NodeGUR

       Establish new links in the Outer Eastern region
       Further develop the click maps. See Mapping Links
       For an 350x350 clickmap of NodeGUR  Click Here
       For an 800x800 clickmap of NodeGUR  Click Here

      Well lots has been happening.

      The Node's website got moved from the ;inux box to a r100 AP running 
      openwrt.

      This has eliminated the hard disk fail factor and reduced the power 
      consumption enormously, not to mention save on space!

      Openwrt boots of a 1Gb USB Key taking the flash from 16meg to 1Gb

      I have created an upcheck scrip to copy images around when other 
      nodes are online

1. Then create a file in /etc/init.d/ with

1. exit and then

      The Omni has been picked up in frankston with a reasonable signal, scan
      around if you haven't already , you may be surprised at what you
      pickup. 

      From my checking of los, I seem to have about a 30deg window from south
      to south south west.

      Well ILE is on the move & hopefully we'll have something to stumble
      after the coming weekend. It's at about 450 Meters Elevation at the
      southern end of MT Dandenong. Not sure who will be able to pick it up
      but use node 757 on www.node.com to check for los.
      

      Well it's been a while between updates , but lots has been happening.

      WRT54G

      I've spent a lot of time on the WRT54G V1 V2 and V2GS. 
      Our rundown on these units is; they are a great router and 
      are very stable if you run openwrt. I tried running sveasoft for 
      quite a while, testing all different versions, but gave up in the end
      after finding a seemingly endless stream of bugs which made it unuseable
      in some way. The web interface is nice, but if your doing anything more 
      than a single short range link, use openwrt.
      I'm currently running openwrt on 4 wrt54gs ap's of my own.
      The big tip with openwrt with client mode is turn off the bridging 
      and run the wlan interface using the wifi nvram varibles.
      Specifically set the wifi_ifname=eth1 otherwise things go a bit crazy.
      
      Relating to the hardware with these boxes, you should be aware of the
      following limitations we have found through testing.

      These units seem to have an average receive sensitivity and thus 
      if a test has reveiled a signal lower than -75db and/or your trying 
      to link more than 10klm, I suggest you use the senao 2611-CB3 11mbs 
      unit instead. The main factor that gives the distance limitation is
      timing in the drivers. The result is they start getting unstable &
      dropping packets. 
      If you still need a router when using even two 2611's, just disable 
      the wlan in the wrt54g and use it as a router with openwrt and your
      desired protocol.

      These units are ideally suited for high density short range links 
      upto 1klm with -70db or better. We've been acheiving upto 1.6 Mbyte 
      a sec from the gur omni which has a wrt54g on openwrt in ap & bridge
      mode to a node 1.06 Klm away.
      Be aware though that the normal rule applies, one slow connection
      will take the group down to minimum speed.

      New Links

      There has been great progress in the last month with new
      node links. It's been great to get access to a new node ILE at 
      Ferntree Gully with an elevation of 450 Mtrs. (Thanks to the owners 
      for the site access and your contribution!)
      ILE is in development, and could become the major southern link due 
      to it's southern location on the mountain and it's sheilded view
      that can't see past about Mt Waverley. (Resulting in less noise)

      Other links are in development stages at the moment , so be paitent.
      (IE ; They're running but are a bit flakey or slow at the moment.)     

      A big welcome to all the new nodes that have joined the network in 
      the last few months. Your contribution in content and participation 
      are what the group needs.

      The omni is now setup & running. Look out for ssid 
      'gur.melbournewireless.org.au' on channel 8 at the moment.
      Inital tests are showing strong coverage on the eastern side 
      of stud rd. Especially in the northern direction with -54Dbm 
      received on a 16Db Vagi at 1klm north.

      Send me an email if you pick it up.

      An uplink to AAF has been established and ospf is up & running after 
      some initial problems.
      Transfer tests show the link to be a solid 11mbs with a signal of 
      -71dbm and noise of about -99dbm (28db SNR).

      The move to the eastern suburbs has been completed.

      Some initial testing has shown good signal from NodeAAF with a consistent 11mbs 
      connectin established in testing.
      I also tried AAF from within the roof cavity, but the metal 
      content in the tiles is obviously very high as i didn't get a 
      cracker..

