it works, so what".

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throwaway7767
Amateur radio also has a lot of rules, and you have some people whose primary
interest in the hobby seems to be tearing down other peoples work by citing
FCC (or equivalent) regs.

I'm thinking in particular about the rule that encryption is banned on amateur
bands, which really makes it not suitable for general internet access. More
sensible people just ignore those rules, and that creates animosity with the
above-mentioned group.

~~~
jff
Well, hams are doing their thing on their bands, and if somebody comes in and
stomps all over the bands ( _cough_ WINLINK _cough_ ) it's kind of a dick
move. Luckily, most of the ham bands are so low in frequency that they're not
really suitable for general Internet access.

2m could get you dialup speeds over a pretty wide radius with some cheap
equipment. Get a directional antenna and a hilltop repeater and you'd be in
even better shape. The FCC absolutely _could_ shave off a small chunk of the
2m band for encryption-OK Internet links (say, as a way to link up smaller
wifi nets), but you're right, most hams would kick and scream even though they
all just sit idle on whatever local repeater. And I'd have a hard time blaming
them (I'm a ham myself) because they do _not_ want to set a precedent of
losing any band space.

High-power wifi is allowed with an amateur radio license, but because you're
operating as an amateur licensee you're not allowed to use encryption, so you
can't use it to e.g. bring Internet access to a remote RV park.

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throwaway7767
Sure, rules on maximum transmit power and such make sense, to ensure emissions
do not interfere with other users. But why should a licensed amateur not be
able to transmit on the bands using encryption, provided the transmission is
clearly marked with the callsign of the operator?

As it is right now, it makes packet radio pretty much useless, because you
can't use it for internet access, since you'd most likely end up accessing TLS
services.

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jff
I'm on the same page here with you--I agree that packet radio is pretty
useless for internet access. It's pretty useless for anything except talking
to other amateur radio operators, and all they want to talk about is radio
and, sometimes, Obama.

But that's what the amateur service is, it's people playing with radios
because they think radios are cool. Because it's mostly real-time
conversations, the bands aren't insanely congested; if I tried to fetch my
email over an encrypted signal on the 40m band, I'm going to tie up a big
chunk of the available frequencies for possibly hours on end ( _cough_ yacht
owners running WINLINK _cough_ ).

You'd have to eliminate the "no commercial business" rule too, because
fetching your mining operation's email looks pretty similar to browsing ham
forums when everything is encrypted.

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w8rbt
Great quote from the article, ___" The internet as we know it in the
industrialized world is a product of an abundant energy supply, a robust
electricity infrastructure, and sustained economic growth. It cannot survive
if these conditions change."_ __

Sort of like sending Morse Code over a radio hooked to a 9 volt battery.
Twenty words per minute seems slow until that 's all you have.

The other important point to take away from the article is that most of
humanity is in slow/no internet regions.

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schiffern
>The internet as we know it in the industrialized world is a product of an
abundant energy supply, a robust electricity infrastructure, and sustained
economic growth. It cannot survive if these conditions change.

I was going to run the numbers for Elon Musk's 4000 satellite low-latency
global gigabit pizza-box phased-array rooftop antenna internet, but I think
that's _even more_ dependent on those conditions. SpaceX is shooting for a new
hardware spin every 5 years.

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mikegioia

        Musk's 4000 satellite low latency global gigabit
        pizza box phased array rooftop antenna internet
    

I don't think you can give a better description than that.

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uberneo
This is the place where all these communities meet every year -
[http://battlemesh.org/](http://battlemesh.org/)

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smcl
It seems fitting that this event is taking place in Slovenia. I read a bunch
of stuff recently about how there's an excellent homebrew packet radio network
in the mountains there -
[http://www.hamradio.si/~s51kq/PACKET.HTM](http://www.hamradio.si/~s51kq/PACKET.HTM)

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Illniyar
Since when is WIFI considered low tech?

I think these definitions need a bit of a rehaul, flying baloons are much more
low tech then WiFi antenna IMO.

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dfox
These networks tend to be mostly WiFi based because the hardware is cheap
enough that homegrown "low-tech" alternatives (like FSO or custom radio
protocols) are more expensive.

I remember that ~15 years ago building these sort of networks involved various
experiments with hooking up various home-grown radio modems or gutted laser
pointers to serial ports, but today the technology of choice is either WiFi or
commercial microwave PTP links operating in unlicensed spectrum (which are
order of magnitude more expensive than WiFi, but have significantly better
performance, also unlicensed spectrum usable for such links is not available
in every country).

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snerbles
RONJA
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA))
is one such homebrew free-space optical (FSO) link.

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gloves
Precious Lunga spoke at Business of Software on this topic, seems like the
work of Econet Wireless seems to be trying to address this issue. Some
interesting stats here:
[http://www.slideshare.net/marklittlewood/bos2015-precious-
lu...](http://www.slideshare.net/marklittlewood/bos2015-precious-lunga-how-
can-we-use-existing-tech-to-make-a-difference-in-the-world)

Additionally there is a whole raft of IoT enabled devices making this possible
too - think the future is bright :)

