WC Archive

The overall goal of this book is to help you build affordable communication technology in your local community by making best use of whatever resources are available. Using inexpensive off-the-shelf equipment, you can build high speed data networks that connect remote areas together, provide broadband network access in areas that even dialup does not exist, and ultimately connect you and your neighbors to the global Internet. By using local sources for materials and fabricating parts yourself, you can build reliable network links with very little budget. And by working with your local community, you can build a telecommunications infrastructure that benefits everyone who participates in it.

Chapters include radio physics, network design, hardware (including a section on using solar and wind to power the system), and five different case studies, from New York to Timbuktu. The authors cover many troubleshooting, management and maintenance issues, acutely aware that it's very likely that the person who sets up the network will be responsible for keeping it going. I was particularly pleased to see a list of common questions (and pointers to the pages with the answers) in a prominent location in the very first chapter -- this is clearly a book written by people who have had to figure these things out for themselves in the past, and don't want to put anyone else through that kind of pain. But don't think that this is a simplified text only meant for beginners; along with the hands-on, step-by-step instructions, Wireless Networking for the Developing World delivers a good deal of background information on why things work the way they do -- exactly the kind of information necessary when readers encounter problems the book doesn't cover.