Mesh WLAN in a power plug

Meraki, a mesh WLAN provider that enjoys financial support from Google, has released its Wall Plug, which works as a wireless gateway, access point and WLAN repeater. It looks just like a power plug, but it has special brackets to prevent the base station being unintentionally pulled out of the socket.

The Wall Plug has two built-in antennas that can carry WLAN data at up to 54 Mbit/s in accordance with IEEE 802.11g. It switches other WLAN subscribers into a LAN or on to the internet via a PC or internet router connected by Fast Ethernet. Like other Meraki devices, after connecting to the internet the Wall Plug connects up to a server that links Meraki's WLAN devices to form a distributed network. If instead there are other Meraki base stations within range, they link up directly to form a meshed wireless network with extended range. Meraki is quoting a price of $180 for the Wall Plug, but has yet to set a price for Europe.

(lghp)