Author Topic: PirateBox - Portable FLOSS file sharing network (Read 9,345 times)

Renegade · « **on:** January 15, 2013, 02:30 PM »

Garrr! Got yer PirateBox? Nay? Here be the way!

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http://daviddarts.com/piratebox-diy/

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PirateBox is a self-contained mobile communication and file sharing device. Simply turn it on to transform any space into a free and open communications and file sharing network.

Share (and chat!) Freely Inspired by pirate radio and the free culture movements, PirateBox utilizes Free, Libre and Open Source software (FLOSS) to create mobile wireless communications and file sharing networks where users can anonymously chat and share images, video, audio, documents, and other digital content.

Private and Secure PirateBox is designed to be private and secure. No logins are required and no user data is logged. Users remain completely anonymous – the system is purposely not connected to the Internet in order to subvert tracking and preserve user privacy.

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http://wiki.daviddarts.com/Piratebox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKjxOEWaQk

Next week, keelhaulin' Chris Dodds!

40hz · « **Reply #1 on:** January 15, 2013, 02:45 PM »

The perfect use for all those old "underpowered" laptops gathering dust in closets. Plug it in, turn it on, walk away...

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Stealthing it as a WAP is brilliant. They're so ubiquitous these days. How many people would ever notice that there's suddenly one additional WAP in the room they're sitting in?

I'd personally prefer mine, however, with a slice of Raspberry Pi.

Boxed up and glued to some out of the way surface (ideally looking like it belonged there

) - and preferably with access to a solar power source. It would be the ultimate manifestation of an affordable "set & abandon in place" communications network! "Green" too.

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superboyac · « **Reply #2 on:** January 15, 2013, 03:35 PM »

omg...that first picture ^^^ is awesome! What is that and where do you get it?!

40hz · « **Reply #3 on:** January 15, 2013, 05:11 PM »

^Top is the punk journalist character Spider Jerusalem from Warren Ellis's cyberpunk graphic novel Transmetropolitan. A good read if you like dystopian cyberpunk.

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Below is uncropped and full size. Check out the detail!

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superboyac · « **Reply #4 on:** January 15, 2013, 05:21 PM »

thanks. Yes, i love it. The detail is awesome...also what I was going for in my cartoons. So another reference for me.

SeraphimLabs · « **Reply #5 on:** January 15, 2013, 05:51 PM »

Sounds like a return of the infamous Bluebox.

For those of you who remember Phreaking, you probably know what I'm talking about.

40hz · « **Reply #6 on:** January 15, 2013, 06:39 PM »

^I do. But the BlueBox was used to generate operator tones that would allow you place calls or access long distance without going through a "Ma Bell" operator and paying for a call. There were also other colored boxes (including the much feared by telco security Vermilion+Gold box combination punch) that did "other" things too. Please don't ask how I know that.

This is a little more like the Fido BBS system in that it allows communications and file sharing between users without the communications being mediated or provided by a 3rd party since they're basically built into an automated host device.

I'm waiting to see if they eventually create a mechanism to mesh all these little babies together (very doable btw) and effectively create a localized broadband channel that doesn't use the telephone system or state/corporate sponsored internet/WAN backbone.

Now that would be a true 'pirate' network. Tom Jennings (self-proclaimed anarchist and FidoNet's creator) would have loved it.