A Wireless Communications System that works When Cell Phones and the Internet are Down.
Last edited Sun Jan 12, 2014, 09:09 PM - Edit history (1)
Posted as a non-mainstream type of communication for when we can't or don't want to use the corporate infrastructure.
Fast Company
A Wireless Communications System That Works When Cell Phones, Internet Are Down
LifeNet lets computers and phones talk to each other without an Internet connection, which could come in handy after disasters that knock out communication networks.
One of the first things to disappear in the wake of a major disaster is reliable communication. Without access to cell phone service or the Internet, it's difficult for first responders--or anyone who wants to help out--to speak with each other. And while satellite phones work in these situations, they're too expensive for many first responder organizations to purchase en masse. Now researchers from Georgia Tech College of Computing claim to have developed a cheap, easy solution: LifeNet, a piece of software that allows people to communicate after disasters, even if landlines, cell phone networks, and the Internet are all down.
"It's just a piece of code that you can have on your laptop or phone. Once you have the software, the computers can communicate with each other, and you don't need infrastructure," says Santosh Vempala, the Georgia Tech computer science professor in charge of the project.
Any device that has LifeNet installed acts as both a host and router for the network--meaning the software can route data both to and from any other LifeNet-enabled device. You can read more technical details here.
A group of people using the software can all communicate with each other (texting is the easiest way), but if even one person on the network has access to the Internet, everyone else can access it, too--though the connection probably wouldnt be strong enough to do any powerful surfing, like stream video. And if one user has a satellite phone, the whole network can use its services.
http://thelifenetwork.org/
http://www.fastcompany.com/1774515/wireless-communications-system-works-when-cell-phones-internet-are-down
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= new reply since forum marked as read
It seems farther along, but the open source versions are equally ambitious.
I know they did something like this in Tunisia during the Arab Spring.
I also know of several similar projects but couldn't say how far along
they are because I don't have the technical understanding. It seems
some of them not ready for prime time, and I'm not sure which ones
I can link to that wouldn't raise alarm bells over at a certain agency.
I have thought about writing a userscript that would allow me to post
links and asides to fellow DUers only, without worrying about google
bots archiving it in search. It might be tricky though...
Ooh, ooh, and a userscript allowing users to OTR their PMs! 
from wiki...
"The AMPRNet (AMateur Packet Radio Network) is a name used by amateur radio operators for computer networks connected over amateur radio. Other names for the network include IPv4 Network 44/8 and Network 44. Much of the information here is historical, as packet radio had an exponential decline within the amateur radio hobby over twenty years, and remaining users have switched to the private address space (10/8, 172.16/12, 192.168/16, etc.).
The use of TCP/IP on amateur radio, using packet radio networks, preceded the appearance of the public Internet. The class A 44 netblock of 16.7 Million IP addresses was set aside for amateur radio users worldwide, having been secured in the 1970s by Hank Magnuski, when computer networking was in its infancy. Packet radio was used as a low level protocol for many competing higher level protocols, and TCP/IP users were essentially a minority due to the complexity of the configuration. The low baud rates also inflamed packet node site owners, as they saw the IP protocol as having too high of a protocol overhead. Very few systems operated over HF for this reason. The best solution on 1200 baud VHF networks emerged as TCP/IP over the ROSE protocol, just before the public Internet made them obsolete. The ROSE system today is maintained by the Open Source FPAC linux project.
The AMPRNet is connected by wireless links and Internet tunnels. Due to the bandwidth limitations of the radio spectrum, VHF and UHF links are commonly 1200 baud, and usually restricted to a maximum of 9600 baud. 300 baud is normally used on HF. Microwave links generally do not use packet radio, and instead use the commercial Wi-Fi access points (HSMM). The AMPRNet fully supports TCP/IP allowing for support of all network protocols.
The AMPRNet is composed of a series of subnets throughout the world. Portions of the network have point to point radio links to adjacent nodes, while others are completely isolated.
Geographically dispersed radio subnets can be connected using an IP tunnel between sites with Internet connectivity. Many of these sites also have a tunnel to a central router, which routes between the 44/8 network and the rest of the Internet using static tables updated by volunteers.
Recent experimentation has moved beyond these centrally controlled static solutions, to dynamic configurations provided by Peer to Peer VPN."
http://www.ampr.org/
The first program I wrote in Basic was to convert the alphabetical letters on the keyboard into Morse code and vise versa. The timing of the space bar (dit) and the enter (da) proved to be beyond my high school level expertise at the time (Pet Commodore).