Mesh/Other mesh projects

The goal of this page is to list existing meshes, active mesh groups and failed community wireless groups so that we can learn from their failures and successes and possibly their source code and configuration parameters.

Project Meshnet has a list of wireless mesh projects.

Wikipedia has a list of wireless community networks by region - rather outdated, but useful as a research launching point.

Active meshes

Europe

Ninux - Italy

• Location: Italy. Many cities.
• Size: About 200 nodes.
• Protocol: OLSR
• Map
• Presentations for EigenNet

Freifunk - Germany

• Location: Germany. Several cities.
• Size: Over 600 nodes in Berlin and over 400 nodes in Leipzig according to the OSLR about page.
• Protocol: Mostly OLSR, but some cities use batman-adv.
• Map: Berlin
• Note: Not one big mesh, but several meshes in several cities.

Freifunk is actually both an organization, a firmware and a whole set of meshes, some of them interlinked, mostly in Germany. We have a whole page about the project.

AWMN - Greece

• Location: Athens, Greece
• Size: Over 2400 nodes (according to their map, mid-2013).
• Protocol: OLSR (according to the OSLR about page.
• Map]

Funkfeuer - Austria

• Location: Austria. Several cities.
• Size: ?
• Map: Vienna

wlan slovenija - Slovenia

• Location: Slovenia
• Size: 200 active nodes
• Protocol: OLSR
• Map: Slovenia
• Website
• Technology wiki

South America

Altermundi - Argentina

• Location: Argentina
• Size:
• Protocol:
• Map:
• Captive Portal
• Website
• See excerpts of Nico's interview with Gordon Cook

Buenos Aires Libre - Argentina

• Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Size: 200 active nodes (but 720 total)
• Protocol:
• Map
• Status: Likely in decline.

Few of total nodes active. General meeting still being held (probably yearly), yet no-one signed up for general meeting attendance three days before it was to be held.

Bogota Mesh - Columbia

• Location: Bogota, Columbia
• Size: 30 nodes. Not sure how many active.
• Protocol: B.A.T.M.A.N. (not sure if -adv or -exp or normal).
• Map

North America

Personal Telco Project - Portland, Oregon

• Location: Portland, Oregon
• Size: ~100 active nodes
• Protocol: OLSR
• Map: http://map.personaltelco.net/
• Status: Active
• Notes: Dig their documentation process for meetings! To copy: Link to UserPages on the wiki when listing attendees, set agenda after intros.
• IRC WebChat
• NY Times Article from 11/14/2013

[https://www.alliedmedia.org/dctp/casscowifi Detroit Community Technology Project: CassCo WiFi

• Location: Detroit, MI
• Size: ? 7 on CassCo wifi map
• Protocol: Commotion/OLSR
• Map:
• Status: Active
• Notes: An initiative in partnership with the Open Technology Institute, training Digital Stewards to build community wireless networks. Great educational resources here: https://communitytechnology.github.io/

Red Hook Wifi - Brooklyn

• Location: Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, USA
• Size: 15
• Protocol: OLSR
• Map:
• Organizations: Red Hook Initiative (RHI), RHI Digital Stewards, Commotion / Open Technology Institute
• Tidepools Map of Community: http://www.redhookwifi.org/#/map
• Notes: Used after Hurricane Sandy - SMS plugin created to enable people to text needs/information to first responders based out of the RHI.