      With many thanks to the kind folk who attended to help bring down the mast
      (Namely Glenn, Toby, Soragan, Troy, BigJohn, Mike(from outer east) and
      not forgetting Kahless from way over in Taylors lakes!) 
      the node is now shutdown in Moorabbin. ;(

      Stay tuned for future developments.

      Well the time is finaly here, the timing has been moved forward
      and thus the Mast will be coming down on the 25/7/04 (wind permitting).
      I'll need the helpers around lunch time this saturday.

      Last chance for those who want to check out the node before removal.
      (contact me by email for details)

      The mast at the current location (moorabbin) is set to come down on the 

      helpers needed to avert the express method of removal, which is entertaining,
      as a few of us have experienced but not the desired method. :o
      If your interested to check out the node on the day, contact me by email.

      Move Delayed
      The move has now been delayed until the end of august but is 
      still going ahead.

      Big News - We're moving !
      The Node will be running until the last minute , but somewhere 
      around the end of May 04 we're moving to rowville & thus the 
      node will come down.
      
      See node #536 on NodeDB for LOS checks.

      Update
       
      Various things are progressing along.
      Welcome Sui NodeHJA to RGSouthern, we connected him this weekend just
      gone with a 6mtr mast on his roof with a 17ish db grid. 

      There is now a quake3 Arena demo server online at 10.10.147.10 or for 
      those not on the wireless network YET, 150.101.150.103 port 27960.
      You can freely download this quake version from 
      http://datafast.games.tucows.com/adnload/210734_112800.html

      I plan to bring more servers online as time goes on.
      Feel free to email me suggestions or preferences.

      Voice over ip now working. - Yes, FREE phone calls over the wireless 
      network does work ! I'm using a GrandStream BudgeTone-100 available
      from John NodeFOB and with the ip routing set correctly on another 
      phone, it's possible to call ip to ip address just by dialing the 
      ip address. (Press speaker , menu , dial ip address - eg 010.010.131.005 
      for me, then press send.
      We have tested the phone over a dicey link and even at 1mbs with low 
      packet loss (<5%) It works great!
      
      Have a look at Budgetone 100 for the bandwidth usage testing we did with the Grandsteam Budgetone 100 and X-Lite.

      The last test is to get the phone to work with SIP (the internet ip
      phone listing server so you can receive calls from the net) and the 
      wireless network at the same time. This will enable the phone to 
      receive calls from the internet or the Melbourne Wireless network. 
      It should be possible i think it's just a routing issue to sort out.

      65cm Offset Sattelite Dish working on 802.11b.

      After trying a hills 2.4Ghz Passive Diapole without
      much success (tested at about 8db gain), i decided to try
      a canntenna for the feedhorn instead, knowing that the
      native feed's for dishes are usually waveguides anyway.
      With this in mind, I made up a cantenna and mounted it on the front
      of a 65cm offset dish and Success ! It even outperformed a hills 25db !

      I haven't even tested to see if it's aligned properly, but the
      signal was better by about 5db on initial tests.

      Spec's & Pics to follow later.

      New Node Linked !
      Welcome Peter NodeGJD, now linked into RGsouthern.
      (Thanks Vak for fixing the connectors on a sunday!)

        We now have the omni running in AP mode with host_ap.
        See if you can pickup the ssid of gur on channel 2.
        If you have a good line of site you may be able to get it at
        upto a 20klm radius. We suggest you use a 24db vertical grid to
        try if you're more than 1klm away.
        Send us an email if you pickup the SSID, and if you are
        interested in setting up a link & we'll allocate you an IP addr.

        Well our tests of the Dlink DWL520 and a Dlink 2000ap yielded some
        interesting results.
        These devices are supposed to support the new Super-G standard as
        well as packet bursting. We tried various settings over the 35Klm
        link to GDW and found that we got xfer rates from 15 Kbytes per sec
        to a max of 60KB per sec.
        The higher rates came about by locking the devices at 5.5Mbs or 11mbs.
        Even though they wouldn't sustain the rates - the bursting still
        seemed to acheive higher xfer rates that the normal 15-30KB Per sec.

        We didn't manage to get the devices to lock into 6Mbs even though
        there was enough signal. I'm interested to find out more information
        on the actual theoretical distance limits for 802.11G on 2.4Ghz when
        using ranges of 20Klm+ and other peoples experiences.

