Medium independent telecommunication network - what is it?

What's this?
Medium i an independent telecommunication network, that is being developed by members of the Russian IT community. It is made to become a free alternative of the modern Internet.

Is it legal?
Yes. Our friends from RosKomSvoboda didn't find any problems with free provision of mobile radio communication services with the Medium network on territory of Russian Federation.

Are You involved in politics?
No. Firstly we are a technical community. Each member chooses himself whether or not he's going to participate in politic matters. We don't have anything against politics, it's just that the discussion of political questions doesn't correlate with technical aspects of the project's growth.

Is Medium another overlay network?
Not at all! Medium works on the first and second layers of OSI net model, but to provide link with "net islands" from different cities we use Yggdrasil, which in it's turn works on the third layer.

What is Yggdrail and what does Medium need it for?
Yggdrasil is a Mesh-network working on the third (net) layer. It may work above Internet as well as above Medium network. The thing is, Yggdrasil on it's own is useless - it needs a net infrastructure on top of which it will work. As a matter of fact, that's what we work on in Medium.

Okay. I want to join the project. How?
First You have to decide - which project do You want to join. The best help for Medium's growth is making Your own wireless Medium access point. And for Yggdrasil - creating web services inside the network. If You want to help the development of Medium's net infrastructure, then what You can do is:

The easiest method - make a hub.
This one has it's own nuances. For example, the first is that the access point may not give access to the Yggdrasil network. That point is called a "hub" - it can be accessed by several members with multicast using Yggdrasil to exchange data with each other.

The downside of this way is lack of access to the entirety of Yggdrasil network. It is basically a local network of some kind. This method has place in those instances when there is no access to the Internet or there isn't a possibility to organize a Partial-Mesh topology because there are no Medium users in Your city.

For more advanced users - create an access point.
When user connects to a Medium operator's router, he launches Yggdrasil on his computer in auto-configuration mode and Yggdrasil finds an operator's same-type Yggdrasil node through multicast to connect to it. The main thing is that Yggdrasil node, which the client connects to, needs to be connected to other Yggdrasil net nodes through Medium or Internet in overlay mode.

For gurus - "Use the Mesh, Luke!"
Use the next spells: install OpenWrt, go to Network > Wi-Fi, on the needed physical interface click "Add" and in Mode, set 802.11 (Wi-Fi Mesh). Don't forget to create a new wireless network, so that Mesh members won't get to the inner LAN network. Set SSID to "Medium_802.11s" and disable SSID broadcasting. You don't have to make this network protected.

Technical details for net operators:
Every network node, be it a hub or an access point, should be configured authentically, o that users can connect to Medium. This is which requirements You need to comply:

Wireless access point configuration:
SSID parameter value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Medium
Network type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hidden
Channel: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Optimal
Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No protection

Almost done!
For the users to have access to the Yggdrasil network don't forget to install Yggdrasil on Your PC or server and connect it to the router which You want to make a Medium access point.

This should be done, so that users will be able to find Yggdrasil nodes with the access point, using multicast, and connect to it, this way getting access to the Yggdrasil net resources.

Congratulations! Now You are an operator of the Medium network!
You can also add your access point to the public list of all the Medium access points - https://github.com/medium-network/public-peers.