The Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) has announced that their free, open-source community mesh software has been successfully ported to the Meraki Mini, the WiFi hardware/software package (about $50), developed at MIT.

The Meraki Mini hardware works well for apartment buildings where a direct WiFi backbone connection is difficult to make. Meraki Networks is an inexpensive hardware platform to help disseminate work from the MIT Roofnet project, an open-source community mesh networking software project out of MIT. It is similar to CUWiN, the mesh software which was developed out of Chicago’s Champaign-Urbana campus and assisted with a generous grant from George Soros.

MIT’s Roofnet software is pre-installed in the Meraki. It lets you extend Internet connections across a network of Meraki repeaters though mesh networking. RoofNet’s $49 Meraki Mini router has 8MB Flash and 32MB SDRAM (specs). Operators can also view network health, apply software updates, manage users, set bandwidth limits and maintain branded splash pages through a simple, centralized web interface. The firmware provides self-configuration and intelligent route selection.

If you’re unhappy with the Roofnet software for some reason or want to experiment, you can download the CUWiN software and try that out. Documentation on the port can be found at http://cuwin.net/manual/howto/merak. The software download is free. CUWiNware is currently in Beta.

Portland’s PersonalTelco has found that Roofnet runs well on a Netgear WGT634U access point (PersonalTelco photos). It’s not hard to flash the Netgear WGT634U (above, now discontinued) with RoofNet software, as described here.

Glenn Fleishman interviewed two of Meraki’s co-founders, Sanjit Biswas (president) and Hans Robertson (chief operating office) (MP-3).

Related DailyWireless articles include; Public Safety Mesh, Solar RoofNet Wiki, Big Bucks for CUWiN, Open Source Routers, Recognizing Heros, Community Mesh Developments, Cheap PC Roundup, Ruckus Home Gateway, Sputnik + DD-WRT = Inexpensive WiFi Management, Community LAN Partnership Models, Linksys WRT-54GL and PersonalTelco Hosts Local Music.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 5:00 am.