How to join the mesh network

2009-08-17 12:51 — Mark Burdett

Joining the 510pen mesh network is a simple, four-step process. Once your mesh router has been delivered, it should take you no more than a few minutes to set up, even if you consider the extent of your technical skills to be no more than turning on your computer and checking your e-mail.

Order an MR500 mesh router ($99) or OM1P professional mini-router ($59).*
When your mesh router arrives, create an account on 510pen.org and add your mesh node.
Either place your mesh router within 150 feet of another mesh router on the 510pen network or plug it in to an existing Internet connection, and then plug in the power and wait at least one hour for the router to download its configuration along with any firmware updates from 510pen.org.
Position the router in a location where it can best serve its users and reach neighboring mesh nodes, if any. You can order additional mesh routers to relay the mesh network into areas with poor reception. Take a look at a mesh network planning guide.

The mesh router uses only a small portion of your Internet connection, and for security, it creates a new wireless network separate from any existing network you may have. We recommend using a local mesh-friendly Internet service provider.

* If you are trying to mesh with other routers in your vicinity, note that the MR500 and OM1P do not mesh with each other because their mesh radios operate on different bands.

Forum:

Before you start

Do they federate?

Enlace permanente Enviado por ian en 2009-12-07 19:55.

Hi!

This is so cool! I just set up the 14th and Harrison node. Hope to link up to others soon. I was wondering if the nodes federate to pool multiple downstream pipes. An example to illustrate this would be if I have an Internet connection and my neighbor Phyllis across the hall does not. I am cool with her using my connection, because she is a nice lady, feeds my bunnies when I go on vacation and graces my doorstep with homemade jam every now and again. My upstairs neighbor is also very nice, but he has a really high paying tech job, works from home, sucks up tons of bandwith (torrents, video, running his personal web server in his closet, etc.) and is generally a "power user." He has his own blazing fast Internet connection, and a brand new Open-Mesh gateway. Can he plug the gateway into his Modem the same way I do and "pool" our bandwidth, or do we each essentially have a separate wireless mesh?

You can indeed have multiple

Enlace permanente Enviado por Mark Burdett en 2009-12-12 06:31.

You can indeed have multiple Internet gateways on one mesh network. That's why we talk about the mesh network improving redundancy and reliability of Internet access :)

How do I manage my nodes?

Enlace permanente Enviado por k6jeb en 2011-01-30 18:18.

So I've set up my Bullet 2HP with ROBIN, then added my mesh node with the link above (and by the way, the page returns an error when the form is submitted, but it appears it went in OK).

All is well. Now how do I manage my node via cloudtrax?

Thanks!
Jack

If you want to fully manage

Enlace permanente Enviado por mark B. en 2011-02-01 14:27.

If you want to fully manage your node via cloudtrax, then you'd have to create your own mesh network on the cloudtrax site.

The cloudtrax dashboard is oriented around one super-user who can control all nodes on the network, whereas 510pen is a more decentralized community network.

On 510pen.org you can look at users on your on mesh router(s), and we are working on adding more configuration capabilities for users to customize their mesh router. It's a work in progress, currently slow going because we have so many different versions of mesh firmware running on the nodes.

510pen