Lookin' for a WLAN router with a 500MHz AMD processor within? If you're frantically waving your hand in a futile attempt to say yes, Saxnet's got your goods. The German firm's Meshnode III is a well-spec'd
mesh networking router that features a "full x86-based system" within, four radio modules and "an integrated heating and cooling system" to boot. Additionally, this thing packs 256MB of RAM (expandable to 1GB), a pair of 512MB CF cards (expandable to 16GB each), 802.11a/b/g support, twin USB 2.0 ports, a rugged, water-resistant enclosure and Debian GNU / Linux runnin' the show. As you may expect, such a loaded device comes with a fairly stiff pricetag, but at least you've got a few months to save up the $1,150 it'll take to snap one up when it lands in January.
[Via
LinuxDevices]
posted Oct 27th 2007 4:52AM
With that many antennas and that price tag, it better provide WiFi for me for up to 10 miles. In fact, it should even allow X-Ray vision of nearby women.
WOW! Just wow! My jaw is slack. Back in art school I saw Industrial Design stuff like this. It's the ultimate "form pretends to follow function but doesn't".
Okay. Look at that thing with all the coax cables coming into it from different directions.
Now think about how stiff coax is.
Then consider the space this thing would have to take up on a desk or wall.
After that consider what other equipment would have to be in the same room as this device by simple definition of what it is.
That thing is a rat's nest of cable at least three feet across that cannot be reliably set on top of or attached to almost anything.
There is a good reason that almost all computers and peripherals have all their cords coming out one side. Yes in the short term it can be more confusing, but it is an order of magnitude more compact, and you will actually be able to put it on a desk or stack it or something.
This is like throwing an octopus into someone's office.
That isn't coax, they are antenna.
Nice little set up. Essentially, a mini-pc with 4 hi-power wifi cards in a ruggedized case with mesh networking software.
there appear to be two kinds. the antenna one isn't that bad except they managed to design it so that it may only be hung on a wall. Still kind of silly.
I do like the list of features too, and theres likely nothing wrong with their engineering. The industrial design guy who did the box shape needs to seriously needs to be slapped up a bit though. Even for just the wireless version, removing that much utility from a device merely to make it look more net like is IMHO pretty dumb though.
you're mistaken, they are not the cable "inputs", they are the Antennae input/output.
they are orientated that way to make it as omni directional as possible, this is a MESH router remember?
so it has to be able to receive and send signals to the next nodes, wherever they are.
if you go to the website and look at the full size picture the antennas are both black and far deeper set than the ones with the white protuberances. So much more deeply set in fact that I cannot see how the internals of the relative devices could be the same. One the origional site there are also two pictures of antennaless boxes that do not have the holes on the pictured side necessary to plug in any of the aforementioned things. This implies there are at least three versions. Mesh network wireless, mesh network coax, and something else entirely.
That, my friends, can definately play Doom
So the next big question would be: Does it blend??
Router smoke...
Don't breathe this!
2, 4, 6, 8 who do we appreciate...
Ugh, sorry all that symmetry is getting to me.
Does it come in blue?
I understand the cooling system but a heating system, too? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?
It's so you can install it outside in the cold.
"four OSI Layer 2-compatible radio modules" -- They are not "OSI Layer 2-compatible". The OSI model is a way of thinking about networks; it envisions 7 layers, from physical up to application. Layer 2 is the data link, which means the protocol that gets run over a cable (or band of spectrum), such as Ethernet. So, yes, these radio modules implement OSI layer 2 (and 1, for that matter); but they're not compatible with the (now essentially extinct) OSI protocols.
Wait, that's not quite right. The physical layer is the signals over a cable; the data link is the protocol that organizes those signals into a network protocol.
(The OSI 7-layer cake is pretty much obsolete these days. It includes functionality that no real network does, and it can't describe networks layered over other networks, like VPNs.)
The color combo is interesting - OLPC anyone?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/hands-on-with-the-olpc-finally/
That's great design. A shiny white and green plastic box that costs a lot and sits up high. That won't get shot or stolen, no way. There must not be any crime in Germany.
There's a reason you put things that are outside in grey metal boxes...
ridiculous price, why wouldn't you just buy a micro atx board, a pci-> mini pci card and 4 mini pci wireless cards, slap it in a waterproof outdoor case and accomplish the same thing for half the price?
Oh and if it is running an AMD processor then the heating system is redundant?
err you could build a linux box that operates as a router for way cheaper
But this is probably meant for people who don't know how to use linux.
Watch out...
...bombastinator is going to put his stiff coax into your bux portal.
Is it just me, or can I build about the same thing out of an ITX board, Linux distro and a couple other parts and still be less than $1150? XD
I think you guys are all missing the most important question:
Does it have an AGP slot?