Wanting to hear about other Piratebox stories, experiences and findings

I've built 3 Pi(rate) boxes for different operating configurations .. 1 that runs on a battery pack, one that runs on a vehicle's 12vdc power, and another that plugs into a standard wall outlet. All have RTCs, and the standard power unit has a 2TB USB HDD for shared storage...

So, I'm hoping that folks would be willing to post about their piratebox experiences... How much activity have you seen? What (interesting) files have been placed on your piratebox? What customizations have you done and have they made a difference in usage (increasing or decreasing)? What types of locations have you deployed pirate boxes? How long have you manged to keep them running (in one place)? Have you found any files placed on your box that would likely never be able to be obtained online, etc.?


My deployments, so far, have all either been in rural/sparsely populated areas or have merely been temporary installations. There hasn't been a WHOLE lot of activity, but a couple of noteworthy things have happened:

- Having a Piratebox deployed at the hotel where my wedding was held last year, one of our guests happened upon the pirate box, and knowing my level of geekery (is that a word?) uploaded a photo of the scenery to the piratebox to show that he "was there", knowing I would get it

- Running a piratebox in the trunk of my car (extra 12v battery), someone uploaded a photo of the parking lot/general area to the pirate box.

I was at a security conference where no one trusted the wifi or any phone data lesser than LTE. I plugged my box into a USB charger big enough to power it all day long. By evening, I had full ISOs of TALES, TorBrowser, and a few other security tools. Turns out the box was being used as a local cache for those files so everyone wasn't fighting for the weak phone signal to download them from the Internet. That was pretty cool.

I discovered PirateBox very recently, and realized I have wanted one of these all of my life. I got a TP-Link MR-3040 because it has a built in battery that gives me the ultimate portability in a super small package. I loaded it up with all my favorite books, mags, notes, videos (no naughty stuff) and audio. I then set out in public to see if anyone would find it. To test that I activated minidlna and put an obnoxious audio file in the Shared folder and all other files in sub directories. I figured peoples would find the scream first. It worked. At the shopping mall I heard the file 3 times. At the car repair place I sat on the bench just outside the door and could hear lots of obnoxious sound coming from inside through the glass. At the Chinese consulate Wal-Mart, I heard the obnoxious file several times throughout the store. I was surprised that so many people were actually logging onto an unfamiliar network. I love my little, portable PirateBox!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2017 01:44PM by JayPee.

A few years ago I went to Japan on a budget airline (read: no in-flight entertainment). I had the foresight to take my PirateBox (renamed WiFiLibrary), an MR2030, 500GB portable hard drive and a 11,000mAh power bank. The drive was loaded with PDFs, anime, movies and music. Mainly it was for myself, but if anyone else found it then it was a bonus. During the 9 hour flight, so many people connected, chatted, left messages on the board and asked questions about the PirateBox concept. I'd say it was a success. I was asked a few times to reveal myself so others could see the physical device, but I stated that it would be "counterproductive to the concept of anonymity the PirateBox represented".

I am a fan of the project since 2012. I have a couple of boxes and somme are running thé old version of PB, for "historical" reasons. I was travelling with train for a few years and barely never forget m'y PB. But People were frightened by thé name of the wifi I think. Only very few connections resulting in chatting.