[MLB-WIRELESS] MeshBox

[Dan Flett]

The MeshBox itself seems to have a PCI client card in it, and the whole
network is adhoc.  It implements it's own mesh routing protocol which is
open source.  The maker seems to have envisioned its links to be
omni-to-omni where possible.  Hmmmmmmmmm....  There is a "MeshBox X2"
advertised on locustworld.com which has two PCI client cards in it, both
of them with omnis attached, but it's 500 pounds - over $1000.

I want to like this box but it doesn't look like we could use it on the
MW network without a lot of add-ons and modification.  Which defeats the
idea of having an out-of-the-box working router.

WIANA was established by the MeshBoxes' maker, Jon Anderson, primarily
for the purpose of handing out addresses to MeshBox users I believe.  It
doesn't look like WIANA has much in the way of a democratic input
process.  Communitywireless.org also doesn't seem to have any sort of
democratic body running it.  There are no names or contact details for
anyone in this organisation anywhere on the site.

Jon Anderson certainly seems an enterprising fellow - all his websites
are very slick and crammed with info.  But very impersonal I feel.  I am
genuinely puzzled as to his motivations.

Dan


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au
[mailto:owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au] On Behalf Of Chris Samuel
Sent: Monday, 1 December 2003 10:54 PM
To: Melbourne Wirless
Subject: Re: [MLB-WIRELESS] MeshBox

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On Monday 01 Dec 2003 11:07 am, Dan Flett wrote:

> Comments, opinions anyone?  Any implications here?

There was an article about them in New Scientist a few months back, they
look 
like Epia VIA systems.  There's a good little intro to them at:

	http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT5073214560.html

which confirms they're mini-ITX boards and gives some of the history. It
also 
says:

	With the MeshBox, what you have is a black box which you switch
on and it
	configures itself either as a router, a gateway, or as a
wireless mesh
	repeater. All configuration is automatic, but can be tweaked via
the web at
	www.wiana.org.

Not quite sure what to make of WIANA (Wireless IANA), seems like they
allocate 
addresses for peer-to-peer links from the 1.0.0.0/8 subnet and sign
traffic 
(possibly using IPSEC).

Very odd..

cheers,
Chris
- -- 
 Chris Samuel  :  http://csamuel.org/  :  Melbourne, VIC

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