June 14, 2020

Community Networks

Community Networks:

Let’s build a digital future that puts the people first.”

This projected is completed by Udeep Baral, Program, Officer, Internet Society Nepal Chapter and this report is part of chapter’s training program 2020 for Building Community Networks.

The use of personal gadgets and portable devices like smart phones and laptops increased casual internet use in my local community during this lockdown. In this pandemic situation staying at home doing nothing makes them dull and thinking is unnecessary in the mind. To be focused on the children aged 15-25 they are most curious on the gadgets and playing online games frequently during this lockdown. In my local community (colony called SitaHome), we have 69 houses and I found that my neighbors are coming out to play games in the playground and walking or exercise but some of them rush to their home in the middle for the online video chatting. Even the children are not coming outside of their home due to Wi-Fi connection for chatting or playing games.

So, I came up with an idea to give them all a free Wi-Fi Hotspot to get connected even if they are out of their home during this COVID-19 lockdown.

Devices used: 

  1. MikroTik 450G: to create Hotspot and manage the bandwidth
  1. Nanostation M2: for the Wi-Fi connection, outdoor AP
  1. iii)  Internet Connection
  2. Rj45
  3. Internet cable

Implementation: 

  1. Installed a Wi-Fi device on the roof of the house to cover the maximum area of the playground as well as the park and roads.
  2. Provided the free 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi named “FREE_Community Network”.
  3. Using a MikroTik Device with the allocation of the sharing internet bandwidth of 5Mbps to each device and IPv4 standard assigned for the connected device.

Real time photos: