Resources
Learning materials, guides, tools, and links for building community networks and defending digital rights. All freely available.
Guides & Documents
- Building a Rural Mesh Network — A practical guide to planning and deploying mesh networks in rural communities. PDF.
- Building the People's Internet — An in-depth look at community mesh networking efforts and the NYC Mesh project.
- Althea Whitepaper — A proposal for incentivized mesh networking and decentralized bandwidth markets.
Mesh Networking Projects & Protocols
- cjdns — Encrypted IPv6 mesh networking. Routes through a distributed hash table. Used in the Hyperboria network.
- BATMAN-adv — Better Approach To Mobile Adhoc Networking. A Linux kernel module for mesh networking.
- LibreMesh — A modular framework for OpenWRT-based community wireless mesh networks.
- Yggdrasil Network — An early-stage experiment in scalable, self-arranging mesh networking using a compact routing scheme.
- Meshtastic — LoRa-based off-grid mesh communication for low-bandwidth text messaging. Works without internet infrastructure.
- NYC Mesh — A real-world community network in New York City. Great reference for how a large community mesh operates.
Hardware & Firmware
- OpenWrt — A Linux-based firmware for routers. The foundation for most community mesh deployments.
- Linux Wireless Networking — Technical documentation for Linux wireless subsystems relevant to building mesh hardware.
Digital Rights & Advocacy
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) — The leading nonprofit defending civil liberties in the digital world.
- Access Now — Defending and extending the digital rights of users around the world.
- Fight for the Future — Advocacy organization focused on internet freedom, net neutrality, and surveillance.
- Privacy Guides — Community-maintained recommendations for privacy-respecting tools and practices.
- Surveillance Self-Defense (EFF) — Tips, tools, and how-tos for protecting yourself online. From the EFF.
Further Reading
- Wireless Mesh Networking — Wikipedia — A solid overview of mesh network concepts, topology, and protocols.
- The Internet Archive — Preserving and providing free access to knowledge. The open internet in action.
Have a Resource to Share?
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