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[[file:images/mesh_screenshot.jpg]]
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#+END_CENTER
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-Mesh networks are useful as a quick way to make a fully decentralised communications system which is not connected to the internet. Think festivals, hacker conferences, onboard ships at sea, disaster/war zones, small business internal office communications, protests, remote areas of the world, scientific expeditions and off-world space colonies. All the cool stuff. The down side is that you can't access any internet content. The upside is that you can securely communicate with anyone on the local mesh. No ISPs. No payments or subscriptions beyond the cost of obtaining the hardware. Systems need to be within wifi range of each other for the mesh to be created. It can be an ultra-convenient way to do purely local communications.
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+Mesh networks are useful as a quick way to make a fully decentralised communications system which is not connected to or reliant upon the internet. Think festivals, hacker conferences, onboard ships at sea, disaster/war zones, small business internal office communications, protests, remote areas of the world, scientific expeditions and off-world space colonies. All the cool stuff. The down side is that you can't access any internet content. The upside is that you can securely communicate with anyone on the local mesh. No ISPs. No payments or subscriptions beyond the cost of obtaining the hardware. Systems need to be within wifi range of each other for the mesh to be created. It can be an ultra-convenient way to do purely local communications.
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* Ready made images
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** Client images
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-"Client" isn't exactly the right term, but it's a mesh peer with a user interface. These images can be copied to a USB drive, then you can plug it into a laptop/netbook/desktop machine and boot from it. You will probably also need an Atheros USB wifi dongle, because most built-in wifi usually requires proprietary firmware.
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+"Client" isn't exactly the right term, but it's a mesh peer with a user interface. These images can be copied to a USB drive, then you can plug it into a laptop/netbook/desktop machine and boot from it. You will probably also need an Atheros USB wifi dongle, because most built-in wifi usually requires proprietary firmware. In the commands below substitute /dev/sdX with the USB drive device, excluding any trailing numbers (eg. /dev/sdb).
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#+begin_src bash
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+sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
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wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/mesh-client-i386.img.xz
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wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/mesh-client-i386.img.xz.sig
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gpg --verify mesh-client-i386.img.xz.sig
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@@ -37,11 +38,12 @@ dd bs=1M if=mesh-client-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
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If you're in an emergency and don't have Atheros wifi dongles then there is also an "insecure" image which contains some proprietary wifi drivers which may work with a wider range of laptops. Proprietary drivers *are not recommended* because they're unsupportable and may be exploitable or contain malicious antifeatures which fundamentally compromise the security of the network. However, the trade-off between security/maintainability and simply having the ability to communicate at all may be a valid one in some situations.
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#+begin_src bash
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+sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
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wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/mesh-client-i386-insecure.img.xz
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wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/mesh-client-i386-insecure.img.xz.sig
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gpg --verify mesh-client-i386-insecure.img.xz.sig
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sha256sum mesh-client-i386-insecure.img.xz
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-
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+2aa1552d695485505b6a145857e5cebb7dc365dbf9614488f474bf5ac1149473
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unxz mesh-client-i386-insecure.img.xz
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dd bs=1M if=mesh-client-i386-insecure.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
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#+end_src
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@@ -50,6 +52,7 @@ dd bs=1M if=mesh-client-i386-insecure.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
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Routers are intended to build network coverage for an area using small and low cost hardware. You can bolt them to walls or leave them on window ledges. They don't have any user interface and their only job is to move network traffic across the mesh. Copy the image to a microSD card and insert it into the router, plug in an Atheros wifi dongle and power on. That should be all you need to do.
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*** Beaglebone Black
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#+begin_src bash
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+sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
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wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/mesh-router-beaglebone-black.img.xz
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wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/mesh-router-beaglebone-black.img.xz.sig
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gpg --verify mesh-router-beaglebone-black.img.xz.sig
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Bob Mottram
8 years ago