Can LW OSS be adapted?
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
Our work has shown atheros is working in OSS. You can create links
from a OSS atheros box set to 'AP mode' to another atheros box set as
'managed' If both atheros boxes are set to AP they do not see each
other or associate . Only ad hoc links are possible it seems.
Great, so now you need a means of distributing to clients and getting
more hops. Putting a prism card into the atheros repeater it always
becomes wlan1 This then meshs with any nearby MeshAP and provides
backhaul but we need it the other way around!
However i think there might be a route forward. I found this reading
some posts on qorvus forum, some time ago, concerning Atheros;
'' Here are the commands if you want to use a dual radio system that
uses a prism radio for local client access only (no further local
meshing) on the second radio and then uses the first radio for
backhaul or mesh . This will work with either an Atheros or Prism
radio in the 1st radio position.
If using Qcode 2.5 then apply the patch
qudapte radio2wdsoff
If using Qcode 3.0+ then
upgrade your system to Qcode 3.11
qudapte 3.11
then add the following system flag to turn off the second radio WDS
system.
touch /etc/RADIO2_WDS_OFF
Then reboot the node.
If you wish to restore this feature in the future remove the file you
added with
rm /etc/RADIO2_WDS_OFF
and reboot the node''
If we could do this then I think OSS is fixed or a good way further
forward!
Any ideas anybody?
Nick
Tom Anderson
With a mini-itx the box needs hacked about to support another pci card.
Cost in a dual pci riser card , pci adapter and mini atheros pci card
plus £100 per box for qcode =£xxx.xxx
Question= Can existing wiana accounts be used for management
purposes.???????
With a mini-itx the box needs hacked about to support another pci card.
Cost in a dual pci riser card , any old ethernet card plus any of the
flashable routers from £30 quid = £100 less than above.
Question = Can existing wiana accounts be used for most management
purposes = Yes
http or ssh access is required to access co-joined routers.
What do we really want??????
Easy management web based , all nodes covered plus radius
authentication= wiana
wireless we are not happy with = locustworld meshap
wireless that works as we would like = ???
Management and authentication = a bit more work than wiana.
We want something that just works with two clicks.
Tom
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
Agreed.. 2 clicks suits me!
I think if it is just a question of money then stick where you are
with exploring opensource. I support that whole heartedly and ready to
start anything!
However, we can see the pretty high hurdles we have to jump in
reliabilty, learning curve, deployment costs and integrating diiferent
systems and upheaval, let alone lost customer confidence when it goes
tits up.
Personnaly doing away with that saves me more than cash.
A battle hardened, supported product with Wiana is possibly provided
by Qorvos and as far as I can tell it does what we want: Atheros
meshing, supposedly fixed splashd.a/b/g 900Mhz support etc.etc.
I really dont see single radios as a way forward, long term, unless we
have some very clever wireless algorythms that Guy was talking about.
Having seen what dual radio does for us I have no doubts, you have
clean air for your backhaul and no hop losses. Dual PCI old compaq's
have proven as relieble as minITX's We had one go under water in a
flood.. it survived!!
In addition, if deployenmt can be staged to help cash flow, and
business users appreciate the increase in peformance they will pay. I
am discuussing with Tom sharples how to go about a staged deployment.
As far as I can tell Qcode is '2 clicks away' and wiana remains the
same, with the exception, with the change and increase in
functionality, node management is performed more reliably from the
boxes own web portals through wormholes if required.
I have asked if I can install qcode on our atheros test bed as a
trial.
Nick
> > Nick- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Adrian (ADR Communications)
Have tried wds with ddwrt and used a LW Oss mesh node as a captive portal.
This all works great speeds are very good and semless roaming between ddwrt
nodes.
The latest version of ddwrt has all your need, traffic stats, QOS firewall,
watchdogs, time reboot options etc.
Tom or anyone do you have a list of Shell commands that you could share.
We are currently building our own Freeradius server and also using Nagios
for traffic stats and checkins of the nodes http://www.nagios.org/ and also
mrtg to make nice pretty traffic graphs
http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/index.en.html
will keep you posted.
Adrian
Hi,
Nick
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Tom Anderson
I manage all dd-wrt's via http , only time I needed a shell command was wget to replace the curl command.
