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Shy Boy's avatar

OK, so mobile ad-hoc wireless networks (MANETs) are a very real thing. They've been the subject of significant research effort, and are regularly deployed in military operations. Stationary mesh networks are even more prevalent. All recent wifi equipment is mesh-mode capable: 802.11s was standardized ten years ago. Bluetooth can do mesh mode too, although it's not often seen in consumer equipment. Its industrial sibling, ZigBee, is widely deployed in manufacturing and warehouse operations. But there are some significant fundamental challenges with mesh networking, and some good technical and economic reasons why the world runs on cell towers and fiber. Of course, nowadays you can have your very-own "microcell" station, maybe even with cheap software-defined radio. If the cops all have Stingrays now, why not you? Because laws, that's why... so if you were going to BBB some durable baseline comms infrastructure without coming afoul of the FCC and the telco cartels, you might instead choose LoRa... but you'd have to shed an awful lot of bloat. Those pipes are thin.

But can you trust your handheld device? Where's it made? How long will it last? Can you repair it? Customize it? These are important questions, and getting to "yes" is a long hard road. See https://betrusted.io -- coming soon!

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Gigolo Joe's avatar

Your point is well taken. We have to stop participating in *their* systems. Imagine if everyone closed their bank account and switched to a local credit union. It would neuter TPTB overnight.

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