wireless thessaloniki

About wthess

Author: thanasakis@wthess

The following article has a personal touch and depicts the author’s opinion on the events that caused the development and deployment of the wireless network of Thessaloniki.

We did our first hesitant steps, at about the same time all the relevant efforts began throughout Greece. In November 2002, me Sakis -thanasakis- Kanaris, Kostas -cyfex- Natsakis and Aris -kornholio- Athanasiadis attempted to do something that at the time was something almost mystical in Greece: creating a wireless community network.
With zero existing hardware, we began gathering information about the necessary equipment, information varying from which network cards we should choose to what the dimensions of a feeder should be in order to work at 2.4Ghz. In the meantime, organizing Kostas’ notes who was already involved, I began ‘assembling’ an operating system that would later be one the most important pieces of this wireless network: the Paladir. We were concerned, and no out-of-the-box solution could offer that at the time, with the creation of a mini-os, that could fit in a floppy disk, with low requirements, so that it could be used in old PCs, but at the same time be secure, offering low-level encryption regardless of the security measures that each higher level application used at the network might incorporate. And we succeeded.
The construction of the first wireless nodes where completed in March 2003, with the creation of our first links, connecting Evosmos, Vardaris and Ano Polis.
In the following years, the network took many shapes. Nodes where added, and nodes where removed. Most of the early members of the community called wthess (an acronym for ‘Wireless Thessaloniki’, and a Greek wordplay for ‘do you want wireless?’) stopped ‘wanting wireless’ However, new members joined the team. In the mean time, the old wireless community SWN broke up, and some of those members created a new community, the TWMN, advocating a more ‘professional approach’, founding a not-for-profit company and following a path away from the original idea that we as wthess had: not only a network, but a place where we can experiment with novel ideas in software and do-it-yourself constructions, in order to learn more.
It is this path that we continue to follow. And we do something more that a wireless network for gaming and downloads, with ready made software and expensive hardware: a wireless network that develops through the difficulties that it faces, and improves with time.

During these years, since the day we got together at Xarchakos cafe after Infosystem 2002, me, Kostas and Tasos Sotiropoulos, who made the acquaintance between us, never regretted getting involved with this wireless network with such and enthusiasm. I hope the same is true for the following, whether they’re still part of the team or not.

Alias	Node
air-guy (a network by his own )	crow, kalliope, nemesis, soulburner, darkseed
ants	delphi
apis	drudge, dogsbody
axaios	toril
bulterier	ypogeio
cyfex	amonsul
dimanast	trinity
kornholio	hal9000
krizz	arg
magnuse	vagabundo
manowar	ntenekes
melik	godfather
mixio	sombrero
nem0	nxt
r3av3r	slipgate
savas	modigliani
soulis	marvin, orfeas
spithash	suncity
strikspr	rivendell
thanasakis	morgul, anathema
thanasys	taratsa
thebigmit	hlektra
vasilis	titanas
yorgos	ghost
zuran	orthanc
324	yuna