With the meshcom client driver installed on 5 laptops and the mesh browser showing all the nodes, the next plan was to share the internet connection on my laptop with every other laptop in the mesh.

I am using a tata indicom data card to access the internet on my laptop. In its connection properties, enable internet connection sharing. Then select the local area connection that was formed when you installed the mesh driver as your local network.

Once you do this, windows will configure your IP for the lan to be 192.168.0.1

Setup IPs for every other laptops in the same range, ie 192.168.0.x The subnet is 255.255.255.0 The gateway and DNS on all other laptops must be 192.168.0.1

You can use any internet connection. The only requirement is that you enable sharing and also select the mesh lan as your local network.

Now every other laptop can access your internet connection without an access point or a router. Your mesh will take care of routing packets to your gateway (your laptop) through the best path available.