        We've now moved all the links over to a Linux box and OSPF is now
        running over the region.
        We even have OSPF stable to NodeGDW and once NodeGHO comes back
        online we'll have comms melbourne wide.
        The next step is to get the Mesh link to FOB stable.

       We are in the process of changing over to valid subnets and
       moving all the links onto a linux box. Quagga will be running
       shortly bringing the area alive with OSPF and communications
       to GHO.
       (Thanks Glenn NodeGES)

       the antenna's are working really well.
       Old Mast Config: The mast config was using two wet11's at the top of
       the mast with the netgear poe101's (these are very neat poe kits).
       This config worked really well and served the purpose of eliminating
       loss really well. The only problem is the stability and support for
       the wet11's - I found I was constantly battling with stability
       issues with the wet11's. They are a great device and have a lot of
       flexibility. But due to the lack of support / availability of stable
       firmware, i have given up on these.

       New Mast Config: From the previous inability to
       plug other equipment into the antenna's, I have taken the plunge and
       bought amplifiers that have been mast mounted on the back of the
       antenna's.
       The purpose of these is purely to boost the 'Received' signal up
       before there's nothing left after the loss/noise in the coax.
       I have had special amps with almost zero Transmit gain specially
       made to work on the grids to keep them within legal limits.
       (Thanks must go to Vak and Karl for arranging the amps promptly -
        The amps are the Longreach models which come with outdoor kits and
        power taps so the power is supplied to the amps up the coax.
        They are happy to make yours to a specified TX gain for the
        application.)

       This is where the extra weight has come into play with 45mtrs of
       LMR400 coax and 3 amps all just adding to the weight.
       But at least with the amps - there's no advantage to running LDF450
       so there's a significant cost/weight/hardline hassle saving there.

       But it all works really well. I haven't really found any huge gains
       over the mast mounting of devices. (except for the receive sens
       which is usually pretty poor on most SOHO devices)

       I must admit that the ability to chop & change devices for testing
       is worth the expense. No stress about 'what if i tried this , oh i'd
       have to pull down the mast.....again , dammn'

       Something else I have done is to put one of the grids on an antenna
       rotator. This makes life soooo much easyier when you have two grids
       and want to align them just right. eg align the static one first.
       Then rotate the other and get it just right. The rotator is from
       radio parts - cost about $150 ish. They also have the hills telomasts.
       (ask about thier VIP program to get discounts)

       Hope the information helps. Cheers   NodeGUR

       help at short notice, (quick there's a break in the wind !)
       the mast is now back up & running.
       Initial tests have been very good with a very solid link to NodeGDW
       now possible with a snr of about 25db on the vertical grid.

       Mast tips: we now have a lot of weight on the mast which proved to
       be a big problem with the hills 12mtr telo mast. The top section
       flexed to much and managed to take over the entire mast for an
       entertaining 'crash' onto the roof. Scratch one Hills 25db grid..
       The solution was to buy a Hills 15mtr telomast and remove the top
       section. The result is a much more rigid 12mtr mast which is what we
       were after. With this configuration the raising process was relativly
       easy, with no shouting or swearing!

       The entry now reflects our planned configuration once the
       mast goes back up.

       We expect the node to be back up & running in the next
       week weather permitting.

      Dont know how, but it's with an 8db OMNI (35Kmls).
      The link's a bit unstable due to a firmware prob at this end
      but we have plans to fix this.
      We have managed to complete ftp transfers over it at 1mbs.
      Pings are at about 4% loss on a stream of 50.

      We plan to do futher testing/develoment & also test the
      capabilities of G once some mast changes have been completed.

      Thanks Troy for the superpass, I guess it works.

      We have done some testing between GUR & FBD on wireless G
      with linksys equipment. The sig level was at about -85dbm.
      With the 11b equipment we were getting about 250k per sec
      ftp transfers. BUT the new wireless G equipment acheived 620k
      per sec over the same link. The new modulation standard in
      G and the extra steps on the way up to 54Mbt seem to acheive
      much better xfer rates over 11b even on noisy links.

      We will be doing futher G testing and will report here.

       We now have our link to GHO up & running reliably.