It seems we have a conflict here... whether or not to use one or the other... BBHN is trying really hard to tell everyone by PM not to use AREDN and to consider them as spam and they're also telling us there will be legal actions to prevent AREDN from moving forward... With that said, I'm am at odds because I can see both Dev teams able to contribute to the MESH effort. Both are operating under the GPL by using OpenWRT. So the squabbling must STOP NOW!

Both teams must come up with some sort of memorandum of understanding to keep the MESH project moving forward. We need complete standards to work with. The Linux community already does this with the GPL, so if either one of the teams cannot play fair under the GPL, then the efforts of the MESH project stops. I don't want to see this happen. BBHN and AREDN need to work together... PERIOD!!! Figure it out people! I don't like making choices because it causes a disconnect for the MESH project.

BBHN is NOT going anywhere so AREDN must put differences aside and find a way to work with BBHN and vice-versa! I will be putting the same message on their forum as well... I'm not the only one that feels this way, I'm getting all kinds of PMs and emails telling me the same thing... STOP THE SQUABBLING!!! START WORKING TOGETHER!!!

Thank you and 73,

Tim Gelvin, K3TEG
ARES Emergency Coordinator
Northumberland County, PA

@K4PWO – I hear where you are coming from... I have some of the same concerns as well...

However, I temper my views with the knowledge that this is a 100% VOLUNTEER effort, it's not a JOB that pays them an honest wage... If it were, we would all probably expect more out of the dedicated people who had a bright idea and brought it forth for us to all marvel at and use...

Having been involved in hardware and software development professionally, it can turn into a game of “whack-a-mole” quite easily. What these guys have done is outstanding. But it is STILL in its infancy!

ALL of us are still in the experimentation stages... Everybody... It aint bullet proof yet!

I understand your frustration... I am there right along with you... But over time, things will settle down and hopefully end up where we all want to be – but it will take time...

Please don't think of this like a commercial product we all paid $199.95 for and expect everything to work the first time we plug it in. The reality is - we are taking toys (like Linksys routers) and forcing them to do things they were never really engineered to do in the first place.

I have done a lot of testing. I have a lot invested. I am one of those idiots who took their idea and slammed it against the wall to see where it would break... I see chinks in the armor and I have seen it crash and burn. I have also seen it give me web cams from the other side of the planet and work beyond my meager expectations!

But my point is, running a website, developing software, trying to support it and putting it out there for all of us to use is like juggling kittens and chainsaws – I don't expect the support of a commercial product with a corporate entity behind it... And neither should you... respectfully... :)

In another 5 years – this could be one heck of an awesome tool all of us could use. Hopefully, things will end up where we all need it to be – a reliable scalable system that allows hams to communicate in ways we never thought possible a few years ago...

I have high hopes, but I am not going to expect VOLUNTEERS to give us all something for free and expect it to be polished like a commercial product...

Bill - N5MBM

Well said, K3TEG.