Tom Anderson
Add a wrt to the ethernet card and you have a dual radio meshbox.
command to bind.
brctl addif br0 eth1 ( it could be brtcl , can't remember but will tell you if wrong)
ifconfig eth1 up
To survive reboots etc etc add the above two lines to
/etc/rc.d/rc.local
Many thanks to whoever told me this.
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
Tonight I have two atheros equipped OSS 106 boxes, with stock
settings, except meshing is set to ad-hoc mode working OK.. So
another small step forward for me anyway! This confirms meshing works
in adhoc to adhoc as well as Infrastructure to managed..
If I had a third atheros card I might be able to prove hopping, but I
am feeling confident that shoudl be OK!
Now to try a prism card in the repeater to resurrect client access!
Nick
.
> >> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
Still battling on, seeing what can be achieved with OSS 106 as it
stands today.
As reported last time Atheros to Atheros meshing works reliably in
adhoc mode, no issues, captive portal works fine on the wired siide.
I can now report that atheros gateway to prism repeater meshing works
fine but NOT the other way ie when the prism is the gateway.
So now to dual radios: I put a prism card with an atheros to make a
dual radio box as the repeater to an atheros gateway, with interesting
results. Yes it works.. but ...there is a big 'gotcha' It only works
with the prism(always the first radio interface)set to adhoc which
meshes with either another prism OR very importantly with an atheros
and reliably too
The atheros card only works if set to AP mode in the second wireless
interface and this provides normal function with captive portal. Tried
all other combinations and either unreliable meshing or crashes when
it sees a wirless device!
So: atheros to prism meshing is possible with constraints. Dual radios
boxes work but the wrong way round for prisms with atheros's
Curiously routing information and signal levels appear on WIANA from
atheros boxes.
Can anybody build on this information or propose a network that would
work for them? I can try any sensible suggestions? Would it be as
simple as pluggiing in a ordinary cheap AP into atheros adhoc boxes
to build out the network and Prism radios could be recycled to the
last/furthest hop if need be.
My next task is to prove hopping in adhoc.
Nick
On Sep 29, 10:51 pm, "Nick ha...@clannet.co.uk"
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
Yes full meshing works fine as does hopping with atheros. Even prism
works in a mixed environment as long as the gateway atheros is set to
11b mode. Routing looks fine and is displayed correctly in WIANA.
Speeds are excellant in 11g mode.
I think this answers al my questions about what works and what does
not.
Hope others can benefit from this.
regards
Nick
On Oct 7, 11:04 pm, "Nick ha...@clannet.co.uk"
beeman
Are you using the qorvus software for this or what? - Have you paid
£100 /box?
On 8 Oct, 00:25, "Nick ha...@clannet.co.uk"
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
Nope... this is straight forward OSS. I have now a mixed prism and
atheros mesh with, so far, no issues.
The one big thing I had to get into my thick brain is OSS ONLY does
adhoc meshing with atheros.
Which really means you have to add something to get client access. On
stumbler only the gateway box shows up BTW.
There is no signal recording on the boxes but meshing routes are
reported accurately on WIANA.
I am thinking a cheapo solwise b/g AP plugged into the ethernet side
of repeaters will provide client access. but have yet to try another
atheros card due to the bloomin postal strike
I am getting full speed 7 meg through one hop on atheros which is a
giant step in the right direction.
Yes, i am still going with Qorvos but this work is making me think how
best to integrate, so, deployment can be staged, so we can afford it,
or indeed how many qorvus licences I actually need!
I am using Atheros cards with the 521* baseband MAC chipsets.
This all needs testing in the field and I need to test a dual radio
atheros box and see what that can do, but i reckon I have broken the
back of what is possible.
Nick
Richie Jarvis
Great work. Are you planning on releasing this as a project for others
to assist with?
I am currently trying to do similar on the OpenWRT platform you see :)
Cheers,
Richie
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
I am using just original OSS 106 with nothing added or taken away!
I think being a non linux person and only a humble techie I am
dispelling mine and possibly others false assumptions about what it
can do, 'as is'.
To me it looks useful again and I will gladly share what I know with
anybody, but basically all I am doing is setting the radios to 'adhoc'
mode in WIANA. If you need a combined atheros-adhoc and prism-adhoc
mesh just set the gateway atheros to 11b with ' iwpriv wlan0 mode 2'
the rest seems to sort itself out. Obviously any standard meshboxes
with prism would need a AP added for clients.
