I think we need to take a careful look at what it would take for people to really want to and be comfortable with participating in a mesh.
1) What's the motivation? Can't just be the geek factor. Greater bandwidth to the Internet (ie, you can use your own DSL or cable or modem *and* your neighbors bandwidth in some load blancing config) is the best reason I've heard for people to really want to be part of a mesh. 2) what concerns would I have: will this mean that my Internet connection is saturated when I want to use it? We need QOS and/or ways to automatically turn down access to my Internet connnection when my household is actively using it. Does it effect my security (currently my private wireless net is behind a NAT). Does my wireless link slow down due to lots of other traffic flowing over it? 3) Is a wireless mesh reliable & secure enough to rely on it? Is it true that tcp over a 3 hop mesh network link generally works at 15% of expected throughput (due to tcp's poor performance in the face of packet loss and latency). Quoting Ken Restivo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Well for months now, I've been wondering what all the hoopla was about Mesh > networking and meshed AP's. It sounded impractical except for very > densely-populated, urban, geek-infested, affluent areas. > > Then I finally hammered together a working combination of kismet, orinoco > drivers, and libpcap. And drove around one small corner of my sleepy, > low-tech, beach-town of Pacifica. > > And found... 102 live access points!!?!? > > I expected maybe 1 or 2... a dozen, tops. But 102 of 'em? Driving around, jaw > hanging open, mumbling "Holy shit..." a la John Belushi. > > Pretty near saturation coverage-- lots of overlapping beacons. This in a town > where, at a recent gathering of 20 or so local residents, only 3 actually > raised their hands when asked who had *any* Internet access at home! > > Lifting off the grid suddenly seems less of a pipe dream, and more like... an > inevitability. > > - -ken > - -- > - --------------- > The world's most affordable web hosting. > http://www.nearlyfreespeech.net > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQE+4vx+e8HF+6xeOIcRAndGAJ4q456JSn99L/fpyVI9nm7BvgB+dgCfZd5b > zBVLtv/0GLoAoSYfI7nggQ8= > =ve3+ > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > -- > general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> > [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
