AlterMundi community network collaborators work with partners from Mexico. Photo via Altermundi blog. To connect to the Internet, most people around the world rely on private companies to provide us with Internet service — and the necessary hardware to get online — for a fee. We depend on companies like Asus, Cisco, Eriksson and Huawei, that build modems and routers, in order to connect to the Internet. But this is not the only way to connect. LibreRouter, a new project developed by a group of hackers originating from different countries and backgrounds, will now make it easier to get online without relying on a corporate hardware manufacturer. In August 2016, the IETF (the Internet Engineering Task Force, where Internet technical standards are developed) acknowledged in a document that “a set of alternative network deployments emerged in the last decade with the aim of bringing internet connectivity to people or providing a local communication infrastructure.” The document highlights that this classification involves “architectures and topologies different from those of mainstream networks and relies on alternative governance and business models.” Inspired by the declarations of the IETF, and united by their shared idea of building hardware that allows community networks to grow and operate, this group has developed LibreRouter. Included within this group are community networks — i.e. local area networks developed by community coalitions — such as Argentina's AlterMundi, Guifi.net in Catalonia, Ninux in Italy and Village Telco in South Africa. Community networks can play various roles. AlterMundi, for example, is an Argentinean civil association that promotes the creation of autonomous networks allowing the country's towns to have Internet access where commercial providers do not see a business opportunity to sell their services. The leaders of the Ninux community network say that one of the catalysts that sparked the project was a constant worry about the Internet's centralisation. Constructing networks requires physical equipment. Routers that play a pivotal role in the way that networks connect with each other. The original idea of LibreRouter – which was to build a router for community networks – started in 2013, during a meeting in Berlin involving Steve Song, Elektra, Pau Escrich, Nico Echaniz, Jesica Giudice, and Gui Iribarren, all of whom worked on different community network projects. They began working together in earnest when new regulations established by the US Federal Communications Commission forced manufacturers to restrict domestic routers, preventing the necessary modifications to create a community network. That same year the project was awarded a grant from the Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean – a LACNIC initiative – and another grant from the Fund for Internet Research & Education to aid its development. Gui Iribarren, vice president of the organisation AlterMundi – one of the organisations managing the project – discussed it in an interview with Global Voices: GV: What differences are there between this router and others that you can buy in a computer shop? What makes it unique? GI: La diferencia más fundamental radica en las libertades que ofrece. En primer lugar, evidentemente no implementamos ningún bloqueo sobre el software (como lo hacen el resto de los fabricantes, desde las nuevas regulaciones), de forma que cualquiera puede modificar el firmware de fábrica (LibreMesh, un Software Libre basado en OpenWrt/LEDE), o incluso reemplazarlo completamente por otro (“reflashearlo”) fácilmente. Por otro lado, es un proyecto de Open-Source Hardware, es decir, publicaremos todos los documentos de diseño de la placa base para que cualquiera pueda entenderla, modificarla y producir su propia versión. No existen muchos routers en el mercado que ofrezcan esta posibilidad, y de hecho la empresa Dragino – que esta a cargo del desarrollo de la placa y tiene años de trayectoria en este rubro – ha liberado los diseños de productos anteriores. Por último, hay diferencias enormes respecto a las prestaciones del hardware. Los routers que se comercializan (a precios accesibles) hoy en día para realizar enlaces en exterior normalmente incluyen una única radio WiFi. Existen en el mercado routers con 2 radios, pero son de uso hogareño, necesitan modificaciones de software (cada vez más difíciles) y adaptaciones físicas para que soporten la intemperie y tengan mayor alcance.