I aint doin ought special!
How useable adhoc meshing is in the field I dont know yet but as soon
as I get hold of some more radios I wil try a deployment. Still to be
tried is dual radio atheros but not so hopeful on that one.
My intention was to put the meshbox RF and a AP RF up the same antenna
with a splitter as I have seen very few down sides to doing this.
Cost wise it would be £12 for a atheros card and £20 for an AP from
solwise and £5 for the splittter /combiner.
I am planning just to use Qorvos nodes at key repeater stations at
present so I have some 'eyes' cus atheros OSS you are in the dark with
signal levels pretty much.
Nick
Adrian (ADR Communications)
1: Use a Buffalo or some DDWRT unit as the AP, as this has a load of nice
features like, Client signal/noise, can run WDS or adhock. May be worth
trying adhock to LW i(i will have a play next week)
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F
2: Use Build dev107, as this has the customer login section, and the merge
cell id's loaded and is stable.
DDWRT is ace when run of the back of a node we have been having great
results from it over the last few weeks.
Regards Adrian
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick ha...@clannet.co.uk [mailto:hallc...@googlemail.com]
Sent: 08 October 2007 16:36
To: Mesh wireless
Subject: [mesh] Re: Can LW OSS be adapted?
Hi Richie and all,
Nick
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18:12
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Helen Anderson
Yes have to agree, see Tom's original posting ;-)
--
www.wireless.southwitham.net
Skype:helenander
8442...@voiptalk.org
Tom Anderson
My intention was to put the meshbox RF and a AP RF up the same antenna with a splitter as I have seen very few down sides to doing this.
Cost wise it would be £12 for a atheros card and £20 for an AP from solwise and £5 for the splittter /combiner.
Tom
Nick halln@clannet.co.uk
I would be using two antenna for the long links but we are agreed
losses are in wifi terms pretty low, and saves the hassle of a man on
the roof again.
Mini PCI with 5213 chipset=
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Atheros-108M-PCI-Mini-Wireless-Card-Wifi-Compaq-Dell_W0QQitemZ200160268823QQihZ010QQcategoryZ45001QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Solwise 2 way RF splitter £9.71
I like the idea of using wwdrt for the AP..Thanks Adrain, Tom. I think
I better join the club and build one!!
Nick
Adrian (ADR Communications)
Phil Thompson
> More a question for Tom, but all to!
> On the DDRWT are you using NOCAT or Chillspot?
the latter, it's a tick box option on the DD-WRT. Maybe NOCAT is now too.
> What is the best to work this freeradius.
when it was doing authentication initially we used a Linux based
freeradius server and had MAC address pairs as well as user/pass
combinations for authentication.
> Also on DDWRT and freeradius can you set client speed classe?
pass, we didn't look at that.
Phil
Adrian (ADR Communications)
I have looked at the DDWRT and can not work out which is best to use. I have
also looked at the LW wiki's and found a few write up's on using freeradius
with LW, inc speed classes.
The end goal is to use freeradius with LW and DDWRT then migrate away from
LW once DDWRT is stabilised.
I have a coder on stand by to start work i will keep you all up to date, but
any tips and input would be great.
Regards Adrian
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Thompson [mailto:ph...@yarwell.demon.co.uk]
Sent: 13 October 2007 13:41
To: mes...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [mesh] Re: DD-WTR
Phil
No virus found in this incoming message.
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Tom Anderson
<http://shop.dd-wrt.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=31>
20.00EUR
This one may be a starter for ten , you can set bandwith limits for
users but only one class.
Possibly by using multiple essid and vlans.
Phil Thompson
> I have looked at the DDWRT and can not work out which is best to use.
We did get Chillispot to work, including with MAC authentication, so I
would be biased towards that :-)
You can see from the dd-wrt interface that the Chillispot option has
plenty of functionality but nocatsplah is just a radio button.
Reading http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php?title=NoCatSplash I see it
is just a splash page redirect with no authentication function.
"While Authentication was originally envisioned for NoCat (NoCatAuth),
support has been removed to make this as streamlined as possible. The
DD-WRT version just displays a splash screen and nothing else."
If that's all you need you could have that running in a LW MeshAP, a
dd-wrt or something else acting as a gateway router.
Phil
Adrian (ADR Communications)
ppoe.
