CUWiN, Champaign Urbana Wireless Network, took its first form as a group of self-proclaimed geeks messing around with electronics in project coordinator Sascha Meinrath’s living room in 2000.

“It was sort of a weekly meeting of random techies hacking on various things, building random equipment, seeing how it works,” Meinrath said.

The group used everyday household items like Pringles containers, aluminum foil and tape to create early models of the equipment used in today’s network.

Since then, CUWiN has evolved into a non-profit organization, housed in donated office space at OJC technologies, 115 W. Main St. They are sponsored by the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center and are also supported by grants and occasional private donations.

“Money for the equipment is really the big problem,” said Meinrath. “That has been the truth since we began. There’s always more interest in developing these technologies than the funding to support their development.”

CUWiN is out of money to expand the network outside the downtown area.

“The waiting list is getting longer because we’re now out of funding and can’t keep deploying nodes,” Meinrath said. “If people wanted to buy their own equipment to make a node we’d be all for it.”

The cost to build a node is currently about $300 to $325.

CUWiN is currently looking at different ways to fund their project, including partnerships with major corporations and venture capitalists. As one of the few open source wireless networking projects, Meinrath sees this project as an opportunity to “blow-open an entire new realm of low-cost technology.”