Edited by author 08-28-2003 03:07 PM
You might think that having two WiFi radios in a PC shouldn't double its price.

You'd be dead wrong. It turns the already amazing Meshbox into a carrier-grade network component, capable of serving large communities with wireless broadband.

i saw you articlea bout wireless locustworld boxes, very intertesting, i was wondering what is the range on these boxes? and as i understand it transmits at 11mbps right? and do i understand that anyone with a wireless radi card can pic the signal and share the line? will be very interested in this system please could you mail me some more answers? regards

sheiky_baby at hotmail.com

Hi!

Yes, it’s 11 megabits per second, using the standard the IEEE calls 802.11b – but there will be faster systems available, I understand, just as soon as drivers are available.

 

Range is exactly the same as with any WiFi 11b standard access point, except for the fact that if you get a second Mesh box, the two will link up and create a network, expanding the range.

 

You can set one up to be open to anybody in the neighbourhood. On the LocustWorld site, however, there’s a description of how to close it down, so that only subscribers see it, as well.

When will these improved Meshboxes become available?

I found them on sale at luno. You'll have to dig deep though... £500+VAT doesn't fall easily out of most peoples pockets.:-

http://shop.luno.net/catalog/product_info....2eba736bc0afa51008f

I was hoping that the Meshbox X2 would address one issue we have with building MeshAP based meshes. That is, I was hoping that one radio could be used with a good omni to serve the local neighbourhood, whilst the other radio could be used to establish a long distance point-to-point link to the next mesh box.

Okay, P2P links don't work well with the dynamic meshing (where the mesh will re-route itself if a node goes down) but sometimes you need that long hop.

The other application of two radios would be to get around the legal limits on power. One radio could be used for Tx at 100mW (20dB) whilst the other could have the biggest gain antenna you could find and be used for Rx.

But it appears that this is not the aim of the new box.

As an establish MeshAP user, it has felt over the last few months that work on the original Meshbox has stopped, even when there are many unanswered questions and unsolved problems.

However, it must be said that is currently the only affordable off the shelf solution and is a real enabler. That's why we're committed to the MeshAP system will hopefully roll out our mesh using 10's of these great little boxes.

Russell
www.feeed.com
Feeed Mesh Network Club
Hastings & St. Leonards, East Sussex