Malusay WiFi Christmas Updates

Merry Christmas everyone!

I found the time to upgrade the AirOS firmware of the PowerStations to the latest and configure them to serve as the backhaul equipment to transmit/receive at 24 mbps at 26 dbm (approximately 400 mWatts).I was able to simulate the link between BH1 which will be deployed in the NORSU area at a 100-foot elevation and BH2 which will be deployed at the antenna mast we have at the house and bridged to the pfSense WAN port.

BH1

BH2

PowerStation PoE

PowerStation LED

Also, surveying the antenna mast results in the following requirements: old guy wires to be replaced, additional 40-foot G.I. pipes at 4 segments requires guy wires and turn-buckles aside from the labor. I plan to do it myself if I have the time and the guts--- maybe after the new year and before we get back to work again.

OldAntenna Mast (front view)

OldAntenna Mast (side view)

Aside from the antenna upgrade, the pfSense box will also be sourced from old Pentium III, 10/100 mbps LAN cards and a hard drive that are lying around.

Advance happy new year!

Barangay Community Wireless Network 2

With the first 4 Ubiquity wireless routers, I have tested using the Openwrt-Robin firmware for the Open-Mesh Network. The network layout is here. Sadly, there has been a lot of instability problems. One problem is the loss of connectivity to the internet from now and then even without being disconnected from the node itself.

I have tried using the Openwrt without the ROBIN or OLSR and there seems to be no problem with connectivity. I tested the r2671 ROBIN firmware and some of the lower versions but still has the same problem. I am not sure if it is Nano2 or Pico2 related, but I don't have time to delve deeper.

The reason why I was thinking of using Openwrt is for the mesh networking with an attractive Management Dashboard and the CoovaChilli for captive portal stuff for free. DD-WRT requires an additional overhead expense for the activation key for these Ubuiquity devices for which we do not have the budget. Aside from the instabilities that I have encountered, the system still would require another PC for the RADIUS and MySQL servers as I cannot afford to load all these into the 32 MB Pico2 as the gateway node.

Finally, I have decided to use the original devices' firmwares--- the AirOS. The plan is to configure a backhaul and a WDS system for the nodes onto which the clients can connect to. In between the backhaul and the WDS nodes, a pfSense box is used for many things like the Captive Portal with RADIUS Authentication, routing, bridging, DHCP and monitoring. I have used pfSense extensively in the past and it looks like it is now more stable.

I would probably be using this method until such time when more nodes are needed and probably the ROBIN firmware with Open-Mesh will be very stable by then.

With the current pace, I think the December 2009 target for deployment is still within the window frame.

Next on my agenda are: Captive Portal with RADIUS Auth and Re-Auth, and Node2 and Node3 setup and testing.

Barangay Community Wireless Network

Too busy with real-life activities... work, work, and lots of work!

Now, I managed to schedule my time for some more productive work. This time, I'll be involved in yet another community collaboration for the next few months. I will be doing this during my free time (outside of working hours) in the service of my long-deprived residential village--- the barangay Malusay.

It's been in the planning stages for quite a while already and now we have the equipment.

Stay tuned for the barangay Malusay Mesh Network (MMN)... well actually, I just made this name up for now as we still have to let the community decide. The network is tentatively scheduled to be up in December 2009 for the first 15 members to connect from 3 or 4 Open-Mesh nodes.