The Secret Internet

[thelonegunmen]

Had a couple of ideas, just in case of the threat of internet capping.
Short Wave Radio Internet. Surely someone has thought of some way to transmit packets and bits of info over shortwave right? I have no idea if this is possible, but if it were, it sure would be pretty amazing, almost like a free internet.
Internet Server Substations. Basically, you could have mobile and stashed stations. It would almost be like modern pirate radio, only transmitting service in a small radius, a couple of blocks perhaps? Basically you would be connecting wirelessly to a computer in the area downloading info and uploading info onto that computer for others to come along and connect with. If you had enough of these you could have pretty much a community owned and operated internet service, one free of government intrusion.

Anyone else have any ideas? Anyone see any flaws in mine, points of improvement?

[Ole Juul]

Re: The Secret Internet

Hehe, People have been doing this for a long time. Packet radio has been around since the 70's and it is still with us. The standard data link layer is called AX25. However, for the most part you're only going to get 9600bps which, although adequate for emergencies, is fairly boring for modern users. Faster speeds require special equipment which poses problems for the builder. You might want to check out the Wikipedia article for a bit of catch up.

As for current alternatives to the internet, there is still Fido which is a world wide network that is not dependent on the internet. It is also outside of government control. People who still use it do so for different reasons, but commonly it is because of the freedom, lack of spam, democratic ideals. Perhaps it's time to get yourself a modem and join the community. One of the interesting side effects of this type of technology is that it does not require more than an 8088 processor with 256K of ram. A single floppy machine with no hard drive will do. To me this just goes to prove my theory that we lose as much technology as we gain. Until technology stops being a "fashion statement", we'll never get ahead. Even if we did get ahead, we wouldn't be able to prove it because we don't know what we have forgotten. Memory is like that.