wlan slovenija
| wlan slovenija | |
|---|---|
| Network Name (short) | wlan slovenija |
| Location | Ljubljana, Slovenia |
| Home page | http://wlan-si.net |
| Nodes database | wlan slovenija database |
| Active users | more than 42000 (nonunique, as of June 2010) |
| Operational | Yes |
| Commercial | No |
Started in beginning of 2009 the wlan slovenija open wireless network of Slovenia aims to connect Slovenia's public, artistic and cultural, production, educational, research and all other interested spaces and individuals into an autonomous and independent wireless network above Slovenia, in which there is enough space, freedom and possibilities for new content, interaction and communication, research, data exchange, services and alternative access to Internet content and services.
General description
wlan slovenija open wireless network is an example of a wireless community network. It uses common and widespread wireless technologies based on IEEE 802.11 standards, open source systems and because of its wireless and innovative organic nature its spread and access to the network is limited only with participation of users in it: more users there is more the network is spread and useful, for more purposes users can use it, more and richer content it provides.
Around the network, which is in the first place an initiative, a community of people and organizations is forming and thus ideas, motivations and concepts around the network are various as participants in the network are various. But mostly all agree about common reasons for the network: free access and sharing of knowledge and information, building an alternative media and because it is interesting, educational and fun. More people put up nodes of the wireless networks, more people share their Internet uplinks with others, more everybody gains.
wlan slovenija tries to attract also people without technical skills but who still share common philosophy. Because of this wlan slovenija focuses on ease to use, proven good practices, polished open source technologies which not just work but also have good user experience, combined with education, lectures and workshops to teach people about wireless technologies and possible ways of contributing to the network. Nodes used are as secure as possible while still open and accessible and they protect shared uplinks with using VPN to connect to the rest of the network.
Nodewatcher
For easier planning, deployment and maintenance of the network nodewatcher open source system has been developed. It is a centralized web user interface which enables easier coordination and planning of a network with monitoring at the same time. Furthermore, it is also a web based image generator which generates a customized image for a given network node, so no node configuration after flashing is necessary.
The idea is that for participation in the network almost no technical skills are required. Users can simply register location of a new node and select some basic properties of a new node, where system fills more technical properties with good-practice defaults (the system also allows customization if the user wishes so). nodewatcher system then produces customized OpenWrt based firmware image with all configuration already included so the user just have to flash the wireless router, connect the node to electricity and possible uplink and node is connected to the network over VPN or wirelessly if there is a neighboring node somewhere in vicinity.
Afterward, nodewatcher monitors the node and displays gathered data about its performance in intuitive and graphical ways so users can understand how their node is working, how many users are using it, how much of their shared bandwidth is consumed... And all this through longer periods of time so better understanding of how the node interacts with the rest of the network is possible and easier planning of future nodes.
External links
- wlan slovenija web site
- nodewatcher project web site
- source code