[from BoingBoing:]

Glenn Fleishmann has written a blog entry about an amazing new WiFi
project at Champaign-Urbana, to create a bootable disk image that
turns its host machines into meshing wireless repeaters.

The CUWiN project wants to allow self-forming, noncentralized, mesh-
based Wi-Fi networks using standard, old PCs with no configuration.
Slightly more advanced units could be ruggedized boxes using Compact
Flash, but the basic unit would be a 486 or later PC with a bootable
CD-ROM or bootable floppy that bootstraps a CD-ROM. Once booted, a
unit finds other similar units without any other configuration or
control and forms a mesh.

"We've been developing software now since about 2000, and our idea
is to build software that is super user friendly, super easy for
someone who doesn't understand the nuances of the technology or
community wireless networking to set up their own system," said
Meinrath. It's an attempt to enable community networking to spread
beyond the folks who are self-starters.

links:
<http://www.boingboing.net/2004/04/28/bootable_cd_turns_48.html>
<http://wifinetnews.com/archives/003279.html>
<http://mirror.eggplant.coop/>