Post #860513

2025-06-18 17:07 UTC

Yo, real talk—what the fuck are we gonna do when the internet gets shut off? We&#39;ve seen it in #Gaza, in #Iran, and when Elon “I-play-God” Musk blacked out Starlink in Ukraine. Every time shit gets heavy, the state or some oligarch clown just pulls the plug. It ain’t just a glitch—it’s strategic, it’s repression, and it’s a fucking reminder that most of our comms infrastructure is in the hands of fascists, corporations, or both. I’ve been working with indigenous comrades who rely on #Starlink to stay connected in remote areas. And yeah, it’s wild that you can be deep in the bush and still shitpost from a mountaintop—but that signal still runs through a pipeline owned by a Nazi tech bro. We need to be talking more about mesh networks, autonomous infrastructure, all that good shit that anarchist tech nerds have been yelling about for years. Decentralized, resilient, community-controlled comms aren’t just cool—they’re necessary for survival. Let’s keep this convo alive and start building the lifelines before the next blackout. Shit’s coming fast. https://www.vice.com/en/article/activists-are-designing-mesh-networks-to-deploy-during-civil-unrest/

Replies (10)

@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social 2025-06-18 17:49

Damn I came to the right place for tech nerdery! I should mix my hip-hop recommendations requests with tech help questions! LOL! Thx geeks! #DorkWeb

Open ##3247472
@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social 2025-06-19 01:50

💥 WHEN THE INTERNET DIES: DIY COMMS SURVIVAL TOOLKIT This thread blew the fuck up. So here’s a no-bullshit breakdown of all the projects and ideas y’all dropped, so it’s easier to digest than a 300-reply tech rave. But yo—don’t let the thread die. Keep sharing, building, prepping. Some of my personal favs? 📦 Internet in a Box – Doesn’t fix comms but is clutch for info sharing when it all goes to hell. 📡 Cantenna – Because it's cheap, DIY, and let’s be real, it’s fucking funny. 🎛 INTERNET BLACKOUT SURVIVAL: DIY COMMS FOR WHEN SHIT GOES DARK 🔌 1. Mesh Networks Local WiFi/radio nodes talk directly. Tools: Meshtastic, People’s Open WiFi, Reticulum Good for: cities, tight communities. 📡 2. Ham & Packet Radio Long-distance, text/image data over radio. Gear: Baofeng, Quansheng UV-K5 Apps: AndFLMsg, Rattlegram Learn: IAF Radio Guide 🔐 3. Secure Scuttlebutt & Briar Off-grid social media & messaging via USB/Bluetooth. Sites: scuttlebutt.nz, briarproject.org 📦 4. Internet in a Box Local, offline servers with Wikipedia, books, and more. Site: internet-in-a-box.org 🧠 5. Reticulum Network Stack Encrypted, multi-channel, async networking protocol. Site: reticulum.network 🛰 6. Old-School Hacks 📻 AM/SW radios 📡 Long-range WiFi with cantennas 🗺 Paper maps, encyclopedias, zines 🐌 Sneakernet (USB drops, printouts) 🤝 7. Internet Resiliency Clubs Community organizing for tech survival. Start one: bowshock.nl/irc ⚠️ Challenges Legal grey zones (encryption) Tech literacy gaps Infrastructure costs Right-wing radio bros

Open ##3247473
@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social 2026-03-12 15:19

My kid was up puking all night, so I was awake at every cursed hour and wound up going down the rabbit hole of what @hydroponictrash@kolektiva.social has been posting over at https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com. Really incredible stuff. Recipes for autonomous communications, subversive ideas, practical documentation — just a ton of useful, thoughtful material. Go check them out and they’re on Kolectiva too! :anarchoheart3: And thank you, HydroponicTrash, for putting all this amazing documentation out there. Also: please archive this stuff somewhere besides Substack in case Substack goes fully fucking evil — beyond the fact that they already host neo-Nazis. 🙃

Open ##3247474
@mbrewer@kolektiva.social 2025-06-18 17:12

@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social 2 words: packet radio

Open ##3247475
@theresa@kolektiva.social 2025-06-18 17:38

@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social my #MutualAid group is starting with #HamRadio and #Meshtastic and connecting with folks building these networks regionally and beyond.

Open ##3247480
@djabmaroon@kolektiva.social 2025-06-18 18:26

@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social @MTL_ATC@kolektiva.social You should follow those guys! https://mtl-atc.org/

Open ##3247481
@Anarcat@kolektiva.social 2025-06-18 18:52

@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social i'll answer the same thing i answer every time this is asked, decade after decade, and it's amateur radio. sure, 10 years ago, it was wifi mesh (someone mentioned reseaulibre.ca here in the thread, that's still hosted in my basement), and now it's meshtastic, but none of those have the resilience and scope of ham radio. just do it, get your license already. i have books and knowledge.

Open ##3247482
@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social 2025-06-18 22:33

@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social Commenting to keep in the loop. I think that's a very wise idea. What about Ham radios?

Open ##3247483
@eyess@kolektiva.social 2025-06-19 02:14

@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social hey I know these people! Had no idea they had a Vice article written about this lol Afaik Myceloum mesh isnt maintained anymore, but we're working on setting up a Reticulum network out of our hackerspace in Atlanta @sandbox@kolektiva.social , including some of the people from Mycelium mesh. Reticulum is honestly the way to go for a collapse-proof alternative internet. Incredibly good emcryption, fully non-hierarchical and decentralized, and interoperable with practically any radio/digital comms protocol. It leaves projects like Meshtastic in the dust on basically every level (and it's been around much longer too!) Myself and @brooke will be posting in the coming weeks/months updates as to how our efforts with building a Reticulum network come along. Glad to see people talking about it and taking these problems seriously; this is a particular fixation of mine (:

Open ##3247491
@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social 2025-06-22 18:21

I got involved in this discussion initiated by @franklinlopez@kolektiva.social . Tagging for #SolarPunkSunday! A variety of useful topics were discussed, including cooling without refrigeration and communicating if the 'Net goes down!

Open ##3247492