=====free networks===== Updated article with images as a pdf is here [[http://ehion.com/~ameba/download/freenetworks.pdf|freenetworks.pdf]] whether you think electronic communication is a good thing or not, its there. people are spending a lot of money on it, sometimes more than they do on food. it is also a major tool of control and regulation by goverment and industry. A community run alternative could be secure, free from advertising and censorship, powered off-grid, free and accessible. this would provide a serious threat to the infrastructure used to control us. with the way things are now, the idea of such a network becoming prevailent seems like a long way off. but with the increasing amount of redundant electrical equipment, it could be that most things we need to do this are already here. and because of the immediate benefits to indiviuals - of saving money, if people start doing it and its easy to do, it could spread very quickly. things can change fast - good ideas can snowball - for example look at music/film sharing, torrent networks etc - it took off quickly, its unregulated and its a threat to industry. as unemployment grows so will the open source mentality, it could take off in all sorts of different directions, unregulated and spontanious. people have less money and more time and energy for art culture food love **our own network...** this article looks at some ideas for cooperative radio networks. The aim is to find solutions that are cheap and that people can set up themselves. Firstly a proposal of how we could take control of GSM mobile phone network. Secondly wide area internet. These are ideas, they need more thought - please add stuff. of course, community run radio communication has existed for over a hundred years in the form of amateur radio. it is an international network and has often been relied upon when other communications have broken down because of disasters. RTTY, bulitin board systems before internet etc. ====Software Defined radio==== [[http://www.ettus.com/products|{{ :usrp_box.jpg|usrp}}]] the universal software radio peripheral ([[http://www.ettus.com/products|USRP]]) is a Software defined radio. It is a computer controlled device, where various aspects of the radio's operation which traditionally were done by analogue hardware devices, in paticular the modulation and demodulation of the RF signal, are done digitally by software. This makes software defined radio devices flexible, adaptable and easy to modify. For example by changing the software that the USRP is running, it could act as a FM transmitter, GPS reciever, digital TV decoder, etc. Ofcourse some hardware changes (such as antennas and the USRPs 'daughter board' circuits) are required, but essentially it is software which defines the USRPs operation. The USRPs circuit design is published openly and the software it runs, [[http://gnuradio.org/trac|GNUradio]], is open source. * [[http://www.ettus.com/products|USRP]] - universal serial radio peripheral for use with [[http://gnuradio.org/trac|GNUradio]] * [[http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/06/70933|wired.com article on the USRP]] * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio|wikipedia article on software-defined radio]] * [[http://www.wirelessinnovation.org|wirelessinnovation.org]] has stuff about software defined radios (but seems positive about military/commercial applications) * [[http://www.tools4sdr.com|tools4sdr.com]] wiki about software defined radio. has stuff about USRP and WRAN standard. * [[http://openhpsdr.org|OpenHPSDR.org]] High performance SDR, an open source design [[http://www.arduino.cc|{{ http://arduino.cc/en/uploads/Main/arduino316.jpg?100|arduino}}]] Making electronics more flexible by by increasing the extent to which they are software controlled is a step forwards because they make projects using them more accessible and less likely to become redundant and thrown away. the [[http://www.arduino.cc|arduino]] is a good example of this. ====GSM mobile networks==== [[http://openbts.sourceforge.net|{{http://openbts.sourceforge.net/P8315216.jpg?100 |OpenBTS basestation }}]] [[http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest|{{ http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest/BRC.jpg?200 |burning man}}]] {{ :openbts.jpg|openbts}} The USRP has been used in projects to decode GSM mobile phone signals as well as new high definition TV signals. It is also used in a project to create easy to build mobile phone base stations, ([[http://openbts.sourceforge.net/|OpenBTS]]) which could be battery powered. OpenBTS mobile network has been trialed at [[http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest|Burning man festival]]. liscencing around using GSM signals is an issue with this and it could be better to use a different or new standard, although this would mean modifying old phones which could be tricky. * [[http://openbts.sourceforge.net/|OpenBTS]] * [[http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/doc/exploring-gnuradio.html|Exploring GNU radio]] article * [[http://openbts.blogspot.com/|The OpenBTS Chronicles]] [[http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest|OpenBTS at Burning man 08]] * [[http://www.rowetel.com|Rowetel]] blog about free telephony, developing world telephony, open hardware, renewables * [[http://wiki.thc.org/gsm|GSM Scanner Project]] - seems to have gone down - why? * [[http://blog.thc.org/index.php?/archives/1-GSM-Researcher-stopped-at-Heathrow-Airport-by-UK-government-officials.html|GSM researcher stopped at heathrow airport by UK government officials]] While taking control of GSM networks would obviously be empowering. it would be better to have some sort of universal signal which could be used for internet and phone, with transmitters that could be easily set up and moved around in vehicles or whatever to link traveller sites and alternative communities as well as people living in cities. ====wide area internet==== A standard for WRAN (wireless regional area networks), IEEE 802.22 has been developed, which will use VHF and UHF bands, previously used by TV broadcasting. The standard is likely to be used by commercial internet service providers to cover rural areas - internet base stations could operate over a 60km radius, like TV transmitters. It is the first international standard to use 'cognitive radio' to eliminate interference with existing TV signals. This makes it likely that transmission equipment will be software defined - which means it could be reprogrammed for use by us. * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.22|IEEE 802.22 WRAN]] wikipedia article * [[http://ieee802.org/22|ieee802.org/22]] official IEEE site * [[http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/wireless/ieee-802-22/ieee80222-wran-standard.php| ieee802.22 WRAN standard]] article on radio-electronics.com a lot of people would say that we dont really need these things, better to leave linking up with people to chance and magic, and to learn from people around you. what we really need is good food, it makes us feel good and have loads of energy, and to be outdoors, around plants, getting muddy and the only way to have these things forever is learn now by growing things. its easy to see how this is good for mental and physical health. but a lot of us have grown up in a pretty twisted place and cant leave now. something seems really appealing about dirty urban places, phones, computers, programming... ====free/community communication projects/sites==== * [[http://www.communitywireless.org/|{{http://www.communitywireless.org/themes/CommunityWireless/images/communitywireless.jpg?100|communitywireless.org}}]].org * [[http://netsukuku.freaknet.org/|Netsukuku]] * [[http://www.consume.net/|Consume.net]] * [[http://www.freeswitch.org|freeswitch]] software telephone platform * [[http://www.zetatalk.com/info/tinfo14a.htm]] * [[http://www.qsl.net/n9zia|Green bay professional packet radio qsl.net/n9zia]] has a lot of diy projects using 2.4 GHz wireless * [[https://openwrt.org|OpenWRT]] Customisable firmware for wireless routers, eg: Linksys * [[http://www.bartg.org.uk|british amateur radio teledata group]]