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 Subject :Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-19- 14:20:30 
N4EV
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I just received another router yesterday and loaded MESH into it then placed it near my other

unit in hopes to get MESHing.  Well they are both on the default channel, nothing other than

call sign and ssid entered.  the wan led blinks acting like they are talking but ...

 

They both talk to the computers on the desk so I know the lan sides are working.

Any ideas??

 

Clayton N4EV

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Last Edited On: 2011-04-19- 14:21:13 By N4EV for the Reason
 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-19- 17:14:55 
KD5MFW
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Sounds like they are working. All WRT54GL routers work well with HSMM-MESH. You MUST initialize them with your call sign-ssid. If you can get in to set the call sign and a different SSID for each unit, then go to the "mesh status" page and it will show you what nodes are seen. No guessing required. Try setting your web browser to 172.27.0.1:8080 and look at the mesh status page. If this does not get you going, provide more details and / or another question. -Glenn KD5MFW
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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-20- 01:46:53 
N4EV
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Glenn: I did set the callsign and ssid. I have been to the status page and neither node knows of the other one. Both nodes act like they are fully functional but they simply do not know each other. I did see a signal level BEFORE I had the second unit for a day or so but that is no longer there. I have looked at the "site monitor" on the laptop and both nodes are there with equal signal levels. This brings me to a question that I didn't ask but I used the '.bin file to flash, do you also have to re-flash with the '.trx' file? Thanks Clayton N4EV
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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-20- 15:21:01 
KD5MFW
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Go to the wi-fi survey page on each node. See if each node sees HSMM-MESH. We can go from there. -Glenn KD5MFW
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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-21- 01:16:11 
N4EV
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Both nodes list each other on the WiFi list as does my laptop using it's WiFi.  I might add that

both are WRT54's one is a ver 2 and the other a ver 1.1.

Clayton N4EV

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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-21- 04:43:10 
KD5MFW
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Seems odd. We will just have to keep plugging away until we find what is wrong. If the nodes both show a wi-fi scan with HSMM-MESH as well as the laptop, the RF side of things seems to be working. The model numbers of the WRT54G you listed sound fine. Can you capture screen shots of what you see with your web browser? On windows you can usually use the "ALT PRTSC" ALT key plus Print Screen pressed at the same time to do a screen capture of a window. If you save the screen and either paste it into a document or attach the the photo do an email, I could see what the screen says. A capture of the main page (172.27.0.1:8080), the mesh status page and the set up page are of interest. All seems right except the nodes you say, do not seem to see each other. You can email the screen captures to glenn.kd5mfw@gmail.com. Are you able to do the screen captures? -Glenn KD5MFW
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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-21- 04:48:27 
KD5MFW
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You can always reload, now using the .trx file. The first load needs to be a .bin to work with the Linksys loader. Once you have HSMM-MESH running, you can always us the HSMM-MESH .trx file to load the firmware. You seem to have the HSMM-MESH firmware loaded so it seems you did the right thing. You should not have to load a .bin file then a .trx version of the firmware to get going. -Glenn KD5MFW
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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-21- 09:00:25 
N4EV
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Glenn: Told you it was a dumb question! I found the dumb answer. Was reading in one of the docs that if you changed the ssid to something else, then it would not work as intended. In the SETUP screen I entered N4EV-100 or N4EV-101 at the top of the screen, then down on the left side I changed hsmm-mesh to read N4EV-100 and N4EV-101. When I changed it back to hsmm-mesh, it worked as planed! Moral: Gota read more BEFORE you start trying to re-configure! HI Thanks for your help and now I'm going to start MESHing. Clayton N4EV
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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-21- 09:08:17 
KD5MFW
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OK, glad you tracked it down. All the mesh systems I know of use "ad hoc" mode at the low level of the protocl. Ad Hoc mode requires all computers linking use exactly the same network name. You can run test mesh networks by giving a different name as you did. Even if running on the same channel, only networks of the same name will link with each other. If you want to find out more, do a Google search on "wi-fi ad hock mode". -Glenn KD5MFW
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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-21- 11:32:24 
N4EV
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Glenn:  Wonder if a block name change is in order?  What threw us for a curve is the SSID which for me is a number after your callsign aka the old packet days.  Wonder if changing that block to NETID or something that might not lead an old guy off on a wild goose chase?

Thanks for you help!!!

Clayton N4EV

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 Subject :Re:Dumb question ...???.. 2011-04-21- 12:23:24 
KD5MFW
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It is confusing. We can try to document it, but the IEEE standard name for the field is SSID in the 802.11b/g standard. So we could just confuse another group of users, by renaming it. SSID is the official name, not a nicname. This and other issues keep pointing towards a HSMM or 802.11b/g/a guide for those with a ham background. There is more than enough to read out there, so I felt another book would just go unread. I will make a note of in in my documentation and see if it gets included when the developers vote on what goes in the next release. Glad you got meshed. -Glenn KD5MFW
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