The return of the $50 wireless mesh router!

An idea pioneered by a company called Meraki (who later changed their business model and doubled prices), has been resurrected by Open Mesh. Once gain, small groups and individuals can build and maintain cheap wireless community networks. Powered by open source firmware on a cheap router, installation is plug and play.

Today Michael Burmeister-Brown announced a new product and company designed to fill the void left by Meraki — Open-Mesh.

Open-Mesh does everything the original Meraki did — and more:

• It’s inexpensive. Open-Mesh WiFi repeaters cost $49 each or $39.95 (qty 20)
• It’s Ad free. Open-Mesh promises they will never push ads into your networks. You decide what, if any, content you want to display.
• It’s 100% open source and deployed on top of OpenWRT. You can change anything.
• You can re-flash the firmware if you want.
• The Dashboard management system provides free administration, alerting and mapping. It allows you to configure the ESSID, splash page, passwords, and Bandwith allocation of your networks.
• The devices auto-configure. It’s simple to create a neighborhood or apartment network. You don’t need to use their management system if you don’t want to.

Unlike Meraki and FON, their architecture is 100% open source. You can re-flash the firmware if you want. Put up a new splash page. Use their free management software (below) — or not. (from Daily Wireless)

Want to provide basic access for your community? This is the way. It’s so simple even a Senator could install and manage it. Cheap enough to be funded by a bake sale. No new taxes or funding required.