Depends on several factors such as what gain your looking for and what polarity.

http://martybugs.net/wireless/rubberducky.cgi. Is a nice look at the stock antenna  that is intended to be vertically polarized (yes you can turn it on it side for horizontal but it's beamwidth may be only a few degrees.

The biggest issue I see is lack of affordable test gear to properly test to be sure the setup has the right SWR let alone analyze the pattern.

At 2.4ghz a centimeter measuring error has a huge effect on resonance.

That said people have been making Pringles can directionals for years without measuring so your millage may vary.

horizontal  polarized omnidirectional ( yes they exist ) are made by slot type design by the research I've done or stacked phased elements.  These also possibly could be the best for the ham band use because you gain 20-30db isolation from vertical devices by being cross polarized 

When the checkbox is turned on the router will try and verify internet connections with pings.  If the node receives a response it will publish routes to 0.0.0.0 (default route) in the same manner it publishes routes to networks reachable in direct mode (called HNA Announcements). In addition firewall rules are added allowing forwarding from the mesh interface to the WAN interface and the node will perform a NAT translation so everything appears to come from it's IP address on the WAN network.

the 0.0.0.0 route should show up on all other nodes instructing the node to forward packets addressed to anything not advertised as connected to the mesh network.

Wit this  you are giving every other mesh node access to your office network and the internet to do with as the mesh nodes and client please.  No filtering or restrictions are done by the meshgw nodes by default and if running as part 97 you need to be careful what runs across the network and read the part 97 rules to be sure anything across the network is compliant.

I was wondering if anyone has bothered to home build their own antenna? I'm wondering about building an omni directional antenna and was wondering how difficult it would be.

Thanks,
KK4URZ 

Hello,

VE4AAI/W6 here.  I'm originally from up in Canada, hence the VE4 callsign.  Operating under the good 'ol reciprocal operating agreement.  

Anyways, I'm located in The Markham Apartments at the corner of North Stelling and Homestead:

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Markham+Apartments/@37.3353018,-122.0376195,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xb7ef666cde903095

I've got a spare WRT54G which I just flashed with the hsmm-mesh firmware.  I'd be more than happy to try and get this linked up with someone else.  At the moment the router is sitting in my apartment, so I doubt anyone is going to pick it up.  

Tyler

I have a 5 node mesh network strewn around the office, mesh connectivity is dandy, I have RPi servers at each node, name resolution on the mesh network is functional, all is well in the mesh.

I have one of the nodes connected to the office network, and I can get to the Internet from the node and from any of the LAN ports on that node. The node is set to "mesh gateway" via the checkbox. 

The other nodes have no route to the Internet. Do I need static routes on the other 4 nodes? What purpose does the mesh gateway checkbox actually serve?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, this is Joe Pistritto, N3CKF in Fremont.

I have a spare Ubiquiti NanoStationLocoM2 that i was thinking of putting online.  Anyone else in Fremont/Newark with a HSMM node?

(KE6TIM) i saw your node down in Milpitas but i'm pretty sure thats too far for me since i cant put my node outside, just in my attic).

LQ doesn't actually tell you about throughput.

The fact is that a negotiated link at 24mbps with with 20% losses (an LQ of 80%) can actually handle more successful traffic (throughput) than a link at 11mbps with no loss (100 % LQ) because of the speed advantage.

LQ simply tells you the probability of what you send making it to the next hop. Nothing more nothing less.  A throughput measure requires a link speed knowledge which can change for each packet in the wifi world as the radios adjust to changing conditions

That is a hard one, the best i can say is if you can get the radios for cheap, get them setup and offer them to other hams on the local 2m repeters, if we get some takers it will help to build out the net.

That is a hard one, the best i can say is if you can get the radios for cheap, get them setup and offer them to other hams on the local 2m repeters, if we get some takers it will help to build out the net.

I made one of the drop boxes described in one of the user application "white papers".  It turned out nice.  I painted it, but not the antenna portion, white to reflect heat during the summer.  My wife made a comment that it could be mistaken for a bomb in the atmosphere of the day.  Taking this in thought I figured I would label the box.  I placed a temporary label on the box and took it down to the local Sheriff for examination, the label that is.  They were a bit hinky about the box and said to leave it outside.  Sort of confirmed my wife's observation.  Anyway, I explained the whole thing, ARES, Ecomms, etc., open the box for a look see and the deputy looked at the label and said good.  He did recommend that I contact them if it is to be placed so they have a contact if they get calls.  Here is how I labeled it:

                      THIS IS NOT A BOMB

This is an Amateur Radio repeater device used in the support

   of emergency communications in the local community.

     Please DO NOT disturb or tamper with this device.

       Contact Kirk DeHaan - N6SXR if there are any

           questions or concerns. 208-XXX-XXXX

                www.broadband-hamnet.org

Since repeaters need to be under control it will not be too far away from a ham so it could be disconnected if it for some reason locked on transmit. 

Kirk - N6SXR

I have read all the posts on the topic posted here before.  The one thing I'm wondering is whether you have to dedicate the Pi to HSMM or whether it can run concurrently with other software?

Thanks,

Dick, W4RSS

Thanks for that info Conrad, that's what I was looking for.

The from/to aspect of it explains why often I see the LQ between two nodes is not reciprocal.  Likely explained by co-channel interference at one node but not the other.

I suspect anything other than 100% will have an impact to throughput.

This is an old posting but I thought I'd chime in by saying I followed this instruction and it worked perfectly with a Linksys WAP11 I had laying around.

It is too cool to be able to see/control/use mesh devices with a tablet or smartphone that only has a standard wifi link.

Thanks NT5LA.