Hey, I'm Oatmeal Joey, and can we develop a style of internet, of WIFI, that is like ham radio, like short wave radio, like peer to peer, like cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, like blockchain networks like Steem, like Bit Torrent, like email, where internet is able to go directly from computer to computer wirelessly around the world bypassing ISP and other things?
Thanks for your interest! Ham radio operators have been using various packet switching techniques for global digital communications since at least the 1960's. Back in 1995 I wanted to to create a license-free ad-hoc peer-to-peer network and I realized the key was to have many nodes covering small areas talking to each other through routers.
Back then WiFi did not exist, cell phones were analog, and routers cost $10,000. What I wanted to do required an equipment distribution density that just didn't exist. It was a chicken and egg problem, but I did manage to get a peer-to-peer radio network built out (proving the concept) covering most of Austin Texas and used it to provide an always-on 3MB Internet service to many customers before cable or DSL existed. I found radios that operated in license free modes that could send and receive data over a limited area at rates up to 3Mbps. Unfortunately they cost around $900 each! I repurposed old junk PC's by installing multiple Ethernet interfaces and a floppy drive backwards inside the case with boot code written in assembly language that would turn it into a router when powered up and connected radios to the Ethernet interfaces. These were placed at strategic locations on rooftops of tall buildings and talked to each other in a peer-to-peer system while also providing coverage areas to subscribers who had a unit with only one radio and an Ethernet interface to connect to their internal network. I wanted to build small modules with a radio and a router that could be incorporated in phones and other devices but investors were not interested and there is a long bloody story behind that that one day needs to be told. If you are interested, there are some graphics and posters from that endeavour at this link. We had plans for tablets, streaming players, VOIP, and many things that we take for granted today.
Today cell phones all have wifi and wifi routers are everywhere. If software on the phones and routers could listen for neighbors and pick up and route packets to other neighbors an ad-hoc network could form that would function like the Internet but not have any service providers. Your phone (or pc or whatever) could keep the packets meant for it and route packets onward to more distant locations through anyone within radio range who would then also do the same. Today this could be done with a routing system module replacement and some small changes to the wifi and other protocols. There are issues to work out: packets would go through many more hops so the latency (time for the packet to get to its destination) would be much higher. This would make interactive use sluggish over large areas but streaming would be OK. Also, areas with sparse wifi coverage might be inaccessible unless someone showed up to act as relay. Another problem is that the routing protocols for IP currently used become unwieldy in these kind of networks. All of these issues could be addressed. If more spectrum were allocated and other regulatory issues addressed the speed could be dramatically improved, ultimately providing even more bandwidth than with our current fiber "pipes" because data would be spread out over entire geographies and inaccessible areas could become reachable. The routing problems could be addressed by changes to the way IP addresses are assigned and routed. We experimented successfully with self-generating IP addresses derived from GPS coordinates and routing daemons using that knowledge in addition to discovery only of adjacent neighbors. IPFS, Steem, blockchain technologies, would make a great software infrastructure on top of that to replace DNS and other currently centralized services and application.
The fact is, once worked out all of this could be packaged in a free app for your phone and firmware upgrades for wifi routers and, if people were interested, this new free open source global Internet could become a reality in days simply by people installing an app or replacing the firmware on their router. That's all it would take to make it real. With "net neutrality" and security built into its core a new global Internet owned by everyone and no one would just appear out of nowhere while the "Old Internet" would be relegated to being a shopping mall on its periphery.
I use Ubuntu Mate, of Linux, for my OS and I see ad-hoc as a WIFI option. For the future for people, I would suggest Bit Torrent style of peer to peer ad-hoc WIFI if people are not already trying to do that.
I would suggest WIFI and ISP blockchain networks that could pay people to rent out hard drives, RAM, GHZ, speed, space, nodes, routers, modems, cables, satellites, dishes, phones, computers, laptops, devices, tablets, servers, and anything to help with blockchain internet that can be as decentralized as much as possible or through paid cryptocurrencies compensation, as in paid benefits and also paid in reputation points like they do here on Steem.
I would love to have a phone that could send an email, for example, from America to China through the air through like a short wave WIFI signal that could travel that far like radio but without nodes or anything. And if that is not possible to do yet, then we should find a way...... just Just like how Star Trek Voyager had to find a way to send a signal to earth from the the Delta Quadrum. I want to see more rivals and competition with ISP and phone companies and power plants and electricity companies and education and health care and entertainment and transportation and food and many things. Can you surf the web through FTP or other things that are not the normal HTTPS protocol or DNS and/or other things like you were saying...... Or or what do they call it for the normal path to accessing internet and everything?
I use Ubuntu Mate myself on an old PC that has problems running newer OS's. It's primarily used to browse the web for quick lookups as well as SSH'ing into other machines on my local net when the need arises and I don't want to walk to another building or room and a tablet just won't do. It's a great, compact, fast OS with a simple clean user interface!
FTP is an older protocal than HTTP but very similar. It's still used for downloading and uploading files from servers. If you create web pages it is often the method used to upload your pages to a server. If you substitute "ftp://" instead of "http://" in your address bar in your web browser and specify the name of an ftp server instead of the web server you will get a listing of files and directories that you can browse and download from. You can also replace the DNS name of a server (ftp or web) with its IP address. Most servers these days make sure you are addressing them by name but some will respond to just their IP address. Try it!
Your suggestions on methods to share resources are something that we all need to start thinking about. How do we do this fairly without someone once again hogging ownership and exerting vital controls over the entire network yet compensating them for their generosity in sharing?
The Ad-hoc protocol on wifi is an interesting start but it has a number of technical flaws that prevent it from scaling up to global (or even city-wide) scope. The way it connects people in a small group is great but it needs routing protocols that can address a much larger address space, physically and logically, as well as better ways to keep it from getting bogged down with many users.
The problem of having your phone signal go directly from America to China, even if it had the power and capability, is that your phone would be the only call possible at the time. Small coverage areas make it possible to have many simultaneous "calls" going on at the same time by hopping signals from one small area to another.
There is so much to be said for decentralization, not just for communication infrastructure, but for energy and even transportation. I believe the we would all be much better off if we each had the means to harness the energy we need for our own needs and had a means to share the excess. Even in transportation I worked on a project looking at building on the idea of sending packages using tubes kind of like used in drive up tellers at banks but much larger, using standard packaging and addressing, and physical routers that could scan and send packages down the right pipe every step along the way. It would be expensive to put it in at first but it could follow the existing right-of-ways of streets and other utility easements and would replace our current delivery services with something that would be much cheaper, cleaner, and faster in the long run. Maybe we need Elon Musk's Boring company to make a small digger for digging 4 foot wide tunnels? Maybe he needs another project?
It's important to remember that breakthroughs happen in spurts, not incrementally. They are discontinuities of thought. We think a certain way and that constrains how we see the world and what is possible. Breakthroughs shatter those ways of being and afterword the world becomes a different place with different possibilities and we think "Of course! Why didn't I see that before?" We all have that ability. We should use and exercise it. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
How does short wave radio work? How does HAM radio work? My brother studied HAM radio and I saw some of it as a kid. So, can you use HAM like a walky talky, like a phone, and call somebody on the other side of the world? If you can talk to somebody via HAM radio, then why can't you use a HAM radio to call a special HAM RADIO / COMPUTER hybrid where you could remote access the computer desktop from your computer which is connected to a HAM radio or something similar to a HAM radio which is also able to communicate not just with radios but also with other computers on the other side of the world?
Do you have a NEW INTERNET APP, free or not, like you were saying, or do you know people who do ad-hoc, bit torrent peer to peer internet and networking and stuff? I know you were working on something like this before but they didn't wanna....
And can a WIFI signal go around the world like a short wave HAM radio signal, and if not then how could we make WIFI signals go farther?
WIFI is limited in power by regulation. It puts out electromagnetic radiation just like a light bulb, but is limited to 0.1 to 0.5 Watts and the waves have a much longer wavelength so you can't see them with your eyes. Compare that to the light of a 60W incandescent (or 6W LED) bulb to see how far it goes. WIFI transmitters are like a small LED. Ham radio transmitters might have 1,000 Watts of power and some commercial broadcasters might put out a million watts. I remember a local AM radio station bragging about their "50,000 watt signal" years ago.
Another factor is the way the signal moves across the planet. Longer waves can bounce or refract between the ground and ionosphere allowing them to curve their way around the planet. WIFI wavelengths can't do that, they are too short.
Another consideration is the need to have many simultaneous signals in play. Before cell phones the phone company had mobile phone service but it could only handle a few calls at a time in an entire city. Cell service addressed that by reducing the coverage area by reducing power and breaking up the geography into many small "cells" to handle today's volume of simultaneous traffic.
