[OpenWireless Tech] "Open-mesh"

[Daniel Clark]

(+cc Marek, Michael -  this is re: https://openwireless.org/ which seems to
be picking up steam, or at least mailing list traffic, recently.)

On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 12:09 PM, Eugene Smiley <eug.smiley at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I like the idea of the Open-Mesh products, but I feel they are overpriced
> for the value provided. I also think that they might not fit into the
> OpenWireless campaign since we are talking about reusing existing routerAPs
> not replacing them.
>

I think open-mesh.com might fit in quite well once something of good beta
or release quality is available, specifically:

(a) As an option for people who are not willing to reuse old hardware / do
firmware updates / etc. when buying new hardware. I doubt we could get
stuff pre-installed on any of the major name hardware (Cisco, D-Link,
etc.), but I think there is a good chance that could happen with open-mesh.

(b) Open-mesh has a large install base, and a big part of their marketing
is the ease with which you can run a semi-open network, optionally charging
for the openness. So their (large) installed base would probably be pretty
interested in anything that improved the security of the open side of their
networks, which would in turn be a win for the promotion of the idea and
software of secure open wireless. It's super easy to upgrade a network of
open-mesh routers - just a check mark on a web interface - so the firmware
update pain wouldn't be much of an issue.

Re: Overpriced, IMHO this is dependent on if you are a Sys Admin or
knowledgeable user with spare time or not. $50 is maybe an half an hour to
two hours of most professional's time, and esp. if you don't already have
wifi/openwrt/batman knowledge, and aren't really interested in that type of
knowledge for intrinsic reasons, this might seem like a bargain vs. buying
several $25 routers, re-flashing them with OpenWRT/batman, finding ways to
enclose them to be weatherproof or mounted on the wall without looking like
crap, finding something that can be powered over Ethernet, etc. etc.

In general, the people who do open-mesh are really supportive of free
software, technically super-competent, and they have amazing customer
service (seriously, I opened a bug in their trac bug tracker I was pretty
sure was in fact a bug and not PEBKAC, then a few minutes later thought to
also email them in case the bug tracker wasn't monitored by the tech
support. While I was writing that email, I got an email asking for more
information, within about 30 minutes I had decided to just trust them with
root on the device, and they looked around and fixed the problem).
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