Meraki was the coolest wireless mesh product I had seen, and I was promoting meraki till they changed their business models. Still meraki is the best product in the market but I dont use it anymore.
Ever since Meraki changed their prices and business models, I was looking for an alternative. There were many similar products, but the web dashboard and the zero configuration router were still not there.
Today I have found a product, that is open source and free and that matches merakis features. Its the Open-Mesh. They provide free centralized network management & reporting console for RO.B.IN and Meraki network. The stuff is very much similar to Merakis online dashboard.
The Open-Mesh supports Fon 2200 routers flashed with a custom firmware. The router costs only 40$. Now thats cheaper than Meraki which costs 49$ a piece. This is the best Ive seen so far and Ill be soon getting a few FON routers and restarting the mesh project I had started and then paused due to merakis change of business plans.
[...] Open-Mesh is there to compete with meraki. The Open-Mesh do have fully web interface to configure and control [...]
Pingback by Make your city wifi enabled using Open-Mesh — April 10, 2008 @ 12:02 pm
[...] But now its not there. Now I am being asked to fill in a form. Anyways Ill look at it later. Open-mesh is the Meraki killer. It offers as many features as the Meraki with a lesser cost. If meraki is windows, open-mesh is [...]
Pingback by Some wifi mesh products — May 15, 2008 @ 11:09 am
Hi!!! How are you doing. I am looking to provide wifi service to a island that is 7miles wide and 21miles long. Could you please assist me in the right direct on how to go about achieving this project. Thank you very much
Regrads
Comment by Kendrick Ferguson — August 2, 2008 @ 6:08 am
Can you please give me the list of compatible routers I can install Open-mesh?
Comment by Steve N. Kurt — November 13, 2008 @ 10:37 am
Meraki can be the besti solution in such a situation. It also has solar wifi routers which are tailor made for large terrains like an islands. for more details mail me at kineticmayank@yahoo.com
Comment by Mayank — December 16, 2008 @ 11:36 am
How does open-mesh differ from Meraki other than costs? Do they still offer the 3 billing plans? How much do they charge to handle the transaction, because I believe Meraki charges 20%.
Thanks in advance,
Sam
Comment by Sam — December 17, 2008 @ 11:21 am
I fully agree with your decision to seek alternatives to Meraki’s technology now that they’ve introduced a pricing structure that is unrealistic for hobbyists and community wireless networks. I’m the founder and project coordinator for DFWFreeNet (http://www.dfwfreenet.org), a community wireless network in the Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX area. I have been evaultaing Open-Mesh hardware to replace our current Meraki infrastructure. One of our largest network segments has been migrated to Open-Mesh and the test has gone well so far. There are a few featuers that Meraki offers that Open-Mesh doesn’t, although the Open-Mesh software/routers are a lot more flexible, open and it wouldn’t be difficult to add own featuers. You can even host your own Dashboard on your own servers (OrangeMesh) rather than using their hosted solution. The new wall plug covers are very nice and make for a clean and professional install. Overall I would highly recommend Open-Mesh.
Comment by DFWFreeNet — May 9, 2009 @ 8:18 pm
> Fon 2200
Is that the “Fonera” or the “Fonera+” that FON is are now selling?
Comment by Hank — June 9, 2009 @ 9:47 am