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naxalnet

naxalnet is a program to create a wireless mesh network for communicating with each other. It can be useful during an internet shutdown, or to join online classes with a group of laptops. It uses B.A.T.M.A.N. Advanced, an implementation of the B.A.T.M.A.N. routing protocol to communicate with peers. The name naxal comes from Naxalbari, a village in Darjeeling, West Bengal.

WARNING: This program uses an unencrypted network. This means you do not get any more privacy or security than with an open wifi network.

Requirements

  • systemd v248 or more
  • Linux kernel with batman-adv module
  • iwd
  • python3
  • python-setuptools (for building)
  • python-dasbus
  • wifi adapter with ad-hoc support
  • two or more computers, or laptops with wifi adapter, called nodes
  • systemd-resolved (optional, for DNS)
  • batctl (optional, for debugging)

Installing

Arch Linux

Install naxalnet (or naxalnet-git for the development version) from the AUR with your favourite helper:

yay -S naxalnet

Optionally, setup systemd-resolved for DNS if any of the nodes have internet access.

Manually

Clone the repo and cd into it.

git clone https://git.disroot.org/pranav/naxalnet.git
cd naxalnet

Or, if you have an IPFS client running, try:

git clone http://k51qzi5uqu5dlye74be0n9iihwk6sm54vexo7bf7pdr4w811y6mmrcp25djozv.ipns.localhost:8080/naxalnet.git

Run sudo make install to install naxalnet. After installing, reload systemd so that you can enable naxalnet.service without rebooting:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

How to use

You need more than one computer running for the connection to work.

Start naxalnet

To start naxalnet, do the command on all the nodes:

sudo systemctl start naxalnet.service

To test if it works, run ip -c addr to find out your address. Note the inet address of bridge0. If there isn't one, try again after a few seconds. If the address starts with 169.254, it has got a link-local address. Otherwise, it has got an IP address from DHCP.

Getting internet access

Connect an ethernet cable to any of the peers and start naxalnet. If it was already started, you should renew the DHCP connection of all peers. To do this, type sudo networkctl renew bridge0 on all peers.

Tethering via WiFi AP

If there are two adapters in a peer, naxalnet will start a wifi ap (also called wifi hotspot) on one of them.

Connect two wifi adapters on a device and start naxalnet. Now an ap will be created on one of the adapters. Type naxalnet --print-wifi to get the WiFi SSID and password.

If you had set up internet access on one of the peers, internet can be accessed from the AP.

Running at boot

Starting the service will stop NetworkManager.service and wpa_supplicant.service if it is running. If you start either of these services after naxalnet was started, systemd will stop naxalnet.

To run naxalnet at boot, enable the service on all the nodes:

sudo systemctl enable naxalnet.service

Now naxalnet will configure a batman interface on every boot. Disable the service to stop running at boot:

sudo systemctl disable naxalnet.service

Stopping the service

# Stop the services
sudo systemctl stop naxalnet systemd-networkd systemd-resolved iwd
# Delete the virtual interfaces created by naxalnet
sudo networkctl delete bat0 bridge0

If your distribution uses NetworkManager, starting naxalnet.service will have stopped it. Start NetworkManager again:

sudo systemctl start NetworkManager.service

How it works

There are three modes commonly supported by wifi adapters - ap (wifi hotspot), station (for joining wifi networks) and ad-hoc (for decentralised networks). There are some other modes too, like p2p (wifi direct), but we won't go into the details.

naxalnet uses two mode -- ad-hoc and ap, for connecting to the mesh. naxalnet uses iwd to start an ad-hoc network and configures systemd-networkd to setup a BATMAN Advanced network. If there are two wifi adapters connected to the machine, naxalnet starts an ad-hoc on one of them and an ap on the other. You can use the ap for connecting mobile phones and other devices to the mesh network.

Read the code to learn the details. See systemd-networkd to see how systemd-networkd configures the network.

Use cases

Online class in remote areas

naxalnet can be used to share connections in remote areas. You need at least one device with internet access.

Internet shutdown

You can communicate with neighbouring devices running naxalnet, using services like IPFS, Jami, Secure Scuttlebutt and others which can work on an intranet. They need to be installed on your device before your friendly democratic government announces an internet shutdown, since you cannot download and install them during a shutdown. When a shutdown occurs, enable naxalnet

Uninstalling

If you installed naxalnet manually, use make uninstall to remove naxalnet and its data files:

sudo make uninstall

This requires python pip to be installed.

Contributing or reporting bugs

See HACKING.md

Similar projects

The following projects are similar to naxalnet, but are not designed to be used in a machine with wifi adapter. If you live in an area where the materials required for any of them are easily available, consider using them instead of naxalnet.

License

naxalnet is free/libre/swatantra and open source software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, eitherversion 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

See LICENSE for the complete version of the license.