mmk92
Hello geeks, given that we cannot do anything about the internet in Lebanon, why don't we try to solve some of the problems we're having ourselves? Most of us eat away our internet quota over media such as steam games/movies/music...etc
We should start some sort of file sharing initiative, some way to reduce our download data redundancy. A common use for this is to download ever growing Steam game sizes. Such a server can be hosted in a sponsored cafe where we can have some sort of reward/payment system. The sponsored may either charge a small fee for running the servers, or if the idea is attractive enough the file sharing could be free and it would bring in business to the cafe. If hosting the servers for free isn't an attractive business model, a reward system can be implemented where contributors get extra credit that can be used to consume other content on the server, while people who don't have credit can pay a (reasonable/attractive) fee that can appeal to both the business and the consumers.
MrClass
I have another approach in mind.
I always thought of making a free local link in beirut where anyone could get onto for sharing files and playing LAN games. This would be a collaborative project and is funded by donations; and the idea is that's its free for all forever. I haven't worked out all the technicalities, but always thought about the possibility of this project.
mmk92
It requires far more work than anyone would want to invest in, it's an amazing idea in the real world but meen 2elo jlede IF(big if) enough people pitched in. The idea of it being centralised in a business is that it might be a source of revenue for said business and hence after careful planning it might be plausible.
Another solution is having a collaborative network ofbgeeks sharing some sort of private wireless connection from their houses and sharing data with some sort of app that has a grid that shows neerby geeks and files that they may be sharing. This solution would be beautiful in the perfect world but it raises many security concerns and I'm not sure if enough oeooel would go through the trouble of setting up such setups in their homes.
mhamadhdb
If anyone wants to setup any long range links im ready to help installing and do the confgs
rolf
When I first got "cable internet", like a long time ago :) I started a webserver on my computer to list all the MP3 that I had (gigabytes and gigabytes).
Back then many on the cable lan to had some small software called lanchat or something, allowing you to chat with others on your lan. There were many people on the lan, and I was hoping that they would be interested in my local music sharing website but it did not work that well :)
Anyway it was a while ago and things have changed a little. It's probably less common for users to be allowed (let alone encouraged, such as in this case) to connect to each other, but if it is then it is easy to set up a file sharing website for everyone on the same LAN/cable provider.
Or maybe one can fantasize about more advanced stuff, such as open mesh networks over wifi.
I had also looked into long-range wifi and found a video on dailymotion explaining how to make a home-made directional antenna for long range transmission.
Prince
I don't think long range links will do the trick cause it will be illegal you need a confirmation from minister of telecommunication
lets guess you took the the confirmation we have the second problem will be keeping the electricity on all "AP"
3rd problem is bandwidth usage on every AP if we Google a bit on the best transfer rate for a Mikrotik in general is almost 20.3 MB/sec
lets assume 1 user is taking a file which is 20 GB From X to Y it will take him 16.81 minutes to finish plus all users can't share files they all needs to wait for him
and the last problem is nature which include rain / wind and the first enemy of electrical equipments which is thunder .
the one said above which i could think of i guess many other issues .
NuclearVision
This will be a great misadvantage for ISPs. They won't allow such a thing.
And rolf, just a thought, did you manage to share your files from your machine? Because usually cable guys don't give you a private ip. It is shared.
Edit: probably a similar approach would be making a file bank, in a certain place, probably with many branches. So that people could visit those branches with their disks.
The push to home thing is quite hard.
rolf
NuclearVision wroteThis will be a great misadvantage for ISPs. They won't allow such a thing.
And rolf, just a thought, did you manage to share your files from your machine? Because usually cable guys don't give you a private ip. It is shared.
It's a shared IP of course, but all clients of the LAN could connect to each other, so anyone else on the cable provider lan could (not 100% sure) open that page by connecting to my IP. Might have been a dynamic IP, I can't remember.
NuclearVision
Ah okay, yeah you mean the private ip from the 'station' he uses. It is dynamic.
rolf
Yeah I mean something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x... and then if you give it to someone else in your the same private lan they can see it. In this case the Lan was pretty big, like for the whole area. It is also possible that anyone with the same ISP can access it too.
geekevo
Government won't allow it if it gets big though for "Security Concerns".
NuclearVision
rolf wroteYeah I mean something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x... and then if you give it to someone else in your the same private lan they can see it. In this case the Lan was pretty big, like for the whole area. It is also possible that anyone with the same ISP can access it too.
Nice idea, you could probably setup a dns so the dynamic ip won't be a problem, specially if your friends use the same isp.
MrElie
the best way i see this working is by putting mikrotik's in certain areas. long rage dishes with mikrotik costs a lot of money. i work as an IT manager for a company and we have about 10 branches which are all connected through one network which i did all the setup.
The government wont interfere with your mikrotiks ( i also have an ISP license which shouldn't be a problem ) but as long as its a private network and not advertised it should work flawlessly.
however thinking about the transfer rate is true as @Prince but there are mikrotiks that have gigabit ports which can be lot faster.
this theoretically can be easily done but the cost is high and it's very hard to reach to a wide audience.
Georges00
Main idea behind this is piracy. Games movies and music.
I do pirate myself, but this is piracy on a large scale and distributing copyrighted work.
We have lenient copyright laws (or non existent?) but I have no idea what would happen on a wider scale.
Stygmata
Mikrotiks work on the 2.4 or 5 ghz ... It is congested..you can try a russin 6.4 ghz or an x polarization ( or even make your own 6 ghz antenna )
I use the aforementioned for cctv connection .. Around 500mbps per link
TheStunMan
Come on guys you are worried about the government finding out about this little project while publishing your ideas on here like its very difficult for a security agent to find it. Anyhow sharing files is a very difficult task I suggest a local torrent server where anyone can upload/download the needed files but here's the one thing no one mentioned what files are you guys talking about ? Games/movies sounds lame tbh..
MrElie
@Stygmata you used to have a net cafe in jdeideh? Right?
Stygmata
MrElie wrote@Stygmata you used to have a net cafe in jdeideh? Right?
No