CREATE A WIRELESS MESH NETWORK
Projects like Commotion are working to make mesh networks as close to one-click installation as possible, but until they do, setting one up network will require familiarity with network configurations on computers and wireless routers.
In 2007, Wireless Africa produced an excellent guide to setting up a Freifunk (OLSR-based) wireless network. Our guide to installing OLSR for Mac is here.
Other common protocols for mesh networks are batman-adv and Babel. Project Byzantium has documented its experiences with these protocols. If you’re curious which protocol is the best, check out Battle Mesh, a recurring head-to-head protocol tournament.
TRY A MOBILE MESH APPLICATION
Mobile devices are currently not optimized for mesh networking (see Advocate for more). However, if you have an Android phone, you can install and try out Serval or Auto-BAHN.