Its a function really of knowing what exactly you are looking for and how far you are willing to go to install it.

I've ran an XMPP/Jabber server in the past (actually i still do at my office)  With one of these on a Pi or similar you could run a fully featured Instant Messenger network that is fully self contained and isolated from the internet (though the protocol actually supports contacting other XMMP servers too, if the mesh some how linked into an area that had an XMPP server its as simple as doing someothercallsign@nodecall2.local.mesh and the server will find out how to get there.) You end up with your own Instant Messenger network (Similar to AOL/Yahoo/MSN/etc)  XMPP also supports "conferences" usually (multiple people to a room) and can support (depending on software on clients and server) support video chat as well.

IRC Chat servers are often common for running chat rooms, though there were programs called "chatterboxes" in the past or "page chats" or similar  simple perl scripts that store all the text in a file on the server and require the browser to refresh each time to get that page, but they work and do their job (I can understand the need to not install software).

You could also pair up an IRC server with a web based IRC chat client (KIWIIRC is common -- simple java script runs on basically every client device out there, the server part however will not run on a mesh node (Size and instruction set) and I don't think even works on a Pi serve, but will support pretty much anything as a client, so a small x86 pc could run it)

Going to simpler, if a BBS is what you want/need/remember/like, why not actually run a BBS?  A quick google: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BBS_software  and just run it across in telnet or similar for clients? (note: you do have to enable the telet client on newer windows PC's but its fairly easy to do)

The mesh is a powerful network tool, but it is just that a network tool. Add to it, extend it, and make it your own.  A lot of what worked it packet may still work today, an a lot can be extended. If you could do it over packet or dialup modem it can VERY likely be done over the mesh.

You also don't need to pull in a mesh expert to make software like this run, usually you can pull in a local guy who is good with servers and they will usually understand how to setup what they need to setup and you just plug your mesh node into it next. If they question the network for their standpoint all they need to know is to think of it as "the cloud" it gets from one end to the other, that usually good enough for a server/network guy to know they can do what they want with it.

And again as always I recommend not running the software on the node if possible and let the nodes be nodes

How do I have the IP address of my VOIP phones show up as a (service) on the node screen?

Vance, KC8RGO

Dear Members who read the Forums,

The BBHN group in Las Cruces, NM has a pretty good network coming up but are at a loss for some good services programs that will really get the interest going.  I am an old school Amateur and think a high speed packet radio type communications setup with mailboxes and messages sent over the BBHN would be useful to bind the group.  Also, thinking back to the early phone modem BBS's except instead of phone lines using the Ethernet accesses.  These were fun in that they had a email, chat Rooms, and repositories for file uploads and downloads.  But I can find nothing that even comes close to operating like these.  Most of what I did find is something that I can download but it always wants to "Phone home over the internet" and our BBHN is presently separate from the internet. 

So, Any suggestions?  I saw a program called HAMCHAT mentioned but so far have not been able to locate it on the WEB.   After operating for years on Packet Radio (and still am) at 1200 baud, My eyes would flash at doing that at a Megabit baud rate.  Talk about instant messaging...

73 Dave WA5DJJ

Think of it this way...
You MUST use the .bin if you have stock LINKSYS firmware on the device.
You MUST use the .trx if you already have BBHN firmware on the device.

Also, I'm curious why you are going to v1.0.0 firmware?  Do you have other nodes in your area still on 1.0.0?

Well, at this point, I would suggest just resetting the password.  For the Bullet, hold the reset button for 5 seconds and for the WRT, you would need to do a TFTP reload of the firmware.

This would set everything back to the default of root/hsmm

Make sure that your CAPSLOCK is not enabled when you are setting your password upon setup.

The ticket includes another scenario with the same root cause.  So the ticket will remain open to address it.  

Andre

Hello Shawn VA3MFD and Chris VE3SKH, I see that you 2 are neighbours, only about .2km apart !!  Have you been able to make a link from QTH to QTH ?

Bob

Conrad/Andre,

In looking around in the configuration settings for the mail server, I discovered that there is a setting which uses the incoming URL to build the redirected URL.  So if the incoming URL is "http://KI6MLU-Webmail" the redirected URL is "http://KI6MLU-Webmail/username/mailfile" and the cookie is valid; the user does not have to re-authenticate.

That solves my immediate problem.  You can close out the problem ticket and just keep this in mind as a "feature request".

Russ

Joe,

That's an excellent best practice.  Our 4x4 club is running a land navigation exercise in the Mojave desert this weekend.  We plan to deploy about a dozen nodes and expect to have 4 or 5 webcams, a mail server and an IRC server on the mesh.  We need to make sure we have unique names for each of the services.

Russ

I would recommend as a best practice not to name your mail server, webmail. If you are on a small mesh and you are the only person with a mail server then you can get away with it.

As we start to create larger networks, there is a likelihood of two mail servers on the network if both are named webmail than they will conflict and you will not be able to reliably connect to either server.

Best practice will be to include a call sign for the owner of the server in the name. My email server is ae5ca-node0.  

In testing tunnel software, we have found multiple asterisk servers named RPI on the expanded network.