DISQUS

Everton · 2 years ago

Welcome to the team Chris and great first post!

Andy · 2 years ago

This is revolutionary in its simplicity. I plan to buy a couple of minis and play with this technology.

RT Cunningham · 2 years ago

I'm in the Philippines with a DSL connection that's pretty slow compared to the kind in America and the UK. I'm afraid that a mesh network, of any kind, would eat up what little bandwidth I get from the provider. Once they bring Internet cable into my neighborhood, now that would be a different story.

I'll have to research to find out my initial cost, but I would be the only "ISP" in my barangay (subdivision/multiple neighborhoods).

Christopher Mims · 2 years ago

I'm in the Philippines with a DSL connection that's pretty slow compared to the kind in America and the UK. I'm afraid that a mesh network, of any kind, would eat up what little bandwidth I get from the provider.

That's the great thing about Meraki - you can set bandwidth limits for everyone on the network (and none at all for yourself). This means you could only be selling folks your "spare" capacity. (I mean, are you downloading 24/7?)

As Sanjit, CEO of Meraki pointed out to me, when most people are doing normal things on the web - e-mail, browsing the web, etc., they're actually using up surprisingly little bandwidth. That's why in the U.S. one single DSL connection spread through a meraki mesh network and offered up to up to 50 users is still a reasonable surfing speed for those users.

If you had a lock on your nabe, that would be perfect. Your initial cost will be however many nodes you'll need to cover the geographical area. Keep in mind that in some cases you'll have to jump between buildings (could mean additional nodes on windows to transmit signal between buildings). Merakis can also be powered through an ethernet cable, so that's one option for powering outdoor Merakis.

Another issue is convincing your neighbors to be OK with having this weird little box plugged into their wall. Of course if, in the case of those particular neighbors, you let them know that this is how you're going  to give them free internet, they might be more amenable...

Two final pieces of the equation: make sure your ISP is either cool with sharing or doesn't check, and for folks who don't have wireless capability in their computers, you'll have to find those commodity USB wireless modems that can be had for as little as $20 and sell them those as well.

Alex · 2 years ago

Really cool thing. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing, Chris.

Ian Salmon · 2 years ago

Hi, we already have over 1OO community meshAp meshing nodes and are trying hard to integrate the meraki. Our stumbling block is the management software. It can only use merakis own inhouse billing system or be free acess. Has anyone managed to adjust so that we can add our own free inhouse software to give instant sign in/access. We cant afford giving meraki 20% and even then wouldnt help our existing nodes automatic software

steve · 2 years ago

How much of a cut does Meraki take? I can't find this anywhere on their website nor in searching through Google.

FON on the other hand is up front with the fact that they take 50% of the profits. But you also get to roam for free on any FON wifi network

Christopher Mims · 2 years ago

Meraki's cut is small - don't quote me on this, but I think it's less than 20%, perhaps much less. Their billing option is still in beta, that's probably why you haven't seen anything on it.

Another important difference between Meraki and Fon is that Meraki is a complete solution for creating a mesh network and spreading it over a large (or small) area. Fon is just a way to share your router and share others' routers. In my mind they address very different needs.

Emmanuel Narokobi · 2 years ago

I think it's official now. Meraki does charge 20%, see here:
http://meraki.com/oursolution/editions/comparison/

This is for the Meraki Pro division. You also pay more if you are going to make money from it. So a Mini in a standard edition cost you $49 but if you go Pro, then the same Mini costs you $149.

But getting back to the 20% charge, what if people are paying you as a mini WISP and they do not have credit cards??

Phillip Moatswi · 1 year ago

How canone get a hold of this interesting but questionalble offer?in terms of personal benefit with the same benefit of business growth?

Victor Hugo · 1 year ago

were can I find expos on this product and thus like it.

JLH · 10 months ago

Anyone know if  Time Warner could legally disrupt my wireless network if  I set one up for my little community?  Are there laws that say I can't provide wireless service if  Time Warner "owns" this territory?  I just want to make sure I don't step on any toes or make someone too angry before I ever get this started.

doubledeuce · 3 months ago

the explanation is simple,but what about if you have an internet cafe in your local area,and you want to supply your nieghbours with internet accessibility of this kind,will it be that i wil set a bandwith for each user and there wont be any problem among the users.Also how will i charge them.

Wifi Dreamer · 2 weeks ago

Just thought I would comment on your plan to charge others to use your broadband/internet. If you read your terms of service it cleary states "you will not re-sell your service or use it as a host". Just thought you should know, I too am struggling to find an alternative to beating this. There is actually an individual in Maryland that started a company "OceanNet", he had 35 Comcast accounts providing service to multiple units, he is currently being sued by Comcast for missuse of services and recoop costs!