[MLB-WIRELESS] MeshBox

[Dan Flett]

Hi guys,

Has anyone else seen this?

http://locustworld.com/

They are a UK company who appear to be developing and marketing a
commercial wireless mesh router called "MeshBox".   Which runs Linux as
it's OS.  They are encouraging people to form their own Community
Wireless Networks, using their Meshboxes.  It has lots of talk about
sharing internet on their site.  Hehe.

Some basic info about its networking standards here:
http://locustworld.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&r
eq=viewarticle&artid=5&page=1

They are selling them in the UK for 250 pounds, so they're not that
cheap.  But for that price you'd expect them to just work, straight out
of the box.  They also have built-in Bluetooth, and software that allows
for sending of SMS-type messages to Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones over
the network.  Also, the 802.11b network uses WEP for all connections
which makes me wonder how "outside" users are supposed to connect to the
mesh.

Interestingly. The domains locustworld.com. luno.net (who sell the
Meshbox online) and communitywireless.org (a site encouraging meshbox
users to form community wireless networks) are all registered to the
same owner - "J. J. Business Solutions".  Looks like someone in the UK
has decided to sell a turn-key solution for community networks.  All
well and good so long as they allow the community to run and control the
network itself, and don't try to introduce proprietary network
standards.

Comments, opinions anyone?  Any implications here?

Dan


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