There is the kiwix hotspot.
A WiFi hotspot that gives you access to the entire Wikipedia, medical information, homesteading books ...
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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an extreme option could be something like the Varvara / Uxn virtual machine by the Hundred Rabbits collective (created after having to deal with Adobe updates and Xcode updates over a barely functioning cell connection) – emulators are available for all sorts of hardware
blog: Weathering Software Winter | youtube: Weathering Software Winter
You mentioned ham radio
definitely fun! It's a process to get into it though, as you need to study/pass an exam, and then you need a radio. Radios range from cheap ($25 or so) in the VHF/UHF ("walkie talkie"-style) to more expensive for an HF rig ($1000 range for 100W HF). If you want to get into low power ("QRP") it can be much cheaper. You also need a fair amount of space for a good antenna setup...
There are tons of different communication modes, some without a computer and, like you mentioned, some that use computers. wsjtx and fldigi are popular programs.
Good luck!
thanks, really appreciate all the recommendations here :) i got myself an RTL-SDR because a friend told me about them (didn't arrived yet) definitely gonna check on all that you talk about too
(there’s also an older, but still working, protocol called packet radio – does require a bit more technical expertise though)
Or just get into CB radio. You can get a unit for like $100. No license required, and it makes road trips much more interesting, because it’s still used by a lot of truckers. Channel 17 for north/south travel, and 19 for east/west.
Does CB radio allow data emissions? I thought it was only AM and SSB voice.
An independent mesh network in Germany.
does it work in Spain though?
There are Spanish equivalents yes
Concept and hardware would. Just need >1 nodes
I haven't heard of kiwix before, that's pretty neat
One I'm using a lot is a self hosted password manager. Vaultwarden specifically. Useful for more than just passwords of course, can take secure notes as well. I keep it locked to my local network only, and need to VPN in to my home network when I'm out to access it.
So... I've done that May 2023 for a holiday trip.
I left with my RPi4 and few gadgets but no Internet.
There I built https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline-octopus/ and my main take away is
- you can build what is missing
and more importantly the meta take away is
- you need to iterate preparations
because just like first aid you need to be actually ready when needed and knowledge change over time. You need to actually try though, test your setup and yourself genuinely otherwise it is intellectual masturbation.
Have fun!
You can download a collection of thousands (maybe a million I don't even know) of books in Spanish in epub format, from the "secret library". It's like a 100Gb torrent, but way worth it.
Ebooks tens to have long lasting battery. I spent a few hours reading on monday.
Just now I'm on my phone, but if you are interested let me know and I'll try to find the link and will mp it to you if you want.
And just now I've been thinking that epubs being so small size maybe there's a way to transmit them over this radio mesh networks on demand, like some sort of radio library. I've have to look into that. Maybe they are too big for that as radio bandwidth for data transfer tends to be incredibly small.
i'd love to have those if you don't mind, is it ok for you to send over here? otherwise you have my contact info on my profile. Thanks for the info and is a very good idea indeed
Could you send ePub files over ham radio? Let’s forget about TCP-IP mesh networking like AREDN for now. That’s too easy. Let’s look at radio protocols. D-Star can run at 128 Kbps on the 23 cm band. That’s not too common. Drop down to HF and you’re looking at 9 Kbps via PACTOR-IV.
In comparison, landline dial-up modems topped out at around 56 Kbps.
Now, I’ve seen ePub files around 1-2 MB, but that’s with cover art, images, embedded fonts, and all that fun stuff. With enough patience, that can work. But, strip out all that, leaving behind plain text and XML, and you’ve got something much more manageable that can be sent relatively quickly.
I can’t speak for Spain, but in the U.S., the FCC recently removed most symbol rate restrictions, so we might be able to squeeze out a little more speed.
I have my homeserver rsync three Arch mirrors and three Arch ARM mirrors in rotation on three days every week. Thus I have full local repos for these. All my machines are configured to use this local repo. The reason I do this is precisely to be prepared for the inevitable 'Internet is broken' scenario.
total respect
Yeah, some people don't like to run with full repo mirrors but keep updated copies of the Debian ISO that can be mounted as repositories at any point:
- https://tadeubento.com/2023/debian-iso-downloads-and-offline-archives/
- https://tadeubento.com/2023/debian-iso-images-as-apt-repositories/
It's essentially the same, but in another format.
One can also use a cache to hold deb and rpm files requested by the machines. (Works great when running hundreds of systems.)
I like "apt-cacher-ng". It will do deb and rpm. https://wiki.debian.org/AptCacherNg
https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~bloch/acng/
Edit: better link
Caches expire, eventually.
Apt-cacher-ng doesn't tend to expire automatically. It can be configured to keep the last version regardless. https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~bloch/acng/html/maint.html#extrakeep
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There's a whole community for self hosting software.
Hopefully I did that right...
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