Meshcube: A New Mesh-Routing Wireless Device

jazzgroove writes "The Meshcube is a new wireless mesh routing device based on open source technologies. It's quite feature rich with support for VPN and IPSEC which come from the meshcube distribution. Apparently you can buy the device as a kit and build it yourself or buy it pre-built. For more information have a look at the wiki."

Comments

Okay, I get the idea

[Matey-O]

And can see the potential disruptive technology here, but what's this good for?

(yeah yeah, buy a bunch and have connectivity everywhere, but a) not at $250 a piece, and b) not by joe sixpack)

Right now, it doesn't seem to add more to the picture than a $70 Linksys WRT54g. (and THAT at least has a 4 port switch along with the broadcom chipset)

Re:Okay, I get the idea

[Tarwn]

Think wireless in large areas. You set up a mesh network over a square mile or more and you want to make sure that even if a device or two goes down someone would still be able to make a connection (self-healing as it were). Thats where wireless mesh networking comes into play.
Obviously you wouldn't have the need for this type of equipment in your home anymore than I would try to go out and setup up a large wireless MAN with Linksys home units...unless you wanted to take advantage of the fact that mesh nodes generally are higher power than your standard home node, in which case you would have better distance for your connections.

Intel tested centrino tech in their labs to be useable to 91m, I know a tech who is currently setting up a mesh network with another companies mesh nodes that has gotten plus 300m [i]through 2 houses[/i].

I don't expect Joe Sixpack to set up a mesh network (mesh would imply more than one node) because I wouldn't expect Joe sixpack to setup a neighborhood network, same difference.

-T

Re:Okay, I get the idea

[drinkypoo]

Personally, I was thinking a solar panel, a battery, a charging circuit, and two dinty moore stew can antennas. With a string of these suckers you should be able to run a nice fast network up into the boonies, just find places to put them for repeaters, and it should only cost you about $500 per unit, for ten miles' range. Of course you need a post at each end of the fence, but even so. This is an ideal way to construct private point to point wireless networks on the cheap. If you add a crypto card (available in MiniPCI form) and put both wireless interfaces in it, it should do the job admirably.

What is a MeshCube?

[Pedrito]

I mean, the little picture looks cool and all. That tiny box with two antennas sticking out of it. But what exactly is it? You can't really tell from the web page.

Is it an access point? A router? A bridge? What? I'm sure if I spent more than 10 minutes digging through the page, I might find something, but I lost patience trying to figure it out.

If they're going to sell these things, they might try a list of the features and maybe a general description of what it is. The article post had more information than the web page.

Re:What is a MeshCube?

[Pedrito]

My guess, if you've bothered to read the Wiki entry linked on the specs page, is that the answers are yes, yes, yes and yes, respectively.

Okay, first of all, why would the answers be yes, yes, yes, and yes, if "I've" read the wiki? Does my reading or not reading the Wiki change the answers?

Yeah, I know that wasn't what you meant. I'm just being facetious. The fact is, I did go into the Wiki. And maybe I'm just particularly dim, or not a Wiki expert, but I couldn't find any information very quickly, so I gave up. That's the point of my original post, though. I shouldn't have to go digging around the site just to get a basic idea of what the product is. At least, not if they want me to buy it.

Re:Nice work Timmy.

[evilviper]

Just what I was going to post, myself.

Never liked open Wikis for that reason... Would it be so difficult to have a Wiki that doesn't update the actual page until one or more reviewers has a chance to approve the change?

I mean, come on now, a Wiki isn't a discussion forum, it wouldn't be terrible to have to wait even 24 hours before something updates...

Re:Nice work Timmy.

[sploo22]

I mean, come on now, a Wiki isn't a discussion forum, it wouldn't be terrible to have to wait even 24 hours before something updates...

Actually, yes, it can be. The whole point of a Wiki is flexibility. It can be used as a discussion board, chat room, encyclopedia, whatever. If you constantly have to have people approving everything, effective collaboration goes right out the window.

What they should have done was temporarily lock down editing once the page was slashdotted, and unlocked it once the hits died down.

Mesh routing on 4Watts???

[dbateman]

The reason to use mesh routing is to extend the range of a transmission by hopping between devices. To make such a strategy make sense the mesh nodes should either be battery powered, so they can be used in an area where you can't get power or be for use in a rapidly deployable network, where it doesn't make sense to set up additional infrastructure

But 4W of power makes in a bit power hungry for set and forget type of installation. The addition of power-over-ethernet make it even more of a joke. Why extend the range of one AP effectively doubling the traffic over the air, if the mesh point is already plugged into the ethernet to get its power? You're better off with two seperate APs in that case, and use the ethernet infrastructure for routing between the APs.

So although this is a nice device, the I don't see much use for it.

D.