[liberationtech] Open-source GSM network update

[Brian Conley]

I can say that Small World News would definitely love to explore the
possibility of implementing this tool in some form, once it has the bugs
worked out, in some of the areas where we work, most recently in relation to
our work in Libya: http://alive.in/libya

Very exciting, please let us know how we might otherwise assist!


Regards,

Brian Conley


On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 1:51 PM, Katrin Verclas <katrin at mobileactive.org>wrote:

> You bet. We are ordering the equipment next week and then install day maybe
> middle of July?  We are game - we want to run this baby some more.
>
> Katrin
>
> On Jun 21, 2011, at 4:45 PM, Daniel Bryg wrote:
>
> > Hi Nathan and others,
> >
> > Thank you for putting on the hackday and raising the issues arising from
> that
> > session here in this thread. Apologies for not getting back to the list
> sooner.
> >
> > The default firewall settings on OpenWRT, separate from Tor settings,
> allow for
> > LAN->WAN forwarding and that's what likely was in that router (Nathan,
> perhaps
> > you can verify this in the 'config forwarding' section of
> > /etc/config/firewall).
> > Add the fact that we noticed a surprisingly short delay in the call, and
> it
> > suggests there was no additional TCP wrapping for Tor on the FreeSwitch
> or
> > wherever and the calls indeed went out bypassing Tor which doesn't proxy
> UDP.
> > So, Nathan, how do the sip calls go out from the phones with Orbot?
> >
> > As Moxie notes this is an issue that is unlikely to be solved by stuffing
> one's
> > Christmas stocking with RTP inside TCP inside Tor as doing so would leave
> > precious little room left in the stocking for actual presents!
> >
> > We are left with some outstanding questions. Can we re-create and verify
> what
> > occurred in the lab last week? Can UDP be fully implemented within Tor?
> What
> > does other current technology such as Skype do when UDP is not available?
> We
> > would love to get back into the lab to approach these questions and
> issues. Is
> > there any chance of scheduling another day with the equipment in the Open
> > Mobile
> > Lab? If not then perhaps we can organize another hackday in the Access
> office.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Daniel
> > Access
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----
> > From: Nathan of Guardian <nathan at guardianproject.info>
> > To: liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu
> > Sent: Mon, June 20, 2011 11:41:10 PM
> > Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Open-source GSM network update
> >
> > On 06/20/2011 08:26 PM, Moxie Marlinspike wrote:
> >> But based on the acrobatics we go through to get
> >> encrypted VoIP working acceptably over low-latency UDP links, I imagine
> >> that RTP over TCP alone would be mostly unusable, and that RTP over TCP
> >> over Tor would probably just be totally fucked.
> >
> > It would sound like that moment where Neo enters the Matrix for the
> > first time (queue sound fx "mwwwwmwwaaaaaaaoaaawwwrrrrr."), or perhaps
> > slightly better than the first telephone call ever made. Regardless, I
> > think the last thing that Tor needs (at least for now) is a ton of
> > people making onion-routed telephone calls.
> >
> > Fortunately, from my initial, limited experience with this system
> > (OpenBTS+USRP->Freeswitch->over BGAN, ->over Tor, etc), it seems like
> > the idea that you could drop a suitcase setup in somewhere, flip it on,
> > and tell everyone to go crazy making free phonecalls to Al Jazeera
> > hotlines is not a very feasible idea. Well, at least to sound slightly
> > more positive, the issue of scalability of voice applications,
> > particularly in these super dynamic contexts, needs to be seriously
> > investigated.
> >
> > What could work though is SMS, perhaps MMS (if GPRS support existed), as
> > it is asynchronous (perfect for Tor), easier to scale on a limited
> > amount of hardware, cost effective (more on that later), and it all runs
> > over the SIP channel via TCP, if I am not mistaken. We even tested
> > TextSecure in this setup (sorry that wasn't mentioned earlier), and it
> > worked great, defeating any of the SIP/UDP keyword packet filtering we
> > attempted, for obvious reasons, though it was cool to watch the OTR
> > handshaking happen from the inside out.
> >
> > Back to the pricing thing, it is said that typical SMS costs $1310/MB
> > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_messaging#Pricing_concerns), so
> > paying for the $5/MB cost of routing SMS over BGAN seems like an
> > insanely great deal.
> >
> > Best,
> > Nathan
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>
> Katrin Verclas
> MobileActive.org
> katrin at mobileactive.org
>
> skype/twitter: katrinskaya
> (347) 281-7191
>
> A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact
> http://mobileactive.org
>
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-- 

Brian Conley
Director, Small World News
http://smallworldnews.tv
m: 646.285.2046
Skype: brianjoelconley
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