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$99 for solar-powered wifi repeater

Steve Woods International IT News 3 Comments »

Meraki Networks, pioneer of the first consumer wireless mesh internet network designed to “unwire the world”, today announced the new Meraki Outdoor repeater and the Meraki Solar accessory, that together can cover entire neighbourhoods with wifi access.

Priced at $99 (that’s £50 in real money), Meraki Outdoor can transmit a signal up to 700 feet. When coupled with Meraki’s existing indoor $49 Mini, the Meraki Outdoor repeater can power access for dozens of households sharing one high speed connection. Meraki Outdoor can be easily mounted on a wall or a pole outside the house. According to the company, it marks another step forward in Meraki’s efforts to change the economics of wifi access, reducing the cost per household of high speed connections to $1 to $2 a month.

Read the full story on Meraki’s website.

3 Responses to $99 for solar-powered wifi repeater

  1. Mike Smith September 30, 2007 at 12:08 pm #

    I’m stuck with dial up extremely slow connection. Will this unit help me establish a faster connection? Is there some way to subscribe to a WiFi system that is available in very rural communities?

  2. Steve Woods October 5, 2007 at 4:10 pm #

    Hi Mike

    Thanks for your query and apologies for keeping it in moderation so long while I did some detective work. I see from your IP address that you’re in a very rural part of the USA. Unfortunately, the kit described in the article will not speed up your connection: you’ll need to get a fast connection in from somewhere else (e.g. your telephone company or another provider). However, once that’s done, what the hardware will allow you to do is propagate the signal wirelessly so it can be spread to distant parts of your property or shared with others in your vicinity.

    Regards
    Woodsy

  3. HubSwitch December 19, 2007 at 1:44 pm #

    Hi Mike, perhaps woodsy didn’t quite get what you were saying?

    I saw it as a question “would WiFi be a better option?”

    In my opinion I would say yes it would, over a dial-up account anyway, IF you have someone else using one of these systems Line of sight to you, or several of your neigbours had these MESH repeaters installed, for example: Mr Jones has ADSL, he gets a repeater so that his neigbour down the road can use the WiFi, then this neigbour installs a repeater so he can repeat Mr Jones’s WiFi signal to Mrs Jarvis who also has a mesh repeater in her upstairs window, eventualy you would get a wireless signal and no doubt your connection would be better than your present dial-up.

    Is that what you were asking about?

    BTW.. Woodsy, Do you know where can we get these systems in the UK? I’ve been searching for a while and cant find a supplier yet.

    I hope to start a people’s wireless here in Lancashire.

    Regards
    HubSwitch

    THE future is Wireless…