I heard of mesh networks before, be it from the OneLaptopPerChild or the German Freifunker community. But the recent episode of ChaosRadio about the MeshPotato got me interested enough to give it a try. The meshing community here in Switzerland is organized at openwireless.ch. Sure, I could buy a compatible router and install the provided firmware. But being a true geek I wanted to see how it works on hardware that I already have. So I started with these three devices:
- Alix 2d13 running ubuntu server lucid
- Openmoko Freerunner running qtmoko (based on debian lenny)
- Acer Aspire one running ubuntu maverick
I wanted to allow access to the internet, but only through an anonymizing service, so I wouldn’t get into trouble if somebody does something illegal over my wire. (more…)