Hi there!
I'm going to be setting up a computer school in a village in Sierra Leone next summer.
There is no internet access, so I'm looking to run an intranet.
This question goes beyond Moodle, but you guys probably have the best advice on this:
Is there a documentation from someone who has done something similar to this?
We're talking off-grid (solar + batteries) and offline (intranet).
Thank you in advance <3
Philipp
Will you be using Moodlebox? https://moodlebox.net/en/
Hi Mary,
Yes, absolutely! Moodlebox is amazing!
Maybe I should provide more specific help requests 😅
What kind of hardware setup would I need to allow for 300+ devices to communicate wirelessly to my moodlebox?
I'm thinking, I would need to connect my moodlebox to a WiFi access point. I think. Would that work?
Yes, absolutely! Moodlebox is amazing!
Maybe I should provide more specific help requests 😅
What kind of hardware setup would I need to allow for 300+ devices to communicate wirelessly to my moodlebox?
I'm thinking, I would need to connect my moodlebox to a WiFi access point. I think. Would that work?
The game plan:
- 48 computers needed in the first year for 48 students
- Additional 48 computers added each year
- 600 computers at maximum capacity after 12 years
Needed features
- Local Network (Moodlebox) for local cloud storage, accessing files via WiFi, creating/managing user accounts, posting homework
- Energy independence via solar panels + batteries (energy grid is either not available or very unreliable
In reply to Philipp Herzberg
Re: "How-to" on building an offline school intranet
Hello Philipp,
Interesting project you have !
I'm writing an article about the MoodleBox and I will following this for sure.
Just be aware that the MoodleBox has a limitation of maximum 30 concurrent accesses, due to the processor capacity... So for 300+ devices, you'll have to multiply the Moodleboxes.
If you use a recent Raspberry Pi (like 4B), it will act as wifi access point and you don't need extra hardware. It creates its own "moodlebox" network and the students just have to connect to it and surf to URL http://moodlebox.local.
HTH
Interesting project you have !
I'm writing an article about the MoodleBox and I will following this for sure.
Just be aware that the MoodleBox has a limitation of maximum 30 concurrent accesses, due to the processor capacity... So for 300+ devices, you'll have to multiply the Moodleboxes.
If you use a recent Raspberry Pi (like 4B), it will act as wifi access point and you don't need extra hardware. It creates its own "moodlebox" network and the students just have to connect to it and surf to URL http://moodlebox.local.
HTH
In reply to Christophe Coussement
Re: "How-to" on building an offline school intranet
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Hi Philipp
Yes, MoodleBox is made primarily for off-grid, like remote areas, correctional facilities, etc. See these examples posted here on moodle.org https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=441435#p1775994. The hard and software it is based on, the Raspberry Pi and lot of FOSS on Linux, make it a treasure trove for all sorts of hobbyists and tinkerers, teachers could be that too, MoodleBox finds applications in all sorts of (extended) classrooms.
Although the main piece of software in MoodleBox, in the sense what the end users are interested in, is Moodle, the project is not hosted on moodle.org, rather has its own web site https://moodlebox.net/ including a community forum https://discuss.moodlebox.net/, in three languages. You'll find all sorts of applications being discussed there. So, enquiries are better raised there. I am commenting here, since some unrealistic expectations and false statements are made here.
> What kind of hardware setup would I need to allow for 300+ devices to communicate wirelessly to my moodlebox?
>
Yes, MoodleBox is made primarily for off-grid, like remote areas, correctional facilities, etc. See these examples posted here on moodle.org https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=441435#p1775994. The hard and software it is based on, the Raspberry Pi and lot of FOSS on Linux, make it a treasure trove for all sorts of hobbyists and tinkerers, teachers could be that too, MoodleBox finds applications in all sorts of (extended) classrooms.
Although the main piece of software in MoodleBox, in the sense what the end users are interested in, is Moodle, the project is not hosted on moodle.org, rather has its own web site https://moodlebox.net/ including a community forum https://discuss.moodlebox.net/, in three languages. You'll find all sorts of applications being discussed there. So, enquiries are better raised there. I am commenting here, since some unrealistic expectations and false statements are made here.
> What kind of hardware setup would I need to allow for 300+ devices to communicate wirelessly to my moodlebox?
>
> I'm thinking, I would need to connect my moodlebox to a WiFi access point. I think. Would that work?
Of course you'll need a dedicated wireless access point. As pointed out by others, the built-in access point (hot-spot) of Raspberry Pi is not capable of delivering more than, say 25. (I don't have the current number. Things were worse but improving now. Read the MoodleBox community forum for details.)
Also keep in mind that 300+ connection dedicated access point is not going to be cheap.
Once you've found a 300+ connection access point the next question is, does MoodleBox, or to be more accurate the specific Raspberry Pi model and the LEMP stack which is called MoodleBox, is capable of delivering the 300+ users? And what does that mean? 300+ users registered in the MoodleBox and only 10 are active at a given time or all those 300 starting an on-line exam at the same second.
> 48 computers needed in the first year for 48 students
> Additional 48 computers added each year
> 600 computers at maximum capacity after 12 years
That is double the 300+ you were discussing earlier!
Talking of computer labs at the location, do you know that the Moodle Mobile App offers a very strong set of off-grid capabilities to users on mobile devices? With a large number of cheap mobile devices, you will be able to reach much more at a lower cost and more practical for the users (taking the mobile device home).
