Notes from December 18th meeting
First, a big Thankyou to all the list members who came along.
The venue wasn't the greatest, with the staff at the Font gradually turning up the music until we were unable to talk to one another. Things improved later when we moved onto the Lass O'Gowrie.
The meeting was held at the Font because Brige-5 Mill couldn't host the meeting before Christmas without more than 2 weeks notice. I'm thinking of arranging another meeting in mid-Feb, hopefully with more time to organise and book a venue, we should be able to have a more structured and constructive meeting.
Saying this, for the very first meeting the turnout was quite impressive, and we got through a lot of issues. There were a few questions which came up several times, and there is a brief attempt to answer them at the bottom of this write-up.
Towards the end of the evening discussion moved on to what we need to do to push forward the growth of the network. The two main points (as I see them):
Standardising a node
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For most people, the chance of them setting up a node without any help is precisely nil. There's a reasonable amount of technical expertise required (although less than most people think), so it would be very useful for everyone to pool their knowledge and experience to help others.
The problems start with everyone deciding to use their own particular choice of hardware and software. Knowing why a particular node doesn't work, is near impossible if it's using different hardware/software to everybody else.
Obviously, it would be extremely helpful to prospective node owners for there to be a standard node which would work out of the box. There was a fair bit of disscussion on exactly what hardware/software should be used in a node, but most people were thinking along the same lines.
- Hardware:
Criteria - Low power + cheap, Wi-Fi card with external antenna
Suggestions
1) Mini-itx motherboard, case, PSU, WiFi card, and antenna.
Using parts from linitx.com and solwise.co.uk , this could cost under £300. Harry mentioned a similar setup recently on the list, and I agree with most of his suggestions except maybe for the compact flash boot media. I would rather use a bootable CD, which would cost about £10 more, but allow for much more software, and easier distribution.
- Software:
This is quite complicated, and I think will need to be discussed on the list and at the next meeting.
The software used by WNAP seems a good solution, although I would rather not use PPP (I think this complicates things for the end-user), and would like to investigate ad-hoc routing protocols (but not for backbone nodes). If Compact Flash is used as the boot media, then the software needs to be squeezed down to at most 32MB, with a CD there would be more space.
Some solutions along the right lines
WISP-Dist
Pebble Linux
MeshAP
Mapping the network
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Back in the early days of mobile phone networks in this country, if you were planning to sign a contract with a network you would want to be pretty sure they had coverage in your area. For these reasons the mobile phone companies produced detailed network maps to ensure customers that they would recieve a signal where they intended to use the phone.
Likewise, it's important for users of manchesterwireless to know where they can access the network. Current solutions in terms of network maps don't do the job. The consume nodeDB has a lot of nodes, but doesn't have any maps to put the locations in any geographical context. If they do include maps in their DB, there is still the problem of people unintentionally entering or leaving inaccurate information in the DB.
The only real way of generating an accurate map is to drive round and detect which nodes are up and running, and what kind of range they cover. There's software available to do this (kismet and GPSdrive), even to generate fancy color-coded maps . Generating these kind of maps would require a GPS, but would be a worthy investment.
I'm going to mention a few questions (that I can remember) which cropped up several times.
The most common question are very basic ones;
- Q. How the hell do I join in?
A. I have attempted to answer this on the website, but it's often not that easy to explain. To put it simply
To connect to an existing wireless network you need;
- 1 wireless card (£40),
- 1 computer,
- and be somewhere within range of the network.
To set up you own wireless access point (a node) you need;
- 1 wireless card
- 1 computer
- 1 antenna to extend the range beyond the standard 300ft (£30)
- software to allow the computer to act as a node
- OR - A commercially made 'Wireless Access Point' (£100)
While it is much easier to plug in and turn on a commercially made 'Wireless Access Point', they don't allow for much control in how they work, and cannot be linked together to form a larger network. This is why it is preferable in most cases to use a PC and software to operate a node.
Q. What should I buy?
A. From the above answer there are only 3 major things to consider. However, if you want an off the shelf solution, buy a Wireless Access Point. Linksys make cheap access points, and can be bought at amazon.co.uk for around £100. Plug one of these into a broadband connection and they will setup a wireless network with a hundred meter range (outdoors). The problem with these is that they are inflexible, and cannot be linked
together to create a bigger network.
If you are interested in setting up a node yourself, you will need:
- Wireless card - cost from £40 upwards, prices are coming down all the
time. Any two cards with the WiFi label should work together.
They come in several forms -
- PC-Cards (PCMCIA) for laptops,
- PCI cards for desktop computers,
- external devices with a USB attachment,
- and those which are built-in to some newer computers.
The one that you need depends on what you plan to use it with.
The cards tend to be based on either the Lucent or Prism II chipset - Lucent chipsets (Buffalo, Compaq?, and Agere/Avaya/Lucent) have better quality radios, Prism II are less expensive. Newer chipsets such as TI (Texas Instruments) and Prism 2.5 also exist, be careful as these have less driver support.
Remember, if you intend to use an antenna with wireless card it will be worth paying a little extra for one with an external antenna connector.
Recommendations:
PCI - Pheenet £70 www.solwise.co.uk
PCI - Dlink 520 (not the 520+) £50? But can't find a source for these cos they're being discontinued
PCMCIA/PCI - Buffalo £47 www.inmac.co.uk + PCI adapter £23.50
- Antennae :
Recommendations:
For a quick and cheap directional antenna try http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html (50p)
For an omnidirectional antenna for using with a node try http://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-outdoorantenna.htm (£33)
- Software : This is currently under discussion.
A quick way of setting up a node
under WinXP - Internet Connection Sharing Wizard (?)
under Linux Mandrake 9.0 - Internet Connection Sharing Wizard
Q. What kind of range can I expect?
A. It depends. With Line-of-Sight a couple of hundred meters. With
the correct antenna at each end of the link, maybe a couple of miles.
Wireless networks don't propagate too far through obstacles.
Q. Is there and IRC channel for manchesterwireless?
A. try irc.pcairney.net, channel #manchesterwireless