NYC Mesh

• Location: New York, NY
• Size: ~60?
• Protocol: qMp using BMX6
• Map: https://nycmesh.net/map/
• Status: Active
• Notes: Met some of the folks behind this, first during a videochat back in 2015 and then at HOPE in 2016. One of their biggest challenges has been making links in the overcrowded 2.4GHz frequency spectrum.https://nycmesh.net/join/

PittMesh - Pittsburgh

• Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
• Size: ~50 nodes
• Protocol: OLSR
• Firmware: Commotion
• Organizations: Meta Mesh
• A META MESH project
• irc://irc.freenode.net/pittmesh

Planned Meshes

North America

MileMesh - Hoboken

• Location: Hoboken, NJ, USA
• Size: 0 nodes so far
• Protocol: OLSR
• Firmware: Commotion Github
• Commotion Wireless

ChicagoMeshnet - Chicago

• Location: Chicago, Chicago
• Size: 0 nodes so far
• Protocol: unknown
• Firmware: unknown
• Organizations: Project Meshnet
• Irc: Chicagomeshnet on irc.efnet.net
• MailingList Reddit Map

South America

Altermundi - Argentina

• Location: Outside Buenos Aires and another in Quintana
• Size: Unsure, see http://map.libre-mesh.org/
• Protocol: batman-adv
• Firmware: AlterMesh

LUGRo-Mesh - Argentina

• Location: Rosario, Argentina
• Size: 0 nodes so far
• Protocol: B.A.T.M.A.N. Experimental (bmx)
• Firmware: Nightwing their own distro.

Active non-mesh community wireless projects

North America

SoCalFreeNet - San Diego, CA

• Location: South Park in San Diego, CA, USA
• Size: Six networks: Barrio Logan (4 nodes), National City (1 node + computer lab for students), Golden Hill (20+ nodes; neighborhood network), Normal Heights (1 node, Sherman Heights (1 node), South Park (2 nodes, housing complex) for a total of ~30 nodes.
• Organizations: SoCalFreeNet, San Diego Free Geek
  • Equipment, Services, and Discounts: Meraki, NetGate, Metrix, Pasadena Networks, San Diego Futures Foundation;
  • Sponsorship & Support: Golden Hill Rentals, Real Equity Assets, Influx Cafe, The Linkery, Golden Hill Place, Ryan Brothers Coffee

Europe

Guifi - Spain

• Location: Spain
• Size: Over 21,000 active nodes. Mostly in Barcelona.
• Website
• Note: Not sure if this is a mesh, but it seems to be huge!

Collaborating with The Free Network Foundation to establish guifi.us: A self-service and full-service network planning, provisioning, and funding tool.

Inactive / failed local networks

North America

Roofnet - Massachussets

• Location: MIT and surrounding area, Massachussets.
• Protocol: ExOR
• Status: Website spews errors and was lasted updated in 2006.

Roofnet turned into Meraki which used to be awesome, but became less awesome and eventually was bought by Cisco.

NetEquality - Portland

• Location: Low-income housing communities in Portland.
• Protocol: Not a mesh.
• Status: May still be active, but front page lists a 2007 article as recent.

CUWiN - Illinois

• Location: Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
• Status: Website down.
• Funding: Received ~$870,000 from 2003 to 2006

Funding overview

• December, 2003: Received a $200,000 grant from the Open Society Institute
• July, 2004: Received a $50,000 grant from the Threshold Foundation
• December, 2005: Received $118,000 grant from the Open Society Institute
• July, 2006: Received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation

Archive.org's SFLAN - San Francisco

• Website
• Began around the time of the failure of attempted SF municipal wifi in 2007 - grew to 50 nodes by February and then shrunk to 4 by October.
• Relied on miles-long line-of-sight connections for the backbone link. Noise and interference due to competing wi-fi signals made many of these links nonfunctional.
• Note: Not 100% sure this is inactive.

NoCat - Sebastopol, CA

NoCat's goal is to bring you Infinite Bandwidth Everywhere for Free.

• Last news article was posted in February 2006.
• Website went down some time in late 2012.
• nocat.net on archive.org
• Seems like it wasn't a mesh

One of the main organizers, Rob Flickenger, wrote the O'Reilly book Building Wireless Community Networks (published 2001). We should find him and ask him why it failed. His website is http://hackerfriendly.com

myrtletown.net - California

• Location: Murtletown, California
• Size: 1 WRT54GS router with a 1 watt amplifier on a tall mast.

Actually covers a good part of the tiny town!

• Map