[wsfii-discuss] fon/meraki/community meshes differentiated ..

Tue Oct 2 23:04:36 UTC 2007

hi!

(it's good to hear from you, Vickram Crishna! i will promptly send an
update on the Budapest situation, only i have to find time to write
it.)

i don't completely agree with you. if there are companies which sell
cheap routers, why not buy them (until we can make our own, of
course)? if the license which comes with them doesn't allow flashing,
why not liberate them? hardware wants to be free as well!

for example linksys has similar profit on selling their wrt54gl line
which most people flash with a free firmware and mod in different
ways.

perhaps this method is not sustainable, but i don't think Meraki or
Fon have so much money on their software solutions. i think the more
people buy their hardware, the richer they get. and the pirate users
don't put any stress on their servers either!

what is the Bretton Woods trap?

maxigas

From: Vickram Crishna <v1clist at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [wsfii-discuss] fon/meraki/community meshes differentiated .. (was: Re: Fwd: wireless connectivity.. Is802.11n the end of ethernet?)
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 09:57:05 +0100 (BST)

> The real point is, are any commercial manufacturers making flashable routers/APs that are suitable for meshes, at price points where the FONs and Merakis of
> the world have a run for their money?
> 
> If not, then the problem is how to create a 'business model' for community mesh that justifies 'subsidising' the real world cost of hardware/TCO to the
> end-consumer. For obvious philosophical reasons neither of these models is really the bee's knees, but what alternate models exist whereby poor (3rd World,
> specifically) communities can hope to leverage themselves (without bankrupting themselves to get there)? Let's be clear, straightforward charity doesn't cut
> it. Does anyone know a model for altruistic venture capital? (We already have altruistic tech assistance, our listmembers and WSFII itself have richly proven
> it).
> 
> Someone mentioned acquiring Meraki hardware on eBay or somewhere and flashing new firmware, this also sounds very close to piracy, rather than a clean honest
> approach. If Meraki stuff is priced low, it is because the company expects to recover its money from the inbuilt functioning of a Meraki mesh, not a clean
> Open mesh. Scamming them, taking advantage of their chosen architecture, does not ring right, and in fact if done on a large scale will only lead to closure
> for Meraki.
> 
> I think this is very important to understand, and for WSFII to evolve, so that we do not end up in some new-fangled hi-tech Bretton Woods trap.
> 
> I have taken the liberty of fixing the spelling in the subject line, and removing the [india-gii] that has had my filters clogged since this thread began.
> 
> kloschi <kloschi at subsignal.org> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Roland,
>    
>     On Mon, 2007-10-01 at 05:30 -0700, roland wrote:
>     > Thanks for the differenciation.
>     > I do understand you can buy FON or Meraki equipments and plug it on
>     > any available internet connection and extend your coverage.
>    
>     I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly ..
>    
>     In general, yes, you can use fon or meraki or _any_ wifi enabled network
>     device to extend an static (or for correctness, also dhcp managed)
>     network.
>     you cannot extend mesh networks by the default config and with the
>     default firmwares.
>    
>     I hope that answers your question.
>    
>     kind regards,
>     kloschi
>     _______________________________________________
>     wsfii-discuss mailing list
>     wsfii-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>     http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wsfii-discuss
> 
> Vickram
> http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com
> 
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--
maxigas at anargeek.net
Indymedia / IMC Hungary [indy.media.hu]
Kitchen Budapest [www.kitchenbudapest.hu]
Zöld Pók / Green Spider [www.zpok.hu]