Janmesh...
The
Janmesh network (SSID: http://janmesh.net ) uses a
CoOoOW stack (
cjdns over
OLSRD over open WiFi).
What it does:
It's a network layer deployed over both the internet, and both wifi mesh local networks, which grows and extends range as new station are joigning the mesh. It then provide a virtual network, and all the participants are just like if their where all on the same local lan. Accessing a machine at the other side of the town, or of the world, is as easy as access your home printer on your home lan.
What are the benefits?
Such a network is highly resistant to censorship and to severely disruptive situation like disasters, allowing to maintain citizen-operated networking service even if internet is down, and to still provide untakedownable, acentered/distributed system of internet-based communication tools and various services.
What do we need ?
- Linux/Unix-based computers with ad-hoc wifi able to run olsrd and cjdns : As of 2020, they have been here for more than a decade.
- It includes unexpensive Linux boards allowing to build a Janmesh box for less than USD 100.
- Modem-routers able to run cjdns and olsrd (read OpenWRT-operating routers) : Useful to build a cheap connectivity point to Janmesh distributing cjdns in your whole home lan and acting as a wifi node with neighbours at range.
- Phones finally allowing ad-hoc wifi (typically Linux phones) and olrsd/cjdns : As of 2020, they are hitting the market
Where are we now ?
Althought running Janmesh on a phone is quite adventurous and may require tweaking, running Janmesh on a linux device or computer, from neighbour to neighbour, using wifi or whatever else, is quite easy. To sum up, land stations are absolutely ready, and mobile stations are already here at some point.
Janmesh box
A
Janmesh box is a device that operates the mesh wifi network and that is plugged into your home lan internet box. It can instantly start peering with a neighbour at wifi range, immediately connect any cjdns-enabled home lan machine to the join acces mesh network, and is likely to provide, or can be easily set to provide, an internet-tunneled peering with a public peering server, unifiying then networks at the whole world level.
It is typically built from an old wifi modem-router, or an unexpensive SystemOnChip computer, or even an old laptop or simply any computer with at least one available extra wifi interface.
Besides distributing cjdns connectivity toward your home LAN, It can be also be used to host useful server services.
How is the Janmesh Project doing?
A full documentation to get a working CoOoOW stack with basic Ubuntu GNU/Linux computers is available. The network is up and runing at a local scale
Documentation and tutorials
Janmesh box (using an Ubuntu Linux device or computer)
Read how to, using wifi links and a CoOoOw stack, from scratch, setup the mesh network. Then, learn more about firefalls to secure (network) access to your devices.
Read the tutorial now.
Janmesh Box (using an old modem/router)
Learn how to flash an old modem/router with OpenWRT and turn it into
a mesh wifi CoOoOw station, wifi network node and range extender, and local-lan ethernet autopeerer for Janmesh/CoOoOw networks
Internet sharing (between two Linux/UNIX devices or other OSes with adaptations)
Lear how to use one machine that operate Janmesh over Wifi and that is connected to Internet through Ethernet to act as a gateway and NAT box in order to allow other devices with (meshing) wifi only to share its Internet access.
-Read more -
And now learn more about citizen-to-citizen networking future...
The base:
The connectivity to the mesh network can ben tunneled through a long-range directionnal radio link to connect distant communities
Or tunneled over Internet -or any other network medium- to rely distant places of the world
Frequently asked questions
Linphone
With Linphone you can pass audio and video calls over Cjdns, just knowing the IPv6 (Cjdns Address) of the people you want to call.
What can I do with a Janmesh in my neighbourhood already? Do I have to wait for further developments to make something useful?
In short, you don't have to wait. If you have physical or remote access to your Janmesh node station, you can just use out-of-the-box any network services such as SCP, HTTP or SFTP/FTP file transfer or just any other common protocol, with the requirement that you'll have to know the IPv6 adress of the machine you'll want to talk to, and that the protocol supports IPv6 adressing (some protocols require hostnames and are then not suitable).
Is Janmesh using only radio link? Can I use some other kind of networking medium?
You can use any networking medium to setup and operate your CoOoOw stack. You can use an ethernet cable to connect with a close neighbour, as well as associated BPL interfaces to connect with other homes using the same electrical power transformator than you (typically, your block and nearest ones).
Why Janmesh? Why spend your sweat and energy to propel the whole project?
I (
Shangri-l) am not sure. I'm having fun with experimenting neighbourhood networking since the early 2000's. I just cannot prevent myself to stop. I was hoping my close neighbours would read all this and mesh with me, to aae share files or text messages or build whatever useful. This hasn't happened yet. That's the bad side of network effect. But if a few people start to join Janmesh, it will become more attractive, and the more people will use it, the more people will use it. That's the good side of network effect.
Need support? To help people setting up mesh stations, Janmesh community now provides support, covering all the steps of a neighbour-to-neighbour network creation, from OS installation to configuration and update, including CoOoOw stack deployment. Send support inquiries to
janmesh@janmesh.netYou can also join the IRC live chat ; #janmesh channel on Freenode IRC network namely. If you don't get what all this mean, use this webchat link to get into the live chat chatroom
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