DIY Mesh Guide

DIY Mesh Guide cover

Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network: A do-it-yourself guide to planning and building a Freifunk based mesh network

Background

(Comment - rationale for developing the guide, history, etc.)

About The Guide

Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network: A do-it-yourself guide to planning and building a Freifunk based mesh network

Version 0.8 covers the following topics:

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Description of a wireless mesh network
• Chapter 3: Important condsiderations
• Chapter 4: Required Hardware and software
• Chapter 5: Planning the wireless mesh network
• Chapter 6: Building the wireless mesh network
• Chapter 7: Services on the network
• Appendix A: Acronyms

Core Group

(Comment - need to put a two liner description of the team members)

David Johnson - aka "kingdavid" is a research leader in the Wireless Africa group at the Meraka Institute.

Karel Mathee -

Dare Sokoya -

Lawrence Mboweni -

Ajay Makan -

Henk Kotze -

Updates and version control

The Freifunk and DD-WRT firmware is continually being updated and new releases are available on a regular basis. Always check for the latest versions online as the DIY Guide might not be updated regularly enough to reflect the newest versions of the firmaware.

Download

You can download the latest version of the guide in .PDF format here

Resources

• Video - Making a Cantenna The video shows, step-by-step, the building of a cantenna (antenna made from a can) for wireless networking (Wi-Fi, WLAN at 2.4 Ghz). Without audio, and with simple subtitles and clear pantomimic instructions, the video lends itself well to localisation.

• Wireless Networking in the Developing World The overall goal of this book is to help you build affordable communication technology in your local community by making best use of whatever resources are available. Using inexpensive off-the-shelf equipment and local sources for materials and fabricating parts yourself, you can build reliable network links with very little budget. By working with your local community, you can build a telecommunications infrastructure that benefits everyone who participates in it.

Feedback

Please send us your feedback, comments and corrections to wa-admin[at]meraka.org.za. We would like to know how you have used the guide, whether the guide was useful in setting up your mesh network and what topics should be expanded on or covered in the guide.