IP Hop: WET54G

The Linksys WET54G WiFi bridge cost me $92.99 at CDW.COM. It is a WiFi device, but the opposite of an Access Point, it is a bridge. It connects through the air to an AP just like any notebook PC. It gives a list of available networks and you choose which WiFi network you want to connect to, then the RJ45 Ethernet jack is ready to plug into with any Ethernet device you have: Switch, hub, Vonage Router, anything. Even another AP, which would make the WET54G a WiFi repeater.

If Linksys combined the WET54G with the WRT54G (a normal AP) people in a neighbourhood could overlap these repeaters and a new WiFi network would emerge - a neighbourhood 54Mbps LAN. Only one neighbour with internet could share with all! I think this is called a mesh network. Could a new internet be waiting to emerge - one built entirely on Linksys WiFi routers? Let's hope. That would be very democratic, one router per node, millions of nodes owned by millions of people.