Why not more nodes

[Eric Butler]

A dedicated router is almost always required, but this certainly could
be an off the shelf device such as a Linksys. The biggest issue with
using one of these devices is there is currently no 'plain english' way
to set everything up on one, you'll have to ssh the box and edit some
configuration files by hand. There has been talk about creating a
"SeattleWireless" firmware for these devices that would basically have a
"Make me a node" button, but as of yet, nobody has volunteered to
develop this. If anyone is interested , I encourage you to come to the
next HackNight. With a few people, I don't think it would be a very
difficult thing to develop.

Another other issue of course is that most off the shelf hardware (the
WRT54G is no exception) is not all that great, and if you started
pushing a lot of traffic, you'd probably want to swap it out with
something like a soekris board anyway.

Most people in this area pay over $40 per month for broadband. If you
set up an internet sharing agreement with someone else over the
SeattleWireless network, it would quickly pay you back the cost of a
decent soekris box.

    - Eric

Patrick Walters wrote:
> I'll chime in on this one. When I originally joined the list and started
> poking around I figured all I would need to do is buy a $100 antenna,
> find a place outside for it, wire it to my existing access point with
> some quality COAX and I'd be up. I figured it would be easy and cheap.
> 
> It may be easy and cheap, but the instructions on the site call for
> spending a couple of hundred dollars to get everything up and running.
> 
> It is possible to do more with less? By that I mean if there were more
> nodes albeit with cheaper more commodity hardware could the same goals
> be achieved or is the higher end custom access point hardware required?
> 
> If the higher end hardware isn't a must-have, I'd love to see step by
> step instructions in plain English on how to use commodity hardware like
> a Linksys access point to get up and going.
> 
> Anyway, maybe all this is there but I'm not readily able get the
> information from the site.
> 
> Also, the Node Map seems to show a lot of nodes, but when I turn off the
> 'potential nodes' most nodes disappear.  Are potential nodes in-progress
> or just purely theoretical nodes? It would be good to have 'Needed
> Nodes' to show where adding a node could greatly enhance the network.
> 
> -patrick 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: talk-bounces at seattlewireless.net
> [mailto:talk-bounces at seattlewireless.net] On Behalf Of Jason Feeser
> Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 00:49
> To: dennis at galron.com; 'SeattleWireless Talk List'
> Subject: RE: Politics
> 
> So, why haven't more people put up seattlewireless nodes???
> 
> Large scale public mesh is what we want... right???
> 
> Are we waiting for 'N' to land???  Will 'N' solve current limitations???
> 
> Can we have a self-configuring household mesh appliance that people
> would be
> happy to pay $100-$200 for in order to get "free" internet???
> 
> Or are most people here (industry professionals aside) just pointing
> antennas down the street in order to save $50.00/month???
> 
> I would love a free network from West Seattle to the UW to get at my
> free
> internet.  But for now, Comcast it is.
> 
> Jason
>