Comments on: Meraki’s FreeNet is Live …. almost

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:43:45 +0000

March 24, 2008. I live in the Tenderloin, in the busiest part of Crack Town. I'm on the 12th floor with no tall buildings within a few blocks. I have an outdoor repeater. It sometimes gets a signal, but not strong enough to load a simple page, like google.com. It won't load anything. Macstumbler says that the signal varies between 65-70. Even so, the LED meter on the repeater typically is up to 3 out of 4 lights. This supposed to indicate a pretty strong signal. My Airport does not register Free the Net, but picks up many other signals in the hood. Using MB Pro, 2.4Ghz, tried many browsers, same with all, nothing. I have a Hawking USB Wireless Dish. With the dish I receive Free the Net, with a signal strength that ranges between 35-60. Sometimes it is slower than the old 14.4 modem, and sometimes it's OK, like DSL on a very bad day. Radio streams but sometimes drops constantly. I think it's interesting that the Meraki repeater is inferior to the Hawking Dish. I can't fault Airport, as I live in a concrete and steel building and my computer is not near a window, even when it is it does not receive FTN. But I can't get radio stations on a good radio without lots of interference. I do however receive perfectly clear digital TV with a $2. set of rabbit ears, of course I have a digital TV tuner.

By: Roger Campos

Roger Campos — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:00:47 +0000

The signal has been strong in the Lower Haight where I have a repeater. However, I have not been able to get on the net for a while. According to Meraki FAQ's there may be a problem with bandwidth.

By: GigaOM Meraki To Expand its WiFi Network Throughout San Francisco «

GigaOM Meraki To Expand its WiFi Network Throughout San Francisco « — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:45:34 +0000

[...] a smaller, less ambitious effort that’s being spearheaded by Mountain View, Calif.-based Meraki, Free The Net, is gaining groundswell [...]

By: DFWFreeNet

DFWFreeNet — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:37:26 +0000

Robert, I would give it time. It looks like they are getting the gateway nodes up first, then plan to fill in the rest of the area with repeaters. There’s still a lot of space to cover and it makes sense to get the sources of bandwidth installed first and spread out as evenly as possible.

I’m working on a very similar project (on a larger scale) in the Dallas, TX area – http://www.dfwfreenet.org

By: Robert Berger

Robert Berger — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 04:28:15 +0000

Last time I looked at the Meraki SF Network map, the vast majority of the nodes had direct connections to some form of wired Internet connection. A very small percentage of the n odes were "meshed" (i.e. wirelessly connected to thru another meraki node). Of that small percentage most had only one hop before they got to the wire and a very small percentage had two hops.

This is not a mesh network.

By: VOIPBLOG.IT » I links di oggi

VOIPBLOG.IT » I links di oggi — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:31:25 +0000

[...] Meraki’s FreeNet is Live …. almost La rete WiFi mesh di Meraki inizia a prendere vita? Devo ancora capire bene quanto il modello di Meraki si avvicini a FON… per ora copre una piccola area attorno a San Francisco. (tags: wifi mesh meraki fon wireless) [...]