silversplash questions
Riaz
1) SilverSplash not only serves ads, but also manages paid user
accounts? Can there be Free (ad served) users, as well as Monthly paid
users?
2) SilverSplash software runs only on a gateway in the network? or can
it run on an external server?
3) (Something I'm VERY curious about):
I am currently running robin firmware w/ WifiRush. My equipment is all
Engenius EAP3660's working in an apartment complex. My gateways don't
run faster than 5.5mbps, I've been told this is because of Coova-
Chilli being highly processor intensive. When I switch the same
equipment to open-mesh option "open" (uses nodogsplash) I get 20mbps
at my gateways.
I believe SilverSplash uses nodogsplash, can I expect to get similar
speeds (10-20mbps)?
Fred Moyer
> I have a couple of questions about how silver lining works..
>
> 1) SilverSplash not only serves ads, but also manages paid user
> accounts? Can there be Free (ad served) users, as well as Monthly paid
> users?
The monthly purchase option will be available in version 0.03. They
have to repurchase each month; subscriptions cause more problems than
they are worth.
There can be both free and paid users.
> 2) SilverSplash software runs only on a gateway in the network? or can
> it run on an external server?
It needs to run on a gateway, and currently has to be the DHCP
provisioner using dnsmasq. Non dhcp support may be in 0.03.
> 3) (Something I'm VERY curious about):
> I am currently running robin firmware w/ WifiRush. My equipment is all
> Engenius EAP3660's working in an apartment complex. My gateways don't
> run faster than 5.5mbps, I've been told this is because of Coova-
> Chilli being highly processor intensive. When I switch the same
> equipment to open-mesh option "open" (uses nodogsplash) I get 20mbps
> at my gateways.
> I believe SilverSplash uses nodogsplash, can I expect to get similar
> speeds (10-20mbps)?
SilverSplash does not use nodogsplash - it shares many design
similarities with nodogsplash, but only runs on Linux. No OpenWRT
support. However, it will fit on a $150 Alix box that you can buy
from Netgate. I have a Centos image for those boxes that we will be
releasing soon also.
You would have to convert your EAPs back to the Engenius stock
firmware and run them as access points connected to a SilverSplash
box. You won't be able to get more than a few megabits with
WifiRush/Chilli as they do traffic shaping in userspace. However,
with Nodogsplash and SilverSplash, you'll get as much speed as your
network drivers can provide - they can both easily handle 50+
megabits/second.
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Riaz
2) One big draw I see with Robin Firmware is my nodes checking in. Do
you know of other firmware that I could flash my Engenius with to make
it a generic access points, but have them checking in, so as to see
the status at all times.
On Sep 30, 12:09 pm, Fred Moyer <f...@slwifi.com> wrote:
> o: 888.334.6602
> m: 415.720.2103
Fred Moyer
> 1) Could I run SilverSplash on the Anaptyx OMW?
That device runs OpenWRT, not Linux, so no.
> 2) One big draw I see with Robin Firmware is my nodes checking in. Do
> you know of other firmware that I could flash my Engenius with to make
> it a generic access points, but have them checking in, so as to see
> the status at all times.
Why not the stock Engenius firmware? It has SNMP trap functionality,
so you can get some metrics from it to make sure it is still online.
You might be able to get number of clients connected also. I found
that the robin checkins made good eye candy, but a lot traffic on the
network that hindered performance.
I've been using several engenius devices on a network I have running
SilverSplash, and I don't have any monitoring at all on those wifi
nodes; they just never have any problems.
There aren't any metrics on SilverSplash right now, but I'll probably
add some with collectd just to track number of users, etc.
> --
Riaz
1) Can I run all my equipment flashed with Robin, in the open-mesh
dashboard use the "open" option then have it all go through a gateway
device (like $150 Alix box) with SilverSplash on it?
2) The paid access accounts, can I limit the bandwidth on them? and
can I have 2 paid packages with different bandwidth limitations?
On Sep 30, 3:52 pm, Fred Moyer <f...@slwifi.com> wrote:
Fred Moyer
> Thank you this is very helpful. Sorry, two more questions
>
> 1) Can I run all my equipment flashed with Robin, in the open-mesh
> dashboard use the "open" option then have it all go through a gateway
> device (like $150 Alix box) with SilverSplash on it?
The open option uses Nodogsplash which is a captive portal, so no, you
can't use both. You can run stock OpenWRT though. I think ROBIN has
a layer2 firmware in the works, but the code for that went closed
source a while ago, and I haven't kept up with it.
> 2) The paid access accounts, can I limit the bandwidth on them? and
> can I have 2 paid packages with different bandwidth limitations?
Paid access is currently time limited only. The free option allows
you to set a time cap, or a bandwidth cap (e.g. 25 megabytes for the
session, or 30 minutes).
There is currently no bandwidth controlling options for the paid
account. In practice, these don't have much effect anyway on wifi
networks, because the user only has full signal part of the time. I'd
be more inclined to add a feature for bandwidth caps in terms of
megabytes used, rather than use traffic control to rate limit the user
to a certain rate. This seems to be in line with what a lot of the
cellular access vendors are offering.
Doing rate limits means you have to give support to users who think
they are being rate limited too much, but in reality are just not
close enough to the access point. Which is a real pain.
Riaz
put together.
Seems to be working great, and I believe I could use it in conjunction
with a gateway device doing all the dhcp and routing.
Currently its just a dummy node that gets its dhcp from the gateway,
but it does check in to open-mesh.
2) I think what you say about bandwidth controlling makes sense. For
my purposes bandwidth throttling is much more useful. I'm operating in
an apartment complex and offer 2 paid packages 2mbps + 5mbps. users
have good signal because many of them have a repeater in their home.
3) Advertising question: Is it a problem that in a hotspot, all
activity from an external point of view world seem to be coming from
one IP address. So i imagine google adsense and others would have a
problem with this. But your own merchant system gets around that?
On Oct 1, 1:56 pm, Fred Moyer <f...@slwifi.com> wrote: