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Difference between revisions of "Mesh/Flashing extender nodes"
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After following the [Mesh/WalkThrough], you are probably just an isolated node on the virtual People's Open Network. If you want to become part of the physical mesh, you are going to need to extend the signal from home node using what we call an extender node. An extender node is just a roof-mounted, directional antenna used to make point-to-point connections between two locations that have line-of-sight (LOS) to one another. Preparing an extender node generally consists to two stages, downgrading the proprietary AirOS firmware and flashing it with our custom build of OpenWrt. | After following the [[Mesh/WalkThrough]], you are probably just an isolated node on the virtual People's Open Network. If you want to become part of the physical mesh, you are going to need to extend the signal from home node using what we call an extender node. An extender node is just a roof-mounted, directional antenna used to make point-to-point connections between two locations that have line-of-sight (LOS) to one another. Preparing an extender node generally consists to two stages, downgrading the proprietary AirOS firmware and flashing it with our custom build of OpenWrt. | ||
== Downgrading to | == Downgrading to older AirOS == | ||
Typically, we use Ubiquiti equipment for our extender nodes. These come with a proprietary firmware called AirOS. Any extender node with version 5.6 of AirOS and above needs to be downgraded to a 5.5.XX version of AirOS version before you can flash it with OpenWRT. | Typically, we use Ubiquiti equipment for our extender nodes. These come with a proprietary firmware called AirOS. Any extender node with version 5.6 of AirOS and above needs to be downgraded to a 5.5.XX version of AirOS version before you can flash it with OpenWRT. | ||
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* Network Manager Method: Manual | * Network Manager Method: Manual | ||
* IP Address: 192.168.1.10 (some devices will only accept from this IP) | ** IP Address: 192.168.1.10 (some devices will only accept from this IP) | ||
* Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 | ** Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 | ||
* Gateway: 0.0.0.0 (Or leave blank) | ** Gateway: 0.0.0.0 (Or leave blank) | ||
You can also use the commands: | You can also use the commands: | ||
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* Log in using the credentials | * Log in using the credentials | ||
** username: ubnt | |||
** password: ubnt | |||
* Look at the Firmware information, it may say something like XM.v5.6.6.bin or XW.v5.6.6, based on this download the correct version of AirOS v5.5.10 | * Look at the Firmware information, it may say something like XM.v5.6.6.bin or XW.v5.6.6, based on this download the correct version of AirOS v5.5.10 | ||
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* Reconfigure your machine with the following static network configuration. | * Reconfigure your machine with the following static network configuration. | ||
** IP address: 172.22.0.10 | |||
* IP address: 172.22.0.10 | ** Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 | ||
* Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 | ** Gateway: 0.0.0.0 | ||
* Gateway: 0.0.0.0 | |||
Or use the commands | Or use the commands | ||
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Once configured with our firmware, an extender node will not start broadcasting an SSID until it is plugged into a home node because it must first get a mesh IP address. | Once configured with our firmware, an extender node will not start broadcasting an SSID until it is plugged into a home node because it must first get a mesh IP address. | ||
If you have a mynet n600 or n750, you can get a mesh IP for your extender node by plugging the LAN cable that was plugged into your computer into to port one or two on the back of the home node. | |||
The mesh IP that the extender node receives is the IP of the home node plus one or two. For example, if your home node broadcasts the SSID "peoplesopen.net 65.21.65" corresponding to the IP 100.65.21.65, then your extender node will receive either an IP or either 100.65.21.66 or 100.65.21.67. Once plugged into this home node, the extender node should broadcast the SSID "peoplesopen.net 65.21.66" or ".67" as well as the ad-hoc network, "pplsopen.net-node2-node" (you may not see these if your computer's WiFi antenna is only 2.4 GHz) | |||
== Testing and Network Detection == | |||
If you flashed your extender node with a dev-build of the firmware, you should now be able to ssh into to it. | |||
It is probably easiest to first ssh in to your home node over the private interface and then into the extender node with its mesh IP. | |||
First, you should immediately change or disable the root password and instead add your ssh key to `/etc/dropbear/authorized_key` (this method of login will not work when sshing through a home node) | |||
passwd | |||
Once ssh'ed into the extender node, there are few files you can play around with, | |||
`/etc/config/wireless` sets the names of the SSIDs broadcast by the antenna, you may want to change the name of the ad-hoc interface so as to distinguish it from home node's ad-hoc network | |||
Trying changing it to something like "popplesopen.net-nod2nod", then reboot the extender node and check if you can see the new name in your network list. | |||
YNext, you my be curious what you can see with your antenna, to scan for other visible networks, ssh in to the extender node and run the following, | |||
iw dev mesh0 scan | grep SSID: | |||
This should return a lengthy list of SSID, if you can see another "pplsopen.net-node2node" SSID, you should be meshing with it automatically. | |||
If you'd like to view more info about the network you can see, you can pipe the output of the previous command to a log file like so, | |||
iw dev mesh0 scan > scan log | |||
Once you are done meshing around with your extender node make sure to reset the root password with passwd or reflash the router with the standard build of our firmware. | |||
Log into your home node via SSH, and tail <tt>/var/log/messages</tt> | Log into your home node via SSH, and tail <tt>/var/log/messages</tt> | ||
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There should be a debug message in the log from notdhcpserver concerning the extender node. | There should be a debug message in the log from notdhcpserver concerning the extender node. | ||
== Troubleshooting == | == Troubleshooting == | ||
=== USB to Serial Connection === | === USB to Serial Connection === | ||
If you experience trouble flashing your device via the web interface, or via the TFTP image upload method, you'll want to establish a serial connection to troubleshoot further. Methods for flashing your device involving a serial connection may become more common as devices adopt configurations to lock down [http://www.networkworld.com/article/3038722/mobile-wireless/manufacturers-start-to-lock-down-wi-fi-router-firmware-thanks-fcc.html wi-fi router firmware] to prevent flashing. | If you experience trouble flashing your device via the web interface, or via the TFTP image upload method, you'll want to establish a serial connection to troubleshoot further. Methods for flashing your device involving a serial connection may become more common as devices adopt configurations to lock down [http://www.networkworld.com/article/3038722/mobile-wireless/manufacturers-start-to-lock-down-wi-fi-router-firmware-thanks-fcc.html wi-fi router firmware] to prevent flashing. | ||
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root@sudomesh-node:/# | root@sudomesh-node:/# | ||