First public release of the Nightwing Firmware source code

[djandybell]

The LUGRo-Mesh (0) development team announces that it's already
avalaible the first public release of the Nightwing (1) firmware
version 0.5beta1 for the creation of 0-config wireless mesh networks
(2) for devices based on the Atheros wireless chip and that only needs
a minimun of 4MB of Flash memory and 16Mb of RAM memory to work, wich
differentiates it from other projects of its kind.

A forum (3), a mailing list (4) and the repositoy (5) are already
avalaibles. You can write in english and/or spanish.

0 http://www.lugro.org.ar/lugro-mesh/en
1 http://www.lugro.org.ar/nightwing/en
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_network
3 http://lugromesh.smfforfree2.com/index.php?action=forum
4 http://www.lugro.org.ar/mailman/listinfo/nightwing
5 http://trac2.assembla.com/nightwing/browser



Nightwing allows the creation of fast deployment wireless networks and
without the need to make complicated configurations that allows the
extention of the network. From the implementation of a Mesh technology
called B.A.T.M.A.N, Nightwing allows the extention of Wireless Network
with the simplicity of adding devices and that works with a minimal
human intervention.

The main features are this:

* 0-config: You only need to power-on the device and it will
configure automatically. It will asume it's rol and conect to others
devices that it founds. If it has Internet access to share it will be
a gateway node, if not it will be a client node. If a node doesn't
have it's own Internet connection but can contact to one or more
neighbors that are gateway nodes, himself can provide Internet access.
It will do it by wireless and ethernet connection.
* Public Connection Interface: This kind of connection is not
encrypted, it's intended for unknown users. This connection is managed
by the captive portal NoDogSplash, wich is in charge of the security
and the administration of the Internet access. The users of the public
network are isolated from them self and from the rest of the mesh,
they can only access to the Internet.
* Private Connection Interface: This kind of connection in
encrypted (WPA2), so to be able to use it you must know the access
key. It's intended for known users and it isn't managed by a captive
portal.
* OpenDNS: The DNS service is based in the free service that the
company provides. This choice adds the possibility to delegate in this
service other configuration aspects like content filtering of web
pages, domain blocking, phising protection and much more (by the
moment it's only used for the DNS services, the implementation of the
others services that OpenDNS provides it's in the project's TO-DO
list).
* Thinked for Security: The development of Nightwing takes account
security from the very beginning of its development. The nightwing
nodes provide security to the internal network and to the clients that
connect to the nodes, so who decides to be a gateway node can trust
that his internal network won't be compromised. So too, who decides to
connect to the nodes through the LAN, can be sure that whoever
connects wirelessly will not be able to access them. To avoid security
problems when two or more clients connects wirelessly, some mechanisms
have been anticipated that will prevent that they can see each other.
This way, if it can't see it, it can't atack it.
* Few Hardware Requirements: Nightwing, besides requiring an
Atheros AP51 wireless chip, only needs a minimun of 4MB of Flash
memory and 16MB of RAM memory. This is why the amount of devices that
can be used is bigger.