> Local Network (Moodlebox) for local cloud storage,
AFAIK MoodleBox is not not a "cloud storage", specially since it is off-grid. (What is "cloud storage" exactly?)
> accessing files via WiFi, creating/managing user accounts, posting homework
All that is there.
> Energy independence via solar panels + batteries (energy grid is either not available or very unreliable
Well not really a Moodle thing, this is about hardware. Yes, the low power requirements of Raspberry Pi make MoodleBox a suitable candidate.
Hi Christophe
You wrote:
> Just be aware that the MoodleBox has a limitation of maximum 30 concurrent accesses, due to the processor capacity...
It has nothing to do with the CPU. It is the maximum power the wireless transmitter built-in to Raspberry Pi can deliver.
> So for 300+ devices, you'll have to multiply the Moodleboxes.
Will be cumbersome, since each MoodleBox comes with a Moodle instance. As the OP identified, what you need is a dedicated access point.
> If you use a recent Raspberry Pi (like 4B), it will act as wifi access point and you don't need extra hardware.
All MoodleBoxes, i.e. on the supported Raspberry Pi hardware, Pi Zero 2 W, 3A+, 3B, 3B+, 4B and 400, are capable of this.
> It creates its own "moodlebox" network and the students just have to connect to it and surf to URL http://moodlebox.local.
It is not http://moodlebox.local/ rather http://moodlebox.home/. Ref. https://moodlebox.net/
Of course you'll need a dedicated wireless access point. As pointed out by others, the built-in access point (hot-spot) of Raspberry Pi is not capable of delivering more than, say 25. (I don't have the current number. Things were worse but improving now. Read the MoodleBox community forum for details.)
Also keep in mind that 300+ connection dedicated access point is not going to be cheap.
Once you've found a 300+ connection access point the next question is, does MoodleBox, or to be more accurate the specific Raspberry Pi model and the LEMP stack which is called MoodleBox, is capable of delivering the 300+ users? And what does that mean? 300+ users registered in the MoodleBox and only 10 are active at a given time or all those 300 starting an on-line exam at the same second.
> 48 computers needed in the first year for 48 students
> Additional 48 computers added each year
> 600 computers at maximum capacity after 12 years
That is double the 300+ you were discussing earlier!
Talking of computer labs at the location, do you know that the Moodle Mobile App offers a very strong set of off-grid capabilities to users on mobile devices? With a large number of cheap mobile devices, you will be able to reach much more at a lower cost and more practical for the users (taking the mobile device home).
> Local Network (Moodlebox) for local cloud storage,
AFAIK MoodleBox is not not a "cloud storage", specially since it is off-grid. (What is "cloud storage" exactly?)
> accessing files via WiFi, creating/managing user accounts, posting homework
All that is there.
> Energy independence via solar panels + batteries (energy grid is either not available or very unreliable
Well not really a Moodle thing, this is about hardware. Yes, the low power requirements of Raspberry Pi make MoodleBox a suitable candidate.
Hi Christophe
You wrote:
> Just be aware that the MoodleBox has a limitation of maximum 30 concurrent accesses, due to the processor capacity...
It has nothing to do with the CPU. It is the maximum power the wireless transmitter built-in to Raspberry Pi can deliver.
> So for 300+ devices, you'll have to multiply the Moodleboxes.
Will be cumbersome, since each MoodleBox comes with a Moodle instance. As the OP identified, what you need is a dedicated access point.
> If you use a recent Raspberry Pi (like 4B), it will act as wifi access point and you don't need extra hardware.
All MoodleBoxes, i.e. on the supported Raspberry Pi hardware, Pi Zero 2 W, 3A+, 3B, 3B+, 4B and 400, are capable of this.
> It creates its own "moodlebox" network and the students just have to connect to it and surf to URL http://moodlebox.local.
It is not http://moodlebox.local/ rather http://moodlebox.home/. Ref. https://moodlebox.net/
In reply to Christophe Coussement
Re: "How-to" on building an offline school intranet
[Correction]
1. The limitation of 30 users is set by a limitation of the RPi Wifi hardware, not by the processor or RAM capacity, as it appears out of a private discussion with Nicolas Martignoni, the main maintainer of the MoodleBox. Which confirms @Visvanath Ratnaweera remark.
2. Thank you for pointing out the error in the URL. http://moodlebox.home of course 
In reply to Christophe Coussement
Re: "How-to" on building an offline school intranet
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
On 1. I was lucky this time!
Seriously, here are the details https://github.com/iiab/iiab/issues/2853, which found their way in to MoodleBox somewhere late 2021.
2. You might be interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.home.
Seriously, here are the details https://github.com/iiab/iiab/issues/2853, which found their way in to MoodleBox somewhere late 2021.
2. You might be interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.home.
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: "How-to" on building an offline school intranet
Thank you for the links Visvanath! Really useful
In reply to Philipp Herzberg
Re: "How-to" on building an offline school intranet
Philipp, is your project related to https://www.inasp.info/sites/default/files/2021-06/Adapting%20to%20context%20paper_final_1.pdf ?
Mary beat me to it, but yes, Moodlebox will work for this. Also, because I've played with all the versions of Raspberry Pi's, if you can lay your hands on a Raspberry Pi4, use it. A Raspberry Pi3 will also work, it is just the Pi4 works noticeably better depending on the load.