[Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox Testing 2012.0617 Image Published

[Rick C. Hodgin]

I'm thinking that messages would be sent from A to B using keys that 
only A and B know about.  So even if they went through the air, they 
would not be decipherable (easily) by someone without the keys.  Each 
FBX simply becomes a "willing participant in the conduit" to move data 
around without regards to its contents, unless it's addressed to it, or 
as is required to route it.

My idea of having a wireless grid is not for heavy bandwidth, but merely 
for the ability to communicate with others.  I envision some need to 
coordinate people together, to get the message out.  It doesn't need to 
be real-time updated, but just "meet us tomorrow at 6am at the corner" 
sort of things.  I also envision a texting-like ability, where you send 
a message to X, and they respond when they get it, which may be a few 
minutes later.

I have the entire method of working out how this WiFi communication 
could be workably developed, including allowing FBXs to come up and fall 
off the "grid" as a living entity.

I would like to produce the GUI demo to show how it works, what messages 
are transmitted, etc.  Will do so when I can find the time.

Best regards,
Rick C. Hodgin

On 06/19/2012 12:57 AM, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>> From: John Gilmore<gnu at toad.com>
>> To: Rick C. Hodgin<foxmuldrster at yahoo.com>
>> Cc: freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org
>> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 9:43 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox Testing 2012.0617 Image Published
>>
>>>   This is the path I'd like to explore for developing Freedombox tools --
>> the ability to communicate off the grid using point-to-point with routing beyond
>> to some remote 3rd party.
>>>   Are there WiMAX add-on boards which do the same (for longer distances)?
>> I strongly suggest using *wires* rather than wireless, whenever possible.
>>
>> You can trivially push a gigabit of traffic through an Ethernet cable
>> that can stretch from one apartment to another, or from one house to
>> another along a fence.  And this gigabit won't conflict or compete with
>> any other traffic you're handling to other neighbors, nor compete with
>> wireless nodes.
>>
>> With a couple of readily available converter boxes, you can plug that
>> gigabit Ethernet into a fiber that can go to a destination up to 80km
>> away.
>>
>> WiFi is sexy, but Ethernet (and Ethernet running over fibers) is what
>> runs most real dependable Internet services worldwide.  If you share
>> your Internet connection with your closest neighbor over Ethernet, via
>> a FreedomBox, you'll unclog your wireless spectrum, and improve the
>> reliability and privacy of both of your Internet connections.
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but until you hit a certain threshold in terms of
> # of users and geographical variety, you'd be improving reliability at the
> expense of privacy.  Also, the lack of choice of ISP in many areas
> may make the reliability increase insignificant, as an upstream outage
> would most likely affect all the neighbors, too.
>
> On the other hand, it would be quite interesting to see what a dorm full
> of college students would do with a pile of Freedomboxes and a
> spindle of ethernet cable.
>
>>      John
>>
>> PS:  Wires and fibers are much harder to wiretap than radio signals.
>>
>>
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