What's this about ?

Several groups appear to have modified the firmware that runs in Linksys WRT54G routers in order to exploit its processing power - its a £50 or $50 low power computer.

My interest is in the modifications made to enhance its wireless capabilities, in particular the ability to do "mesh networking". A mesh is where a number of wireless routers or "nodes" communicate with each other to determine the optimum traffic routing of TCP/IP traffic, usually with the aim of connecting out to the internet via one or more of the nodes which act as a "gateway".

Locustworld is a Mesh system that uses open source software installed on laptops,PCs, or mini-ITX computers to form a mesh. Typically a mini-ITX PC using a VIA processor is used to make a MeshBox, costing up to £200. The WRT54G looks to be a cheaper option, although perhaps less well developed so far. It does offer the advantage of 54Mbits/s 802.11g performance when the Locustworld offering appears to be limited to 802.11b - I'm unclear if 11g cards can be used.

I'll be looking at Sveasoft, OpenWRT and Freifunk along with anything else that pops up here.