A few days ago my shipment of Open-Mesh routers arrived! They’re super small and really cool.
Here are a bunch of pictures of me opening them.
The setup was really simple, just like the Meraki routers. Basically you need to plug in on of the repeaters to an internet and power connection for 5 minutes so it updates and then the WLAN lights will start flashing, this means it’s ready to rock. Then you just log in to Open-Mesh.com and add the router’s MAC or IP address to the network and BOOM, it’s broadcasting.
To expand the network you just add more routers and place them around. A repeater doesn’t have an internet cable connection, it just picks up the closest wireless signal from the same network and rebroadcasts it. A gateway has an internet connection and therefore a stronger signal.
Right now I have one router sitting in the window at my cafe. I’ll make another post soon to explain why 
July 21st, 2008 at 9:11 pm
There is a new mesh product named “LinkBee”. It is really easy and cheap for users.
The hardware is quite the same as open mesh.(with one wifi interface, one ethernet interface). It is designed to be layer 2 routing. It is quite cool.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Hi Nehemiah, how do you get around the hardware lockups that are prone to the MR3201a’s?
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Hi Eric,
I am not sure what you are asking. I tell you what I do. I bought the APs (maybe FON2100 or FON2200. They may be MR3210??) I built up a special RS232 connector for this board. The firmware is from OpenWrt. I program the kernel (vmlinux.bin.l7) and filesystem (rootfs)
onto the flash. You can visit http://www.atonics.com.tw to see the LinkBee mesh. It is really quite cheap and convenient for users
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hi,
I have two of the open-mesh routers and they have both locked up. Has anyone seen this problem with their open-mesh routers? Is this the problem the LinkBee is having?
July 24th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Hi Nehemiah,
FON and Meraki and Open-Mesh all get their routers from Accton. Your boxes look exactly like Accton’s as well. There is a known hardware glitch where if the power fluctuates the wrong way the device locks up until it’s properly reset. This is expected to be fixed in the fall for Open-Mesh. I was just wondering if you are having the same issue.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Mark, it’s a common problem with these sort of routers. Hopefully there will be a solid solution in the near future.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Hi Eric,
You are right. The boxes are from Accton. The hardware issue is the same as you mentioned.
I think that this issue will be solved in the near future by changing hardware.
July 27th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Nehemiah,
That is what I have heard as well. Hopefully Accton gets their “Acct” together and fixes the problem
Good luck with LinkBee.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:27 am
all this is very interesting, and they give realistice 16Mbit/s real throughput ratehr than the PR filled rubbish most people fall for so thats a very good thing as you knwo what your getting and can work to that scale.
however how might i take this further,i was to wirelessly bond 2 or the even the 3 seperate channels into one larger virtual pipe for the backhall and perhaps a select few end points that might have for instance FreeNAS services re-broadcasting select DVB-T transport streams over IP Multicast 224.0.0.1:? with VLC.
im quit ready to connect 3 OMR’s through wired (low power if they exist?) localised switch so as to have the raffic go over the wire rather than the valuble wireless freqs but as far as i understand it, to get real effective bonding it NEEDS to be END TO END activated.
does such a codebase exist that can be used and added to any of these 2 radio open Mesh routers and in an easy end user way, some basic web front end to the backend making Bonding easy for anyone that wants this far better throughput?
also is there any sign that we might get cheap 11n 100Mbit/s+ open mesh kit any time soon as that will potentially massively increase any wireless Bonded virtual pipes for backhaul?
and local community ftp/http/p2p multicast (see bamboo DHT java codebase) servers pluged into any open mesh i might want to start.
the potential of tapping any users wired web into this proposed virtual Boned network also brings the potential to massively increase the community LAN to web vitual IP/UDP pipe if we can also bond many of these wired NATS to the web for the good of everyone taking part and contributing their wires.
is this a posibility today ?.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:22 am
I was just getting ready to buy 3 of the Open Mesh mini routers for a new house. Any update on this fielding of the system or any other user experiences? Also, how bad is the lockup?
October 5th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Peter, I’m not sure about any other existing codebases accomplishing what you’re looking for. I think you’d be better off with your own research on this one.
Jamie, the lockups are pretty much gone as the team nears the 1.0 release. Really the only problems that have been happening recently are when nodes don’t survive updates and have to be manually reset, but this is all but gone too. You can see our network here: http://free-wifi.ca/locations.php, it’s pretty stable.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Hi all,
I have a Meraki mini V2. I am using it as internet gateway and now I suddenly received email from Meraki which says following:
Dear Meraki Customer:
Your network is currently using the deprecated wireless uplink
feature. Due to technical issues, Meraki is will no longer support
this feature starting October 15th, and it will be disabled.
We understand that you may be relying on this feature, and want to
help minimize any disruption. If transitioning presents a hardship,
please send an email to me and we will try to find a solution for you.
Thank you.
Allan Teruel
Systems & Support Engineer
Meraki, Inc.
I do not understand it. Does it mean that Meraki does not support gateway mode on their minis any more ? But the email says that the feature will be disabled. Does it mean that I can throw out my Meraki ?
October 6th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Vladimir,
I have no clue, I think you would have to contact Meraki like they request you do.