I’ve been reading the book, “High Speed Multimedia for Amateur Radio” with the intention of setting up a node here in Foxboro, MA. I don’t know what it is but I’m having trouble figuring out a lot of the details. It may be that, as he says, the book is intended as an overview or it may be that I miss critical points as I read the book. Whether by my own inattention or by omissions in the book I’d like to present my thoughts.
There is much talk in the book about the various applications for HSSM but one thing I haven’t figured out is how to deploy them. For instance, if I want to deploy a HSSM internet I have figured out how to present a web page using ClearOS on a standalone computer and I can make it work if I plug that computer’s Ethernet port into my WRT54G LAN port. However, my normal plugin internet connects to its source through my router’s WAN port. Shouldn’t I be doing the same thing for my HSSM internet? That is, shouldn’t I plug my ClearOS computer’s Ethernet port to the WRT54G WAN port. I can’t make that work.
Then there is the other end of the link. Say I take my laptop out into the field and my home HSSM node is running on the WRT54G at 192.168.1.6 on channel 6. All I have to do is connect to the WRT54G and bring up a web browser and run a URL 192.168.1.6:10000 to see the web page I’m serving or even without special HAM firmware I could connect to the public internet assuming the public internet was on the router’s WAN port. Up to this point all is well and good. But, what if I am running special HAM firmware or a Ubiquiti on channel -1 or 5MHz or 900MHz? Somehow I don’t think my WiFi adapter in my laptop will be able to deal with all these possibilities. I’m thinking that I need to figure out how to use a WRT54G or for that matter a Ubiquiti to work like a wireless NIC in my computer but I can’t find anything in the book that explains how to do this. That is, should I accept DHCP or use static IP addresses. Is it a router, a bridge, an access point? If I use DHCP then where is the DHCP served from, the ClearOS server, the home node configured as a router?
The book uses the word octet in a few places through the book and then goes on to say there are two octets in a byte. I believe that an octet is 8 bits and so is a byte making the words byte and octet synonyms, i.e. one octet per byte.
I found the piece on TCP/IP phones interesting but again, I can’t figure out where to plug in the IP phones.
Chuck Lippmeier
KB1HTO
There is much talk in the book about the various applications for HSSM but one thing I haven’t figured out is how to deploy them. For instance, if I want to deploy a HSSM internet I have figured out how to present a web page using ClearOS on a standalone computer and I can make it work if I plug that computer’s Ethernet port into my WRT54G LAN port. However, my normal plugin internet connects to its source through my router’s WAN port. Shouldn’t I be doing the same thing for my HSSM internet? That is, shouldn’t I plug my ClearOS computer’s Ethernet port to the WRT54G WAN port. I can’t make that work.
Then there is the other end of the link. Say I take my laptop out into the field and my home HSSM node is running on the WRT54G at 192.168.1.6 on channel 6. All I have to do is connect to the WRT54G and bring up a web browser and run a URL 192.168.1.6:10000 to see the web page I’m serving or even without special HAM firmware I could connect to the public internet assuming the public internet was on the router’s WAN port. Up to this point all is well and good. But, what if I am running special HAM firmware or a Ubiquiti on channel -1 or 5MHz or 900MHz? Somehow I don’t think my WiFi adapter in my laptop will be able to deal with all these possibilities. I’m thinking that I need to figure out how to use a WRT54G or for that matter a Ubiquiti to work like a wireless NIC in my computer but I can’t find anything in the book that explains how to do this. That is, should I accept DHCP or use static IP addresses. Is it a router, a bridge, an access point? If I use DHCP then where is the DHCP served from, the ClearOS server, the home node configured as a router?
The book uses the word octet in a few places through the book and then goes on to say there are two octets in a byte. I believe that an octet is 8 bits and so is a byte making the words byte and octet synonyms, i.e. one octet per byte.
I found the piece on TCP/IP phones interesting but again, I can’t figure out where to plug in the IP phones.
Chuck Lippmeier
KB1HTO
Chuck, Is there a nearby hsmm group with a few people one step ahead that can share knowledge to get jump started? This would greatly speed up the process. Try these steps with 2 mesh nodes:
1) load the firmware (preferably AREDN :) ) -- instructions on the web site.
2) in basic setup put both on same channel, ssid, channel width (computer ihas to be on LAN port of each mesh node to go to setup page and do this step)
3) place the mesh nodes apart in your testing environment and they should connect up automatically over RF
4) plug a computer into the LAN port of each one (check the computers to see what IP each has--will be 10.x.x.x address on the mesh)
5) On one computer start up the web server
6) On the other computer start up your browser and type in the http://10.x.x.x:10000 to browse your web site over the mesh RF network.
7) optional -- plug a voip phone into the LAN port on each mesh node. See what IP address they obtained, then do a direct voip IP dial to the other.
Think of the mesh nodes with AREDN firmware as if they were the cable modem from you ISP and access the internet, this is just our (2 node-router) private internet over RF. The mesh node is not an access point that you can connect over wifi with your laptop. You only connect devices into the mesh node with a cat5 cable. The RF is only used for mesh nodes to see each other and route traffic to each other.
Yep, an octet is 8 bits.
Joe AE6XE
There are some guys doing HamNet nearby and some doing AREDN but too far away so I guess I'm the trend setter here in SE MA.
I guess I'll just have to jump in with both feet and install AREDN on two nodes to see how it goes.
Chuck Lippmeier
Joe AE6XE
Chuck Lippmeier
Keith
Chuck
My nephew, KC1FWM, is in Attleboro, MA. How close are you to him? I just sent him an AirRouter with mesh tunnel to me and a VOiP phone to connect. If you are close with a decent line of sight I may send him a Nanostation too so you guys can connect up. Are you operating on 2.4 or 5 ghz?
Keith