The aim of this circuit is to enable a system script to reset or power cycle an AP or router when they crash or lock, which does happen from time to time. This is very usefully where access to a site is limited.

Nevertheless the same circuit could be used for any remote control project where you need to switch on and off a device using a computer.

The following circuits are drawn out in such a way that it can be easily assembled on vero-board.

The design allows from 1 to 7 relays to be used.

The download link for two different versions are as follows:

One Relay: http://www.air-stream.org/files/1_channel_LPT_0.pdf
Seven Relays: http://www.air-stream.org/files/7_channel_LPT.pdf

An Ethernet Wireless Device is a very practical approach, mainly because they can be located near the Antenna in a waterproof box and the Ethernet cable can be run a fair distance away up to 300 metres in some cases.

Ethernet connections require only two pairs of cable TX & RX, but in a standard Cat5e cable there are 4 pairs. This allows for the spare pair to used for injection of power over the Ethernet. Called Power Over Ethernet (PoE) it is common practice to use the Blue and Brown pairs for this purpose.

Adding Quagga to OpenWRT for Dynamic Routing

Read up on http://quagga.net

Get your AS number for your AP and neighbours from the committee

Install Quagga

ipkg install quagga
ipkg install quagga-zebra
ipkg install quagga-bgpd

Configure Quagga

vi /etc/quagga/zebra.conf

vi /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf

Add PID files

touch /var/bgpd.pid
chmod 777 /var/bgpd.pid
touch /var/zebra.pid
chmod 777 /var/zebra.pid

Check Init files

/etc/init.d/S35quagga

Building your own OpenWRT firmware from SVN: Kamikaze

Using OpenWRT from the the downloads.openwrt.org means you are bound to a slow release and testing cycle: White Russian RC6 is the most current release at time of writing

This means that you are stuck with an older kernel 2.4.30 and older builds of the software that is based on that kernel

Also the configuration and management system is a generation behind

The alternative is to use Kamikaze, this is downloaded from a developers site

Anybody with some basic programming skills and some linux experience will have no trouble building the source directly from the Subversion Repository

Take this guide as a glossary, refer to https://dev.openwrt.org/ as your bible

Target build Linux Operating System

If you can’t find what your looking for here please let us know and we’ll try to write up a how-to. But it doesn’t just end here either as members include people from all walks of life including trades people, enthusiasts, IT professionals, radio amateurs, engineers, educators and every day people.

So asking questions in the, comments, discussing in forums, attending our monthly meetings and becoming a member is a great way to find out more about wireless networking. If you don’t know there is always someone else how will and is happy to share their knowledge, so just ask.

Katrina Jungnickel our resident PhD sociology student from the University of Surrey, UK is in Adelaide looking into the visual culture that surrounds community wireless networks. Read about her community wifi adventures at www.studioincite.com/makingwifi

1. Download latest Spark

Spark is a barebones Jabber client made by Jive Software. Its avaliable for Mac OS X, Linux and Unix, and Windows from http://www.jivesoftware.org.

2. Configure Spark for Air-Stream

Once downloaded, the configuration process should be similar on all operating systems. You will be presented with the following screens the first time you run Spark.

Edit the appropriate information, as below.

• Username: Your Air-Stream LDAP username.
• Password: Your Air-Stream LDAP password.
• Server: chat.air-stream.org
• Tick save password, and choose Auto Login to make life a bit easier.

Note: This guide applies to people using the Mac OS X operating system.

1. Download latest Adium

• Visit the Adium website to grab the latest .dmg (disk image) of the software: http://www.adiumx.com.

2. Install to Applications folder

• Once the disk image has been downloaded, it may or may not automatically be 'mounted' by your system.
• If it's not already mounted (identified by a removable disk icon in the finder), just double click on the .dmg file you downloaded to do so.
• Install Adium by dragging the Adium icon from the mounted disk image, into your Applications folder.
• You may be prompted to enter an administrator's password at this time.

Polarisation

Antennas on APs generally cover a broad spread of the horizon whereas client antennas are usually directional, focusing on a particular region in order to get more signal and less noise. Another strategy employed by antennas to reduce noise is polarisation. This removes the microwaves oscillating in any other direction apart from the polarisation of the antenna. For large range antennas there are two or three types: Omni Linear Colinear which are vertically polarised and Waveguides which are horizontally polarised. There are also sector panel antennas which can be either.
When you are doing a signal survey it is important to know the polarisation of the AP you are surveying. For a general survey, you will need to try both polarisations.