Any help would be great got a freeradius server built and running, just need
to config DDWRT and test.
Adrian
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Thompson [mailto:ph...@yarwell.demon.co.uk]
Sent: 15 October 2007 10:34
To: mes...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [mesh] Re: DD-WTR
Adrian (ADR Communications) wrote:
Phil
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21:46
Phil Thompson
> Phil when you used Chillispot with freeradius did your users login with
> ppoe.
no, it used MACs which is a radio button option on the Chillispot page
of DD-WRT. The other option I think is a Chillispot splash screen like
"the Irish guy" uses, in fact I think we ran both - if the MAC didn't
authenticate the splash screen appeared.
Phil
Adrian (ADR Communications)
chillispot sample splash pages that I can rob LOL mean study.
Adrian
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Thompson [mailto:ph...@yarwell.demon.co.uk]
Sent: 05 November 2007 15:05
To: mes...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [mesh] Re: DD-WTR
Phil
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Helen Anderson
--
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Skype:helenander
8442...@voiptalk.org
Phil Thompson
> Ok phil thanks, the Irish guy???
Sean Bracken
http://www.howtoforge.com/wifi_hotspot_setup
he doesn't use MACs though. For his monthly paying end users I think
they got a 28 day DHCP lease (from memory).
Phil
Adrian (ADR Communications)
I have the radius server working fine now. But I am lost on DDWRT as to
where the login screen is hiding. I have read wiki after wiki they all
suggest that Chiilispot has the login screen built-in.
"https://192.168.182.1/cgi-bin/hotspotlogin.cgi"
I can not find the hotspotlogin.cgi file on the ddwrt anywhere, am I looking
the wrong place, should I be loading chillispot on our server and pointing
the urlredirect to the server?
Reason for using chillispot is that I can migrate LW nodes to use the new
radius and chillispot once stable.
Regards Adrian
Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.22/1112 - Release Date: 05-11-2007
19:11
Tom Anderson
uam allowed for walled garden
host it on the same machine as radius server
Adrian (ADR Communications)
Thanks I have done that but can not find anything about posting the username
and password from the splashpage. the current LW splash just posts to
action.
Adrian
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Anderson [mailto:t...@swbb.us]
ph...@yarwell.demon.co.uk
> Thanks I have done that but can not find anything about posting the
> username and password from the splashpage. the current LW splash just
> posts to action.
make yourself a new chillispot splashpage as per the Swarm wiki etc and
host it somewhere, the DDWRT forwards to that.
I can't recall the details of the DDWRT settings 'cos its not in front of me
right now
we used php rather than cgi.........
http://wireless.southwitham.net/hotspotlogin.php
I don't remember why. Maybe 'cos it worked !
We had the chiilispot on the DD-WRT, the splash page on the web host as
above and the RADIUS server on an old PC.
Conceptually it could all be in one box. Or two rather than three, like Tom
said.
Phil
Adrian (ADR Communications)
A
-----Original Message-----
From: ph...@yarwell.demon.co.uk [mailto:ph...@yarwell.demon.co.uk]
Sent: 06 November 2007 16:18
To: mes...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [mesh] Re: DD-WTR
http://wireless.southwitham.net/hotspotlogin.php
Phil
Phil Thompson
> Any chance of a copy?
>
it's there in the public domain, you have permission to cut & paste away :-)
Phil
Phil Thompson
> Any chance of a copy?
for testing you can point it at that page.
AIUI it isn't location specific.
Phil
Adrian (ADR Communications)
looking for the install command to use on DDWRT this so i can install a
small program. I have downloaded the prog with wget just need to execute it.
Adrian
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Thompson [mailto:ph...@yarwell.demon.co.uk]
Sent: 06 November 2007 17:02
To: mes...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [mesh] Re: DD-WTR
Phil
No virus found in this incoming message.
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19:29
Adrian
> looking for the install command to use on DDWRT this so i can install a
> small program. I have downloaded the prog with wget just need to execute
> it.
If the program was downloaded as /tmp/my.prog for example, you just need to
:-
chmod 755 /tmp/my.prog
/tmp/my.prog
If it's a shell script and has the top line missing, you may need to :-
. /tmp/my.prog
The chmod sets execute permissions, so you are allowed to run the program,
and the next line runs it. There's a space between the . and / in the second
example. The dot means 'shell'.
Adrian (the other one)