Fwd: [CUWiN-Dev] Community Network Project in Pakistan:

[Stephane Alnet]

Tariq's complete answer, below.

Let me know if you'd rather have me not Bcc: -dev on this discussion,  
btw.
S.

--- Begin forwarded message:

From: Tariq Farooqi <farooqitariq at gmail.com>
Date: May 24, 2005 1:30:21 CDT
To: Stephane Alnet <stephane at shimaore.net>
Cc: Meinrath Sascha <sascha at ucimc.org>, Tariq <tariq at linuxpakistan.net>
Subject: Re: [CUWiN-Dev] Community Network Project in Pakistan:
Reply-To: tariq at pakban.net


Hi Stephane!

Thanks! Allow me to explain a bit.

We  [ LinuxPakistan and Pakistan Open Source ] are  collaborating with
selected few  100% GPL Non Commercial Linux Distro's, instead of
creating our own [ KhyberLinux sounds like being one but it is not :)
].

What we are doing is adding some default  configs to change the
behaviour of Distro to install like an appliance, while those with
skills can go the normal route.

Take for example of Yes Linux once the frontend of Khyber is added
then  all a user would need will be to insert the CD, when asked
provide the password for root, default user/admin name+ password  and
IP number for that machine.

CD will  format the entire Hard Disk and install every thing  plus
what you see at KhyberLinux.net upon re-boot of the machine. This is
for server so one would need a client machine to access the server
through browser.

If you have fixed IP or Broadband then  that server can go online also.

Once system is up and running then one can easily edit/change any
thing using the tutorial/templates etc available.

As there are  different needs due to type of deployment so what we are
doing is that providing same functionality  with different base:

1. YesLinux
2. redWall-Firewall
3. tinySofa
4. startcom Linux
5. OWL - secure server
6. Gobolinux
7. SkoleLinux - Khyber framework will be modified for this.

I have listed the names in the order of status as now, once Yes Linux
3.0 is released then things will start rolling out.

A DCN is nothing but a  ether LAN with wires  strung all over the
streets/roads and people sharing cheap access to Internet.

What we are trying is to provide them a way to build redundancy in
their LAN and to provide  some content locally along with applications
[ accounting, forums, chats, file sharing, e-books, etc.] so that
bandwidth could be conserved. This is critical as Internet access is
very expensive [ from our perspective ].

In low income group areas in cities and in rural area [ 70% of
150million lives there] there is another problem and that is low
tele-density. There are few telephone lines even when people can
afford to pay there is no way to get connection.

Mobile Phone has solved this problem to a large extent but the main
issue is  cost. If  money is spent on Mobile phone then in most of the
cases there is very little left for spending on other means of
communications.

While  with Asterisk +DCN  the total cost to end user  may be same or
lees on monthly basis but the fact that a PC working at home or even
in some community place can be used for learning and other purposes.
With spending same amount there is every chance that  quality  of life
will improve.

All this may not make any sense but try and  calculate  how much one
can afford to spend on communication+learning+education when you have
approx US$ 1.00 per  person per day to survive upon. Just to give you
proper perspective Wheat Flour costs  US$ 0.22  to 0.27 per Kg, Sugar
US 0.47 per Kg and Cheapest Cooking Oil US$ 1.30 per Lit .

I have given these figures not to ask for any charity but only for you
to understand that what may be totally unacceptable level of service
or quality of service, that is the only thing they can afford. We do
not want any latest technology/hardware which they can not afford.

Please check http://www.rule-project.org, we seek some thing like
that. In our scenario ordinary voice chat using  cheap mic is o.k. do
not think of any IP telephone set, average PC [ used machine imported
from West ] cost under US$ 100.00 and that is expensive :).

What I will do is ask Farrukh [ aka linuxfreak ] to get in touch with
you, as he is the one who is working on Asterisk and  user
authentication  side. He may be slow as his  semester papers will
start in first week of June.

We are keen in two parts of your project:

1.  Cheap wireless as in rural areas one can not strung CAT5 cable to
create a LAN.
2.  Local voice server  for local communications and where required
can be used as  gateway for  connecting beyond LAN on POTS network.

Agree with you there is rather limited info online about Khyberlinux,
we will start updating the site once  this exams season is over.

Thanking you and wishing you a nice day,

Sincerely,

Tariq Farooqi.


On 5/24/05, Stephane Alnet <stephane at shimaore.net> wrote:

> Sascha, Tariq,
>
>
>
>>> these humble DCN
>>> provide for more then 27% of the Internet Access in Pakistan.
>>>
>>>
> [...]
>
>
>>> Recently a DCN from Chakiwara [ a very low income area of
>>> Karachi ] approached
>>> us. Due to the fact that there are limited Phone lines and of poor
>>> quality,
>>> they have to rely upon radio link for internet access.
>>> We were wondering if it is possible to get some help from you as
>>> with limited
>>> phone lines they need Voice over IP also so that they can reduce
>>> their
>>> dependence upon expensive Mobile Phone calls. We have some skill
>>> with Asterisk.
>>>
>>>
>
> I'd be more than happy to help with the Asterisk part, although I'd
> need to better understand the infrastructure (I would guess the
> objective would be to build a solution based on the khyberlinux
> distribution?). A peer-to-peer VoIP solution like Skype would
> probably be more appropriate for DCNs (or CUWiN for that matter), but
> is proprietary. To start the conversation, one question I'd be
> interested for DCNs is what hardware is available as voice endpoints
> (sound cards?).
>
> I couldn't get a lot of information on the khyberlinux distribution
> from the website(s), too, although that sounded interesting.
> S.
>
>
>
>
>
>