Anyone tried out any Open-Mesh equipment or services? Any good?

[exchange keys]

Has anyone ever used Open-Mesh equipment or their services before? If so, are they reliable?

I'm thinking of buying one (the OM1P US Professional Mini Router) for my office so my co-worker's clients can browse the Internet on their wireless devices while not being connected to the work's network (wireless guest access/hotspot).

Thank you.

 

[LukeinDC]

I've used the MR500 series and they work great. They are dual band and use the 5Ghz band for wireless to wireless routing. The 2.4Ghz band is dedicated to the users.

 

[claykin]

LukeInDC

How many MR500 units are in your mesh network?

This worries me from the MR500 spec sheet.

" Hardware watchdog to minimize lockups due to power spikes and short outages"

MINIMIZE? How about eliminates?

 

[thiggins]

Has anyone ever used Open-Mesh equipment or their services before? If so, are they reliable?

I'm thinking of buying one (the OM1P US Professional Mini Router) for my office so my co-worker's clients can browse the Internet on their wireless devices while not being connected to the work's network (wireless guest access/hotspot).

The OM1P is 802.11g and will be pretty slow. If you're ok with < 5 Mbps speed, it might work.

But many consumer routers now have "guest" WLAN features built in. Use the Router Finder and sort on # of SSIDs. Anything above 1 has the "guest" feature.

 

[thiggins]

Using 5 GHz for the backhaul mesh is going to limit throughput. Still, it will be better than using the OMP1.

The MR500 looks like an EnGenius ESR7750.

 

[stevech]

The single-radio mesh products (any vendor), have the classic issue of the throughput declining at about 1/n for n hops in the mesh.

Here, a single radio means SSID 1 for access point functions, and some other scheme for inter-node "backhaul", on the same radio (time-shared).

Dual radios (2.4 for access and 5.8 for backhaul) is often used. Tropos and Cisco, maybe a couple of others, dominate the unlicensed band mesh network world. An issue is the lack of a standard for the mesh, making all meshes proprietary. I think IEEE gave up on 802.11s after years. It was a war between Cisco and others re OSPF or not, made somewhat moot after Earthlink ceased the multi-city build-out.

 

[Vectrexer]

Has anyone ever used Open-Mesh equipment or their services before? If so, are they reliable?

I'm thinking of buying one (the OM1P US Professional Mini Router) for my office so my co-worker's clients can browse the Internet on their wireless devices while not being connected to the work's network (wireless guest access/hotspot).

Thank you.

Like the Open-Mesh equipment. Currently using the MR500 (Dual Band 2.4 Ghz / 5 GHz) units with 19 nodes in the site network.

I have found the deployment to work very well. When the primary wired ports have gone down the mesh networking to the other nodes that have their wired ports connected is a great thing to use for backup routing. In fact I have walked back into the rooms where wired network problems exist and have asked the wireless users if they were experiencing any issues? The response has always been surprise there was a problem since they were still working on the systems and did not notice the change in routing.

As mentioned in another post dual band routers do tend to hid meshing throughput limitations better since the mesh routing occurs on the 5Ghz channel. Just make sure your nodes can actually see each other in the Cloudtrax console.

The transmit power for the mesh channel is less on the MR500 than the other models. So order and the place the units accordingly.

• MR500: 18 dBm (a) to 21dBm (b/g/n), 63 mW (a) to 130 mW (b/g/n)
• OM2P: 26 dBm (b/g), 400mw (b/g)
• OM2P-LC: 20 dBm (b/g), 100 mW (b/g)
• OM2P-HS: 20 dBm (b/g/n) , 100 mW (b/g/n)
• OM1P: 20 dBm (b/g), 100 mW (b/g)

 

[stevech]

Don't use too much transmitter power on the mesh access nodes in 2.4GHz, else the outgoing radius of coverage will be far more than the incoming radius of coverage. This frustrates users because they get the experience "I hear you but you don't hear me well". This is the classic "unbalanced link" condition in wireless. An example of this, to the max, is a rock band's PA system - can they hear you in the audience?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I started using their products about 2 months ago, for some "difficult" deployments. I didn't need high power, just quick and easy deployment....and remote management. So their "cloud trax" portal is what caught me.

Price point...very low.
Performance....OK...distance is decent, we use the OM2P "High Power" models. Throughput is a bit on the low side.
Deployment and management is....incredible. I can deploy wireless networks hundreds or thousands of miles away, from my desk at my office. Anyone onsite can just plug in the first unit via ethernet...and walk around and plug in the rest via just power outlets...and if needed another "gateway" unit...and since I documented their MAC addresses ahead of time, I can build, and "enable/turn on" that network from my desk.

If Ubiquiti can get their controller to this level, what a winner they'd have, as I prefer their hardware.

 

[sfx2000]

Has anyone ever used Open-Mesh equipment or their services before? If so, are they reliable?

I'm thinking of buying one (the OM1P US Professional Mini Router) for my office so my co-worker's clients can browse the Internet on their wireless devices while not being connected to the work's network (wireless guest access/hotspot).

Thank you.

I guess I'm the only one that'll mention that the proposed scenario above could be a red-flag to continued employment at the company.

Check your IT/HR policies at the company... once that is done, take stock of what the installed WiFi gear is at the company.

Aruba, Trapeze, Cisco, Ruckus, and others - might want to set up a separate VLAN and SSID (Company-Guest for example) and provide access that way.

Doing it on your own could be a career limiting move.

sfx

(BTW - the OpenMesh gear is nice stuff)

 

[trunolimit]

I started using their products about 2 months ago, for some "difficult" deployments. I didn't need high power, just quick and easy deployment....and remote management. So their "cloud trax" portal is what caught me.

Price point...very low.
Performance....OK...distance is decent, we use the OM2P "High Power" models. Throughput is a bit on the low side.
Deployment and management is....incredible. I can deploy wireless networks hundreds or thousands of miles away, from my desk at my office. Anyone onsite can just plug in the first unit via ethernet...and walk around and plug in the rest via just power outlets...and if needed another "gateway" unit...and since I documented their MAC addresses ahead of time, I can build, and "enable/turn on" that network from my desk.

If Ubiquiti can get their controller to this level, what a winner they'd have, as I prefer their hardware.

I'll do you one better.

I'm installing a network at a clients home. I've ordered meraki equipment (yeah this guy can afford that stuff) and I set up the network even before the equipment is in. Once the equipment arrives all we do is plug everything in and all the settings (SSIDs, DHCP configs, VLANs) are automagically set up.

Now I'm looking into a Meraki style solution but without the price tag. This open mesh stuff seems cool.

 

[dirkvanderwalt]

I'll do you one better.


Now I'm looking into a Meraki style solution but without the price tag. This open mesh stuff seems cool.

Hi

You are welcome to check out MESHdesk (part of RADIUSdesk) which is an Open Source alternative to OpenMesh.com.

http://www.radiusdesk.com/

A few of the "selling points"

• Supports multiple vendor's equipment. (runs OpenWrt Barrier Breaker and a few extra packages)
• You own the controller and can run it where you choose.
• Support for multiple captive portals on the same mesh.
• Support for multiple entry points (SSIDs).
• Support for dual radio equipment almost ready - busy developing on the Tp-Link WDR 3500 which are below $70.

Cheers

 

[dirkvanderwalt]

Just as an update to my last post, dual radio nodes now supported on MESHdesk.

I've got some WDR3500's last week on sale for around $60 with free delivery which makes it very affordable .

Here's more documentation:

http://www.radiusdesk.com/user_guide/md_plan_high_speed

http://www.radiusdesk.com/user_guide/md_implement_high_speed