I've been doing a bit of experimenting with open-mesh networks. Has anyone tried
DogOnRails - a Ruby / Rails WifiDog Captive Portal Authentication Server?
On this topic, there is a good event at MIT on Sunday, 4/6 -
Free (the) Net : Build Your Own Wireless Internet Router - with an 11 AM demonstration of how to build a wireless access point to share internet services. They will also demo
Kismet, the "802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system". There will also be a demo of
Debian running on WGT. Getting whole operating environments running on the small RF devices is cool hackery.
I'm hoping Ruby / Rails might be used to build tools to help manage public networks of open-mesh mini-routers,
devices like this one.
Brian