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

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: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.