Backing up the internet in a P2P 'cloud'

[Sepp Hasslberger]

With optical cables being cut in the Middle East impeding internet traffic in some geographical areas and a recent court action resulting in WikiLeaks being taken off line, it becomes clear that access to the net may not be as assured as we tend to think.

While the basic architecture of the net does protect to some degree against these dangers, I believe we might profit from developing a way to "back up the internet" so that, even if there are major disruptions, we still have a workable means of communication, data storage and exchange of ideas.

My dream is a p2p application that uses some of the free hard disk storage space on our personal computers to redundantly back up the net and allow work to continue more or less seamlessly in the event of a major catastrophe.

Would such a thing be doable? What do you think?

Is anyone already working on this?

[SamRose]

Just to be clear http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Point_To_Peer is an idea in conjunction with (developing page http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=PeerNet) which is a partnership with Paul Hartzog and friends. So, it is not just myself and Marcin, but we are working in partnership with Paul Hartzog and folks who have been working with him. Open Source Ecology role will be to support and promote the open design/open source software development.

[sean larner]

Hi Sepp, as I only joined today, your was the first post I saw. Yes indeed we have a product about to launch called broolz that does exactly what you want and more. If you are interested we are launching a beta so if you register at our site you can certianly get the first release-
Sean

[Sepp Hasslberger]

Sean, I went to broolz.com and registered to get information as it comes out.

The thing sounds good, and yes, it would be interesting in the context of this idea of having more control over your own connectivity and data.

Sepp

[Sepp Hasslberger]

See also "Open Source Cloud Computing?" recently posted.

http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/open-source-cloud-comupting

[Natanael L]

My dream is a mesh network of routers.

More and more people have them, so why not make them communicate? The OLPC's XOs can do it, so why not a router?

If enough routers have mesh capabilites, not even a serious meteor shower could wipe out the internet connection in an entire area, assuming enough people have a decent UPS. :P

By the way, your idea is about the same as what Freenet is doing. ("My dream is a p2p application that uses some of the free hard disk storage space on our personal computers to redundantly back up the net")

[Sepp Hasslberger]

Also check out Netsukuku, which is relevant to making this vision a reality...

http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/netsukukus-fractal-address

[Natanael L]

Cool!

Just one question: It seems like it's using a 2^32 addresses (= a billion, same as IPv4) - couldn't taht be bad? Shouldn't it have a larger number of possible addresses?

[Sepp Hasslberger]

I wouldn't know about that.

It seems we're always doing as much as we THINK we need and then act surprised when the numbers are turning into a straitjacket. Oh well, I guess it's the idea that counts. Can always fix things later if needed.

There'll be opportunities to converse with Andrea (Lo Pumo) who, I gather, is going on to study on his scholarship at Cambridge...

[Natanael L]

Are you involved with the development/know somebody who is?
As far as I can tell from the links, there hasn't been much development recently.

I'm going to write a little about what kind of mesh network I'm dreaming of later (Netsukuku are close, but not really there).

[Sepp Hasslberger]

I'm only trying to keep the flame of hope alive, to eventually arrive at a workable distributed system. What's linked here is what I found and what others contributed in comments. Not much by way of actual development. So whatever you come up with, I am very interested to add the information here and maybe inspire others to also contribute...

[LucaDionisi]

Netsukuku is in active development.
There *has* been much development recently.
http://dev.hinezumi.org/browser/netsukuku
Well, not much in trunk, but in experimental branches.

The site does not reflect this, indeed. And, also, the main mailing list is broken at the very moment. ;(

[Dave Paine]

Hi Sepp

In answer to your question, yes - we are working on this :-)

A little later than anticipated, broolz is available to download. broolz will allow you to create your own, personal cloud of people you know and then share folders on your computer with them. You are given a number of choices: publish (i.e. the cannot change the data you share with them), collaborate (i.e. they can change the data you share with them) and backup (i.e. all data you share with them remains encrypted on their computer and they don't get the opportunity to even view it). It uses the p2p jxta infrastructure in order to achieve this. You can download the Windows version from from http://broolz.co.uk (the Mac version is imminent and Linux will follow soon after).

Dave