project FreeLynk overview

The purpose of this project is to provide a plan and tutorial to the general public that when used correctly can provide a free internet connection to a significant amount of people, while earning income for the ones hosting those networks. We've branded the project as a whole, the "FreeLynk Project." What the FreeLynk Project is meant to do is take the internet back into the hands of the people, instead of allowing the small number of companies to continue to monopolize on our connection. When companies are allowed to monopolize on an information network, they can become something, whether intentional or not, like an information embargo. Think about it, If the internet holds nearly all the worlds wealth of information, and you have to pay someone to get that information, who is really controlling the information? That right, the internet companies themselves. This has become the norm, but can be disrupted with the support of projects like this.

The way the project works is actually relatively simple. There are a lot of moving components as well as stationary types. We intend to use this tutorial as a method for breaking down each process and program down to each individual click when it comes to setting up and managing your system. By providing such a depth of detail, and by making it open source, it can ensure anyone regardless of computer or networking experience can create and manage a super massive free WiFi portal to help people and earn money.

To make the process even more accessible, we also host the "FreeLynk Project Affiliate Program." This program allows you to utilize our web servers as your network's online controller and captive portal. The affiliate program uses its own supporters and advertisements on your captive portal while paying you at certain user mile stones. Keeping your user base at a milestone bracket would result in collecting the same amount of compensation every month. Growing your network and attracting more users to spend time on your WiFi will result in higher user milestones and higher levels of ad views and compensation. We break down what those compensation levels are and how to reach them deeper in the tutorial.

By offering a free internet connection to more and more densely populated areas we can create the sweeping trend of a new free information age. Our world could progress at an accelerated rate unlike anything we've ever seen before. To understand how it scales, finds new users and intricacy of it, you'll need a little more information. So lets go through the system from a bird's eye view.

First off you'll need a centralized server, we use Amazon Web Servers. This allows you to manage an infinite amount of devices through a single point, which is key when you eventually grow your network. From there the server will have the Unifi device controller installed on it. This controller interacts with the WiFi access points that people connect to, and some of the gateways that will be deployed across communities. The devices will report to the controller everything from who's connected to network and data stats.

When you have the server, its time to create your local network stack. The stack will consist of everything from your internet connection itself, to the modem, router and switch that control everything at a specific FreeLynk launch point. We go through where to buy and how to program them all step by step in the tutorial as well. Once it's setup and programmed, you're ready to setup your first antenna.

When we mention the antenna, we mean the main centralized antenna group that works as a base station access point for satellite SolarLynks to connect to. The antenna can be placed just about anywhere, but the higher ground the better. We use Ubiquiti antennas for the ease of use. They are easy to setup and do a pretty good job for the amount they cost. There is absolutely better gear out there, but this is geared towards simplicity and cost effectiveness. When FreeLynk was created, the first main Ubiquiti antenna went on top of an apartment building along side, but not any bigger than, an old Dish Network satellite dish. That same antenna now serves 13k FreeLynk WiFi users and hasn't moved since it was placed there. Ubiquiti works just fine in our book.

Once the antenna is ready to go, you start introducing what we call "SolarLynks." These SolarLynks are solar powered conglomeration devices that combine a battery, solar panel, WiFi access point and a bridge into one roof stand device. The devices uses it's "bridge" device positioned on top to connect to the main antenna at your network stack. The bridge is the SolarLynk's connection to the internet, which is fed to the WiFi access point which then feeds the FreeLynk WiFi users. SolarLynks can be places as far as 10 miles from the main antenna under the right conditions. We've deployed SolarLynk devices as far as 4 miles away with bandwidth speeds of 60Mbps. As many as 100 SolarLynks can be connected to a single antenna at one time. The newest WiFi access points we have been using can handle more traffic than we can throw at it. Even 30 users streaming netflix at the same time wouldn't be much of a problem, and the access points easily see hundreds of users across a day without issue.

When the free WiFi users connect to the FreeLynk WiFi connection, they are met with a "captive portal." The captive portal is a specialized web page that is controlled by the web server, either yours or ours. It is shown to the free WiFi user every time they connect to it, and after using the WiFi for anywhere between 2 and 5 hours the captive portal will be shown again. The captive portal is in a sense a commercial to be monetized on, for the users to see in lieu of paying for the internet itself. This allows the connection to be free to the users, while allowing us to provide ad space to businesses. If you do not sign up for the FreeLynk Affiliate Program, you're responsible for your own device management, troubleshooting and advertising sales.

If you choose not to use our affiliate program, there is a series included with sales resources, strategies, scripts and tutorials on how to setup your captive portal for advertising. We provide clips on our own sales experience, scripts and pitches for phone and in person meetings. This is most often regarded as the most difficult portion of this process, which is why we paid extra attention to this section and provide a great deal of information. Everything from sales strategy to credit processing is covered. Mastering this process allows for a little more control over your WiFi hotspot, and with that power you can really make it yours. You can change anything from the ads you use to the price you charge the businesses for the ad space. Even still, if this part ever provides too difficult, you can always use the FreeLynk Affiliate Program.

We have an entire chapter built on the explanation and how-to that goes into both securing the network host and the free internet user. There will never be a world we live in that anything is completely unbreakable or un-hackable. We can however bring our networks to a level of security that can easily be considered substantially more secure than your everyday home WiFi connection with an ISP provided modem/router. Protection on our networks is seriously considered in the methods we provide to protect the network hosts, and what users do while on your networks is also considered and dealt with in the provided tutorial.

With the breakthrough in speed and costs of point to multi-point air fiber radios, and WiFi access points we can create our own super massive, long range and free to use WiFi networks. With enough of them combined they can easily facilitate hand off capabilities like cell towers do now. The difference between this kind of network and a cell type network are simple. FreeLynk networks support speeds over 30x faster than the fastest cell network, and FreeLynk networks are universally supported by any device with a WiFi adapter.

At the point in which the system is built and running, you could manage it with relative ease. SolarLynks take care of themselves for the most part, aside from the occasional but rare solar panel adjustment or battery replacement. Growing the network can earn you more income but its not necessary, and so long as the users continue to use it you continue to get paid.

Now that you've gotten the nutshell version of the FreeLynk Project, it's time to get to work. If a free information age is something you're ready to support, join our program and get started today! We have a great team passionate about free internet and what it's going to do for our world. We're standing by 7 days a week to support you and to help you succeed.

Let's create a better world, together.