Terms to be Understood

1. Ad-hoc is one of the mode in which a Wi-Fi device can operate. If two Wi-Fi devices are in ad-hoc mode, they can connect with each other.
2. Firmware is a software that comes along with the Wi-Fi router which runs the router. Without firmware a router cannot function.
3. Flashing the router means, removing the existing firmware and installing a new firmware.
4. Custom Image means modified firmware.

Since we are creating a wireless mesh network using Wi-Fi routers (Wi-Fi modems), the device should be able to switch to ad-hoc mode. The ad-hoc mode feature will be hidden in the Wi-Fi routers by default. In order to unlock ad-hoc mode and to install the mesh protocol and tools we need to flash the router with custom image. This custom images has to be downloaded first. Once the image is downloaded, it can be flashed through the router’s web interface. How to flash the router will be covered in a different wiki and this wiki is dedicated for sharing the custom image download files.