[HOT] Smartphones using wifi in the field If you ain't in the field or techie ignore this post.

john whelan jwhelan0112 at gmail.com
Sun Jan 31 20:34:31 UTC 2016


I've been playing around with Serval software on Android.  Ideally it needs
a wifi mesh set up using multiple firmware modified TP-Link MR3020 portable
routers with custom software connected to a small radio device which turns
it into a mesh extender.

The original concept was to turn the smartphone into a router but the
latest Android software well anything above 2.2 denies access to do this.
Besides which rooting the phone in this manner is not good from the
security point of view.

However if you are running Windows 10 and your Laptop supports it, most
should, you can turn your laptop into a wifi hot spot that other devices
can connect to. Note you should not need to be connected to the Internet
for this to work.

Translation Android smartphones running Serval within say 100 meters of the
laptop  can now talk to each other.  I haven't tried a phone call, I don't
have two Smartphones to hand, but messaging certainly works.

You should also be able to transfer files certainly from one smartphone to
another and if Serval doesn't support file transfer to the host laptop
there are other apps around that do.  So things like the latest maps for
Osmand etc can be brought down once to the laptop then propagated out to
smartphones or a smartphone sent by mail, mule etc to the wifi hub can then
connect and distribute files etc.

I haven't looked at the implications of interconnecting laptops perhaps
with cat 5 cables and although phone calls should be fine across one wifi
hub theoretically each hub used in the hops adds a small delay so voice
quality over multiple hops may not be ideal.

Cheerio John
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