Hello everybody!
So, last week-end was a LibreMesh themed week-end, and this is a report
of what happened during it.
On Friday the 19th, I was invited to Radio Campus in Brussels, for the
"Radio Source" program, where they talk about current Free Software news
and the world of Open Source development.
I had the opportunity to talk with the hosts for about an hour about
LibreMesh, why the project was created, and how it was used in 2024. I
also talked about what a mesh network is, what are its purposes, and
what LibreMesh offers regarding mesh networks. To end the discussion, I
talked shortly about the cable purpose auto-detection, and I spent some
time explaining the Pirania captive portal, as a tool for communities to
fund a mesh network.
We also discussed a bit of the CrowdStrike issues that happened that
morning, as en end-point of the program. To close it out, I invited
people to join the Linux Install Party happening on the 21st, and to
bring their old routers.
The archive is available here
https://redif.src.brussels/ (Pick 2024 and
then select the file from the 19th of July).
On Saturday the 20th, I spent the whole day at the Caldarium, the HQ of
Neutrinet, a small independent internet service provider in Belgium.
(
https://caldarium.be/en:start). There, we set up a working mesh network
using two types of routers:
- Belkin RT3200
- WiFix WE826-T2
We setup this network in preparation of Sunday, where a Linux Install
Party was organized, for people to come with their router if they were
interested, and flash their router to add it to the Caldarium's new mesh
network.
During that day, I flashed my first LibreMesh routers, which was a bit
of a challenge, but I could make use of their super powerful machines,
which created images in a fraction of the time that my laptop took to
create one. With that setup, I could tinker with the different options
more easily.
So, on Sunday the 21st, we had that Linux Install Party. A lot of people
came, but few of them were here for the LibreMesh part of the event. Two
people came with a router Philips CIA7620, which was sadly not supported
by OpenWRT (it seems that no Philips routers are supported by OpenWRT).
The reason many people had the same old model of router is because it
was one of the basic router sent by the ISPs when you subscribed to an
internet pack.
I tried to flash a generic LibreMesh image on them maybe in a spark of
crazy luck it would've worked out, but it didn't.
So in the end of the day, we didn't manage to expand the mesh network
that we setup on Saturday, but it was great to explain LibreMesh to
curious people coming in, and see that they were interested in this kind
of software, and thinking about setting something up in their respective
communities. After that I -of course- directed them to the LibreMesh
website, to the community here in the mailing list and to the Matrix
channel.
All-in-all, it was a fantastic week-end of learning for me, and I had a
great time! I was surrounded by people way more network-savvy than
myself, and I learned a lot on how they approached network management,
and managing their ISP servers. I had the opportunity to learn a lot,
and understand how it relates to the services offered by LibreMesh.
-Nemael
-Maël Panouillot
On 2024-07-18 12:55, Mael Panouillot wrote:
>
> I've got more details about the radio event!
>
> It will be tomorrow the 19th, from 18h to 19h30, on frequency 92.1 FM
> in Brussels, or on their website https://www.radiocampus.be/. It will
> be completely in French, and should be archived. I will give the
> archive link once I have it :)
>
> it is a very short notice, sorry for that, but I will talk about mesh
> networks in general, and also about LibreMesh itself. (the communities
> system, the configurations, etc) So if there is anything I should
> mention about LibreMesh (kind of marketing-wise, if there is a new
> version to mention, or new "broad-level" features that would be good
> for people to know, and that I should relay, don't hesitate to send me
> an email or a message on Matrix!
>
> Looking forward to the event, and to the few days after :)
>
> -Nemael
> On 2024-07-17 11:34, bruno vianna wrote:
>> Great news, Mael! Congrats.
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 11:33 AM Mael Panouillot via LibreMesh
>> <libremesh@???> wrote:
>>
>> Hello everybody
>>
>> I've been lucky to be invited to Radio Campus the 19th of July,
>> in their
>> program "Radio Source", to talk about LibreMesh!
>>
>> Radio campus is a radio residing in the campus of the ULB in
>> Brussels,
>> the program will be in French, and it will be about mesh networks,
>> LibreMesh, and maybe my specific project if there is time.
>>
>> It will be broadcasted on the radio waves in Belgium, at
>> frequency 92.1
>> FM, and on their website https://www.radiocampus.be/
>>
>> I don't know the details yet (such as when and how), I will
>> update this
>> mail chain with more details once they become clearer.
>>
>> The days after that, on the 20th and the 21st, I will work with the
>> Caldarium in Brussels to install LibreMesh and mesh networks on
>> various
>> routers, during a Linux Install Party. I will keep a list of the
>> routers
>> we try to install LibreMesh on, to add to the compatible routers
>> list.
>>
>> I'm looking forward to these events, and to tell about how
>> they've went :)
>>
>> -Nemael
>> --
>> LibreMesh mailing list
>> LibreMesh@???
>> https://www.autistici.org/mailman/listinfo/libremesh
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> bruno@??? ▀─█▄██▄▀▄
>> http://brunocaldasvianna.com ─█▄██▄▀█▀█▄
>> telegram+twitter: @brunovianna ▀─█▄██▄▀█▀█▄▌██─█▌█▌
>>
>>
>>
