Restoring internet access during a zombie apocalypse?
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:27 pm
I've been doing a bit of research for a story I'm writing but I need a little help from someone who knows their networking.
As the title suggests the story takes place during a zombie apocalypse. Most of the world has been overrun by zombie hoardes. A few cities reacted fast enough to keep the undead out, and they are now safe havens for survivors. These cities are pretty isolated, some fully encircled by high steel walls / fences. Since the cities are overpopulated as is, plenty of survivors are denied citizenship and left to fend for themselves in the wasteland that is America. Between the cities are nomadic groups of survivors and facilities called outposts.
The outposts are re-purposed buildings (malls, skyscrapers, etc etc) that are protected by one of several private security firms. They serve as hubs for communication and trading between the cities so they're often strategically placed at important locations (such as at central routing hubs on the internet's backbone). The main character of the story is hired by an outpost to get it's routing node operational again so all the safe cities in the country will be able to communicate with each other via the internet. He's one of the few survivors in America with the knowledge and experience to get it done, sadly I have no idea how he would go about that or what obstacles might be in his way.
The main character doesn't finish this project until near the end of the story so I need 1) ideas of what sort of problems one might have getting a portion of an abandoned internet infrastructure operational again, and 2)ideas on how he might solve those problems.
Much thanks to anyone who takes the time out to humor this.
BTW: If you feel this is just a bad idea, you can let me know. I can take it.
As the title suggests the story takes place during a zombie apocalypse. Most of the world has been overrun by zombie hoardes. A few cities reacted fast enough to keep the undead out, and they are now safe havens for survivors. These cities are pretty isolated, some fully encircled by high steel walls / fences. Since the cities are overpopulated as is, plenty of survivors are denied citizenship and left to fend for themselves in the wasteland that is America. Between the cities are nomadic groups of survivors and facilities called outposts.
The outposts are re-purposed buildings (malls, skyscrapers, etc etc) that are protected by one of several private security firms. They serve as hubs for communication and trading between the cities so they're often strategically placed at important locations (such as at central routing hubs on the internet's backbone). The main character of the story is hired by an outpost to get it's routing node operational again so all the safe cities in the country will be able to communicate with each other via the internet. He's one of the few survivors in America with the knowledge and experience to get it done, sadly I have no idea how he would go about that or what obstacles might be in his way.
The main character doesn't finish this project until near the end of the story so I need 1) ideas of what sort of problems one might have getting a portion of an abandoned internet infrastructure operational again, and 2)ideas on how he might solve those problems.
Much thanks to anyone who takes the time out to humor this.
BTW: If you feel this is just a bad idea, you can let me know. I can take it.