Need Network Guru Help for PostGIS workshop
BrianT
FRUGOS-ians:
Fresh off a wildly successful WhereCamp 5280 where the Front Range
cemented its reputation as the most vital hub of geospatial knowledge,
wisdom, geekery, whatever you want to call it, in the US (major props
to Peter, Eric, and Ben), FRUGOS is stepping up to offer a full day of
open source workshops in conjunction with the GIS In The Rockies
conference in two weeks.
The workshops filled quickly, so we're looking forward to spreading
the gospel of GeoServer, OpenLayers, PostGIS, and the wonders of tile-
making open-source style.
One logistical point that I need some guidance/help with.
We're running these workshops with no Internet (short story--
conference wireless is $$$), and for the most part we can use LiveDVDs
(thanks OpenGeo!) and local files to provide a good experience.
With PostGIS, however I'd like to set up a server with a PostGIS
database in the classroom that students could "hit on" using a
wireless connection (having folks set up PostGIS databases on their
own machines takes up way too much classroom time).
So, given that my knowledge of networking pretty much starts and stops
at "127.0.0.1 = localhost", I'm looking for some pointers.
I have a box, I have a Linksys Wirless Access Point, I can go Windows
or Linux: what's the path of least resistance here??
Thanks,
Brian
Gregor at HostGIS
Internet, it still makes a LAN. Better, virtually all wifi APs come out
of the box with a DHCP server running and no encryption, so they're
ready to run. Try this at home first.
Stage 1:
Disconnect anything that's on the Internet.
Turn on the new wifi AP.
Associate with it, make sure you got an IP address. Celebrate.
Grab a second laptop; associate; IP address. Celebrate.
Possible pitfall in stage 1: Some APs do have encryption enabled, which
for your use case is not what you want. If this is the case, disable
encryption and repeat.
Stage 2:
Now, on the first laptop check your IP address:
ifconfig wlan0
You now know the IP address of the application server where you'll be
hosting the database, webserver, et al.
From the second laptop, ping that IP address. Hit its webserver. Try to
connect via PostgreSQL. Celebrate.
Possible pitfall in Stage 2: Make sure it's in fact a server, even if
from a Live DVD. Note too that PostgreSQL's default configuration does
NOT listen on the network and also that the default pg_hba.conf will
need modification to let people in.
Stage 3:
That was it. Repeat the above two stages if you like, to make sure you
can replicate it.
--
HostGIS, Open Source solutions for the global GIS community
Greg Allensworth - SysAdmin, Programmer, GIS Person, Security
Network+ Server+ A+ Security+
"No one cares if you can back up — only if you can recover."