Blogs

Hello All,

For my first blog I figured I'd post something that I'm not only proud of, but highlights a pinacle of my wireless achievements so far.
This will also help encourage others and give me a progress bar I can compete against myself with.

http://www.twitpic.com/5okiy

Is a 5.8ghz wireless link I setup for a business nearly 6 months ago now.
Having logged back in to upgraded the devices there to a newer version of RouterOS (was running 3.17) I figured I'd save the moment and challenge others to post something to outdo this. :-)

Enjoy!

Over the past week, Air-Stream-CLG (Colonel Light Gardens) has undergone several upgrades to improve its throughput to the rest of the network and also its local coverage area.

[center][img]http://dorifto.hopto.org/wifi/pix/_Antennas/AS-CLG/v2.0/thumbs/thIMG_050... [img]http://dorifto.hopto.org/wifi/pix/_Antennas/AS-CLG/v2.0/thumbs/thIMG_051...

Upgrades included:
-Switching from a Mitsubishi R100 to a Routerboard RB433
-Switching from a Minitar MNWAPB to a R52H 350mw minipci card to drive the ~8db homebrew 2.4ghz omni
-Extra height on the omni to improve coverage (800mm was added to the mast as that was the only pipe I had available.)
-Switching from an old AT PSU to a Jaycar 24v 1.5A plugpack to power the RB433 over PoE.

Oops Air-Stream-Skye is down ...

The Minitar is reporting as connected but no packets are flowing, here is minitar/wlsurvey.asp ...

                SSID                BSSID       Channel Type Encrypt Signal Select
                              00:13:d3:86:c7:0f   11     AP    yes    100    (*)
       Air-Stream-betsuin     00:11:2f:e1:00:7c    9     AP    yes     97    ( )
       Wireless               00:09:5b:47:e9:80    1     AP    no      76    ( )
                              00:04:ed:0e:1f:2d    2     AP    yes     72    ( )
       nicks house            00:11:6b:16:6c:08    9     AP    yes     60    ( )
       belkin54g              00:30:bd:9b:e7:a3   11     AP    no      28    ( )

Daniel was talking to me about a new AP called The Bullet. I screws directly onto the back of the antenna. No cable, so no cable loss. It uses power over for ethernet and power. I need to get more info because it sounds like a really nice way to get compact setup. I wonder what they cost...

After the Go West campaign last year, the Air-Stream committee is work out a plan for going south. As can be seen on the Heading South page. One new thing the committee is working on is an up to date working quote for a site. Offering an Omni, for local access and with a pair of backbone links, to extend the network. Contact the committee if you are interested.

The other items of interest for me is connecting up an IRLP node. Perhaps hosting an IRLP node at home. Need to figure out whats required there, but sounds like fun. Also at the meeting we've decided to put together a segment for the WIA broadcast.

• New Air-Stream TShirts are now available. In white with shiny embroidedness; See Daniel.
• Go South! Yes the network is pushing south. Air-Stream is working with SCARC.
• ASLAN on the 14th of March!

Linux Conf Au has gone so fast. Not sure where the last couple of days have gone.

Last night I started hacking on B.A.T.M.A.N. and make it do something a little interesting.

It not at all like OLSRd, Its supposed to be more dynamic and adaptive. So configuring it has been fun.

More later when I land home.

Have written up a firewall script based on iptables which is no doubt somewhat rough and ready. If you/anyone spots any glaring mistakes then please let me know! Used to run a similar script ages ago but have been running "wide open" for quite a while with a simple "open all up" iptables script which you will fine at the bottom of this post.

Slightly complex set up with 3 nics (LAN, Air-Stream-SKYE, Air-Stream-Betsuin) servicing 3 networks, feel free to use/modify...


#!/bin/sh
echo -e "Betsuin Firewall"
IPTABLES=/sbin/iptables
UNIVERSE="0.0.0.0/0"
ASNET="10.96.0.0/11"
ROOFIF="eth1"
SKYEIF="eth2"
LANIF="eth0"
# Local LAN
#
LANNET="192.168.0.0/24"
LANIP="192.168.0.9"
echo " Internal Network: $LANNET"
echo " Internal IP: $LANIP"

New Release Candidate

It is well known fact that it takes time to build quality, and sometimes
more time than expected. The OpenWrt developers would like to announce
the availability of OpenWrt Kamikaze 8.09 RC1.
You can find it at http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/8.09_RC1

Release Candidate 1 for Kamikaze 8.09

New changes/features include:

    * Busybox upgraded to 1.11.2
    * Kernel upgrades for all targets
    * uClibc upgraded to 0.9.29
    * Firewall rewrite, fully modular netfilter/iptables support
        - Syntax of /etc/config/firewall converted to UCI
    * ipkg package manager replaced with opkg
        - package lists moved to ramdisk, lists are not retained between reboots.
        - `opkg update' must be run after each reboot before new packages are installed
    * Broadcom 47xx running reliably with the new Kernel, including b43 wireless driver
        - WEP, WDS and multi-SSID not yet supported
    - AP mode and STA mode are supported with WPA, WPA2, or no encryption
    * IMQ and Traffic shaping fixed with newer kernels (2.6.25+)
    * Sysupgrade for x86, broadcom and adm5120
    * New web interface (LuCI, Lua Configuration Interface)
    * New HAL and driver for Atheros based WiFi cards
    * Attention towards the integration of security updates
    * Build system cleanup
    * Package maintaining and updates between releases 

Here is an intereting blog post on long distance optical links.