Hello,

I have started experimenting with Mesh Networks and installed the mesh network firmware on a wrt54gl router. The installation was straightforward without any errors however using a wi-fi analyzer the signal can't be detected. The analyzer does indicate my other wi-fi router signals which are not Mesh. I would think that the Mesh radio signal should be operational all of the time as with other routers? It could be I have a faulty radio in this particular wireless router.

Thanks

John den Boer (VE7JDB)

Well, I've been fiddling about with some webcam server programs, and have some comments:

- DCAMserver - Available at sourceforge, freeware, pretty old, pretty simple. Not really video, and not anything like video chat, but simple and seems to be pretty bulletproof. Built-in web server. Worked on first run, almost nothing to do for configuration. 

- ISpy (www.ispyconnect.com) Big, requires .NET 4, a little more intensive than I want, but seems to have exactly the features I need. Don't want to put .NET on my poor little netbook, so didn't test

- Focus Videophone (focusmedia.ru/prod_phone_en.htm) haven't tried it yet, but it's tiny and looks easy. There's another thread in the applications forum where Mark tried and tested this one and Linphone. I'll try this one tomorrow.

- Abelcam (www.abelcam.com) Haven't tried this one yet either, but it looks pretty on the web site.

- WebcamXP (www.webcamxp.com) Free for a single video source, 30 Euros for multiple sources and extra bells and whistles. This is the one I've been playing with tonight. Very easy to set up, installs from a single .exe, serves video in lots of formats, has a built-in web server and chat service. Relies on JAVA, which is fine with me. I'm having a bit of trouble with audio, but I think that's a source issue, not the software. So far, I really like this one for basic video surveillance/monitoring. Lag is very high, even at low video resolutions (160x120 looks good on my netbooks) so video chat wouldn't be too great. About 4 seconds delay using windows media stream. Little better using java on the client.

As stated earlier, I'm looking for simplicity, so the ability to turn from installing and launching the server to calling up a picture on a browser window is my highest priority. DCAMserver and WebcamXP let me do that, using the computer name as an address.

In my setup, I'm using two nodes in direct 5 LAN mode; as I understand it, this is like having all the LAN ports in the DMZ; no port forwarding required. With DHCP reservations, that seems to let me point a web browser on the client netbook to the server netbook using it's name, and everything works fine.

One thing I noticed was that using Chrome browser, I don't get away with just typing in 'netbook_server:80' as an address. I must have the HTTP at the front. ie: 'http://netbook_server:80'. 

Setting the server up in 'advertised services' was a snap; worked first time. Can't use it from the WAN side, but that's an issue for another thread. 

Well the nodes talk to each other as designed and the remote node can even see the internet on the node hooked to my local network. I just can't get any irc client to connet to the ngirc server. Other than seeing the ngirc service running on the node I can't even say that it is running. I have attached some screen shots of the configuration. Thanks for any help.

Jay - KE6GLA

Attachments
 node-setup1.jpg [112 KB] :: Node-setup
 node-forward.jpg [106 KB] :: Node-Forward
 node-ngirc.jpg [106 KB] :: Node-ngric

No luck with changing to NAT and forwarding the port. I also added the port in the firewall config files. The ngircd.conf file checks fine.

BBHN does not put the node in the DMZ. It only puts those devices plugged into the LAN into the DMZ. So you will need to switch the node back to NAT and follow the directions. The guide was created before the switch to the new default mode in the v1.0.0 release.

If you want to keep 5 Host Direct and also host a service on a node, you could also go into the node and modify /etc/config/firewall and /etc/config.mesh/firewall, add an entry for port 6667, and reboot the node.

Oh, I noticed something in your earlier post, J. Remember to also forward UDP. Sometimes it's different ports, but usually close in number. If that's the pull-down in the routers port forwarding screen, there should be options for 'TCP', 'UDP', and 'BOTH'. I usually just set 'em all to BOTH.

I think v 1 has seperate lines for TCP and UDP? (I'm not at home, can't see the node) In that case, enable both types.

This doesn't really help with your web server's connection, but you'll need it for the video. Don't mind me, it's the end of the work day on a Friday.

Ron P.

I'm trying to achieve pretty much the same goal; something simple that can be quickly loaded onto a netbook, for example, plugged into the mesh and forgotten. I've got two netbooks with integrated webcams, and a 2-node (so far) mesh that I'm playing with. I'm using v 1.0.

I had a look at YAWCAM's page, and I'm going to play with it a bit, but I would really miss the audio. I, too, don't want to make a major production of getting audio to work, so if there's another product that will do what YAWCAM advertises that includes audio, I'd love to hear about it.

I have poked around the VOIP community a bit, and LINPHONE looks promising. It can be set up in a peer-to-peer arrangement to make VOIP video-phone calls on the mesh. I haven't succeeded yet, having just installed the software on my netbooks. It looks like there's a daunting amount of configuration to do with LINPHONE to make it work, but it has other attractive stuff, too, like the ability to work with phone sets. I like the idea of setting up basic, simple, video conferencing across a mesh, with the added benefit of being able to phone between a command post and a field unit or staging area.

For my purposes, simplicity is at the top of the list. I need this stuff to work when I'm not available, and someone else is reading a few pages of set-up instructions included in a go-kit.

Ron P.