[Freedombox-discuss] Routing around nationwide and international Internet blocks

[Anthony Papillion]

On 02/27/2011 03:59 PM, Michiel de Jong wrote:
>
>     Are there contingency plans being built into the box for this scenario?
>     What are the options for handling something like this? Is anyone
>     currently working on this area?
> 
> 
> yes, search this list and the internet for "wifi mesh". it's more or
> less comprised in goal #3 of http://freedomboxfoundation.org/goals/
> 
> also village telco and serval project are relevant links.

Thanks Michael,

I understand how mesh networking works and can see its value in helping
the Freedom Box route around trouble spots in the network. So I
understand how if, let's say Comcast, decides to shut its users off from
the network, a Freedom Box user could use their connection to
non-censored friends to still reach the Internet. But here is where it
gets a bit tricky for me (and please bear with me as I am still reading
messages and getting up to speed):

1. Doesn't this depend on being physically close to other Freedom Box
users who are not censored? After all, if you don't have a network
connection, you couldn't reach out to remote Freedom Box users who
weren't witing wi-fi (or possibly wimax range. What happens if the user
is in the middle of nowhere with nobody else using a Freedom Box near them?

2. In the event of a total nationwide block of the Internet, Freedom Box
users (again, probably only in semi-near proximity to each other) will
still be able to communicate with each other but it would see that the
farthest connectivity could go would be a particular national border. At
that point, near field connectivity becomes impossible. If, at that
point, one could rely on some sort of distance technology (like Sat Com,
microwave, etc, couldn't this fairly easily be disrupted by a
government?  How could the Freedom Box address this?

Again, like I said, forgive me if this is all in the archives (and
please don't hesitate to tell me 'you'll get to it' instead of answering
as I'm going to continue to read the archives) but it seems like these
would be pretty major hurdles to overcome. Of course, as I said, this
might not even be an issue anymore.

Thanks!
Anthony