Hi:

I'm interested in setting up a node. I live in the Southeast valley near Higley & Elliot Road in Gilbert.

I have several old WRT54G routers, and I know how to download the firmware and set up the node.

I was wondering how you guys did your physical setup? Did you use an outdoor omni or directional antenna, and did you need an amp?

I'm thinking of mounting the board out of the WRT54G in a weatherproof box and installing it somewhere on my roof wth a tl-link antenna. I'm thinking I'll run the ethernet wire and 12v up to the box.

Anybody have any advice?

Thanks,

Jeff

W3MLC

For a Windows machine to be an actual node on the mesh would be rather difficult.  In order to be a node and routing mesh network traffic your Windows box will need to be running OLSR at the very least.   The sources are out there BUT the last released binary for Windows was 0.5.6-r3-pre from Nov 2008, some six and a third years ago.  I suspect that wouldn't be compatible with the version that's running on the mesh now.  Oh, the last versions of Windows for which it was intended was W2K/XP/Vista.  

OLSR is written to be run on Linux, for the most part.  Getting it to compile and run under more recent versions of Windows, I strongly suspect, it would be a rather daunting task to say the least.  And it'll take more than getting a more recent version of OLSR to compile under Windows -- there remains the task of getting it to integrate with the DNS and routing services on Windows 8.1.

If you still want to give it a shot, knock yourself out!

It is our intention to keep the WRT54G family as compatible as possible with future versions.  At this time I'm not seeing *ANY* real reason it won't be.  Maybe the WRT54G's won't have all the features of the Ubiquiti version but it should be carrying and routing network traffic, which is the most important item, for quite a while.

IMHO, it was a mistake to announce an EOL for the WRT54G.  Still, crap happens.  We're moving on!

I agree that using an AP is recommended way but the challenge is howto do it directly...

The recommended way to attach smartphones, laptops and tablets to the mesh without using a network cable is to provide a wep encrypted access point on the lan. You will need to choose a channel different than 1, choose a different SSID, set WEP and password, and turn off any local DHCP.  Take any access point or router and plug it into the lan jacks on a WRT54 series, or into a switch connected to them mesh.

You will have much more flexibility and support for a wider range of devices with an AP than trying to convert various types of hardware (like the notebook) to directly become mesh nodes. Use of wep and a separate ssid and channel ensure that you don't interfere with the mesh itself, and that only you and others (who need to be hams) can join that AP and participate. Encryption at the AP is not an issue since it is operated solely under part 15. The access point itself and any devices connected to it will pull a DHCP address from the mesh node.

In effect it becomes an invisible cat5 cable connected to your mesh node. Operation and features available will be no different than if plugged in.

Hello.

I keep trying without success to connect with my laptop directly to hsmm network as a node. Can someone support me with this with a short tutorial?

I have found guides for win xp but not for win 7/8 where the adhoc wifi settings have changed a little bit.

I will try to describe what I have done and please correct me where I did wrong...

I command prompt with elevated privileges (run cmd as administrator):

-set my ssid to BroadbandHamnet-20-v3 (is this ok?)

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=BroadbandHamnet-20-v3

-started adhoc network on laptop

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

-figure out wifi adhoc interface ip running ipconfig

-started olsr switch app (http://www.olsr.org/releases/0.5/olsrd-0.5.6-r3-pre-cac1df64dcd5-setup.exe) an checked the interface identified in the last step and then click start

After this steps I expect to see in Nodes tab the other nodes (my wrt54gs node...) but its not working...

Thank you,

Bogdan

And there it is.. Comcast blocking outgoing pings at the gateway.. You can ping from the gate to the net, but not from a connected device.. 

Which may also explain why my Mesh node set as gateway doesn't have/allow ANY internet connectivity..

I have just checked the olsr routing info on the DTD linked Pi and it lists all of the nodes on both networks:

ZL1CQO-WRT, -NSM2 & PI-1 are on the Ch1 Mesh

ZL1CQO-TUN & -PI-@ are on the Ch6 Mesh

OK, its not working!

I am hoping that someone on here has some experience of fault finding OLSR issues.

Here is the current situation:

Mesh Ch1 running BBHN with a NSM2 connected to a switch for DTD.  Works great as a standalone mesh

Mesh Ch6 running HSMM-Pi with one node connected to the switch for DTD. Works great as a standalone mesh.

When DTD is connected:

Mesh Ch1, the BBHN nodes list the HSMM-Pi nodes under "Remote Nodes" and the NSM2 shows the other DTD node twice. once as a local node and secondly as a Remote Node (I am thinking this maybe the problem)

Mesh Ch6, None ogf the HSMM-Pi nodes list the BBHN nodes.  Only the Pi using DTD shows anything and it only lists the NSM2 as dtdlink.callsing.local.mesh

Mesh Ch1 will not route to mesh ch6

Any suggestions?

I appreciate that this is beyond just BBHN but it may also be of interest to others.

Thanks

Jon

Ok...So I now have two routers set to go, an Ubiquiti with a 24 db dish, and another with an Omni antenna. Going to be installing the antennas next week, and looking for other nodes in the area.  I'm in fn20hd near Norrristown.

The real question is will they remain compatible with future versions? If not, then you have in fact, dumped them.

Ok, some real basic questions here.

I updated firmware, and getting ready to put up antennas and so forth, but first...

- I'm changing the channels of my home WiFi routers to stay away from channel 1 to avoid interference.  Will my antenna cause interference for the neighbors?  Will it cause problems with any home automation stuff that I may have in the house or do I just see what happens?

- If I put up an omni AND a dish each on their own router at the same location, will they interfere with each other?

- Can I legally have two on at the same time?  If so, then can I have one at my location and another at my Parent's house (they're house can see the Philly skyline, and I can't

Thanks in advance for any responses.  Everyone is so helpful here..

73,

-Ed

Any responses are appreciated !!!!!!!!!!

Jim, thanks for sending me the link to HamChat:

http://www.bbhn.org/download/applications/hamchat_0.1_all.ipk

I grabbed the file and installed it, and setup a link to advertise the service.  It all works great - thanks!

73,

Andy

Cheers Rusty, got it. There is loads of info in the file and you're right, a lot of the available packages may not be of great use, but one or two may be interesting to look at once I get a bit further up this learning curve

For now though, IRC worked first time, just by following your published guidance.

Thanks again

Phil