Normally WIFI covers only a few hundred feet at best in open country but with careful engineering and high gain directional antennas one can concentrate the signal into a searchlight beam and increase range at the expense of breadth. We were able to routinely get reliable 5 mile links using WIFI equipment and, during tests, were able to establish 10 mile point-to-point links but could not maintain them.
I wish I had a NEW INTERNET APP like I mentioned. Although bits and pieces are being talked about and some pieces are showing up in apps and other software I don't believe a complete package exists yet although it is well within technical ability to create it today. I challenge the current generation of knowledgeable and capable people out there to put in the time and energy to craft and make freely available. I'll be glad to help where I can.
Any good suggestions as to what we should call it?
Can we redesign WIFI waves from too short to longer waves that can reach around the world like HAM radio? Is WIFI regulated by the federal government of the United States and maybe by other countries too? Does WIFI have patents or something? Like copyrights? If that is a problem, then can people invent open source systems that are not regulated? If a radio can send a long wave, then why are computer routers not doing the same thing? I would call it blockchain WIFI.
If you had 2 computers, one in Texas and one in India, would you know how to remote access the one computer from the other computer using maybe whatever you have to use to send long wave HAM radio signals or through other methods?
Can we redesign WIFI waves from too short to longer waves that can reach around the world like HAM radio? Is WIFI regulated by the federal government of the United States and maybe by other countries too? Does WIFI have patents or something? Like copyrights? If that is a problem, then can people invent open source systems that are not regulated? If a radio can send a long wave, then why are computer routers not doing the same thing? I would call it blockchain WIFI.
If you had 2 computers, one in Texas and one in India, would you know how to remote access the one computer from the other computer using maybe whatever you have to use to send long wave HAM radio signals or through other methods?
One can send data over longer wavelengths but the tradeoff is the longer the wavelength (hence lower the frequency) the lower the data rate (look up Nyquist and Shannon if you want to start learning about that). The US military sends data globally over extremely low frequencies (look up ELF and HARP for starters) to reach submarines around the world but they transmit with a lot of power (more than you can get out of an AC outlet) and the data rate is in a few bits per MINUTE, not megabits per SECOND. Useful if you can fit your say in a word but not much good for even a tweet which could easily take an hour or two to send. Of course, the other issue is manmade. Regulations (some by country, many by international treaty) prohibit people from emitting electromagnetic waves except with certain wavelengths and power without getting a license or permission. In the US it is the FCC that regulates that.
How long are sky waves or Short Wave Radio Waves when compared to how low the data rate it may have?
So, I like what you said about ELF and HARP, but yeah, it took a lot of power to do that. And it was slow compared to video streaming or even a tweet like you said.
KNL says they are working on developing shortwave WIFI. They are from Finland according to Swling.com. They spent $10 million USD these past few years so far it seems.
I don't know enough to know if KNL or others can do shortwave WIFI. And I am also reading about what you were working on too. And I think it is better if we could try to find different ways of accessing internet, be it through the air, through cables, maybe through worm holes if we were in the Star Trek future, and maybe even through powerlines......
I think what you were and are doing can continue to grow.... we can do ad-hoc or better networking things like you said....
And it is true that people and corporations and governments can always try to monopolize and take over markets including Internet and computer related software, hardware, systems, like you were saying. You asked about how we stop them from hogging up too much of the Internet, of the ISP structures, other infrastructures, that help connect people with people, Internet, computers, phones, and everything.
But my answer is that we cannot really stop them all of the time except to keep things as open source and copy left and open to the public as possible through capitalism and everything: I believe in blockchain WIFI systems: we should reward people for helping in doing what internet service providers (ISP) do. Instead of being forced to go to Comcast or others, we should all be able to be our own internet service providers to and for each other. And the internet can be a lot slower that way but we could slowly get paid doing it and we can all slowly upgrade our hardwares and everything and the internet could grow in more organic ways that way.
I want more competition in the ISP world and in anything else that could help give people more choices in ISP, etc....
What is IPFS?
IPFS stands for InterPlanetary File System. It is a unified file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files. A search will find you much more, but you might start at the IPFS web site and read the overview. You might think of it as treating the entire Internet as a hard drive while distributing the actual storage across the devices of all users in encrypted form. It is the underlying file system used by Steemit and D.Tube.