Dan Richardson
Name: Dan Richardson BR Email: plympton@plymptonia.com BR Email: plymptonia@yahoo.com BR Homepage: http://www.plymptonia.com BR
Domains registered:
Host of the 1st Official Personaltelco Equipment PlayDay
Engineer for GigaCorp by day, geek hacker by.. day, too? 
House in Hollywood District, 41st and Tillamook
System consisting of
- 1.5Mb/384Kb DSL (Via Speakeasy.net via Covad) - 2 Static IP's!
Dual Celeron Linux 7.1 box with LotsaSpace(tm)
- Mac system for graphics/video geekin'
PC for whatever (DustCollector(tm)) and work connection
10/11/2001 - WAP11's
See my LinksysWap11 page for info on those beasts. They got cheaper. They got new firmware. I got itchin'. I got 2 again. Now I've got one as my main AP with a RP-TNC pigtail, connected in an old 4-port NAT box, connected into a 1-WATT Indoor Antenna. It's a Base Station, and the other is a Bast Station Client, which will go to a Neighbor.
- Now they just gotta make these things repeat as well, and we're talking INFRASTRUCTURE!
10/4/2001 - it's been a while
Hosted PlayDayOne about 2 months back, and hosting PlayDay Two coming up here on the 21st of October - PlayDayOne was a rousing success, so here's hoping that Two is twice as productive!
I've got my node up and running wide open right now - ESSID www.personaltelco.net. I have a Stylistic 1200 that is up-and-down trying to get NoCatAuth running, but that's a work in progress. I've got a 1-Watt HyperLinkTech amp courtesy of our WirelessSupplyGuy Michael - it's an internal model, so there's more loss / less boost, but it's indoors, and hopefully better suited for our bad conditions here in Portland.
I sent the 2 WAP11's to a fellow in Seattle, and I suppose I got homesick for them, so I get another pair that should be here soon - the WAP11's have a Client mode now, and will be useful for hooking up direct Ethernet folks. I've been acquiring much gear on eBay the last few weeks - several LucOrinAvaya USB Clients. I'm set to start deploying gear here in the next week or so. End of September was the timeline to get the Amped node up, end of October is the timeline to get the neighbors hooked up!
Did a quick-n-dirty PigTail loss test. Not very Scientific(tm), but it's better than nothing.
Wireless stuff:
Borrowed Apple AirPort, closed network until we get a captive portal figured out!
Soon to get a couple of LinksysWap11 AccessPoint / W2W Bridges for point-to-point bridging.
7/27/01 - Got the 2 Linksys boxes, and am about to set them up via USB & test range vs. ABS
- About an hour later, flashed the firmware to 1.4f5 or something like that
WEP off - AirPort card connects great from an ibook
WEP on - AirPort card can't connect.. hmm.. turns out the password is in HEX! needs to be like $xxyyzzaa. Very PC like.
- Gets 500kpbs down and 222kpbs up from DSLreports.com (640k/256k DSL line)
- Off to do some distance testing...
- 7/28/01 - 11am - Results thusfar:
- Using the 8dB Omni antenna hooked directly to my ABS via pigtail - coverage is increased a bit (can't say how much yet, but it's real)
- The WAP11's don't have nearly the range of an ABS + Lucent Range Extender Antenna
Plugging the Lucent Range Extender directly into the Airport card of an iBook actually DECREASES the range(!!) In other words - the built-in antennas on the iBook & presumably PowerBooks are quite good.
- I can't get the WAP11's to talk to each other in bridge mode, so sad.
- It's pouring outside now, so I'm not about to do anymore range testing outside today. :-).
- 7/29/01 - 5:15 pm - More results (or not)
- The WAP11's seem to not like the flash update to 1.4f on the Linksys website - although the newer utility (1.7) seems to find it and set the parameters, I can't see to get the things communicating much with each other.
Using my iBook, crossover cable, WAP11 <-> Wap11 <-> Wired network, I'm able to use DHCP and get an IP address, but can't get anything else (router, DNS, etc..). Very odd. Can only attribute it to the update. the 1.3 firmware doesn't even have this capability.
Bummer thus far. Maybe I should just get a nice HyperLinkTech 1 Watt amp, and hook it up to the base station. That might get me to Sam's!
- 7/31/01 - 7:06 pm - complete and utter failure!
- I hate to say it, but my excitement for these devices being cheap bridges for our network is quickly fading. I might hold on to them for another week for kicks, but think it's best to just toss 'em. As far as access points are concerned, they're pretty good no-frills access points. With the new firmware, you get 128-bit encryption if you need it. That said, I don't have a need for multiple access points...
To summarize: I downloaded, installed, used, uninstalled, re-downloaded, re-used new firmware & software.
- I unplugged and replugged the WAP11 many, many, MANY times.
I flashed & reflashed the firmware, accessed it via USB and SNMP many, many, MANY times.
- In the end:
- Well, both units say they are 1.4f firmware
- Both units accept the configuration settings - I even reset to factory defaults, and then did the minimal changes necessary.
Both units are reachable via the SNMP & USB programs (yes, both the new versions)
- I can ping both units from either side of the network
- I get accurate DHCP information from my Linksys DHCP router
- I can't ping anything else besides the WAP11's from either side of the network
- The only thing that looks wrong is that the LINK yellow light pulses when the client tries to load a web page (or anything). Blip... blip.........blip..... blip.
I called Linksys tech support and they were less than useless - 20 minutes on hold, and hold, and disconnected twice (once with a callback, though!), basically saying that I need to have the MAC addresses for each one entered and it should work. NO FREAKIN' DUH! <sorry to all tech support folks>
- Set and reset. Flash and reflash. Disconnect all other 802.11 stuff in the house.
- Toss 'em, return 'em, get something that works right out of the box. This was painful.
Want a mail account? E-mail me (plympton@plymptonia.com) and I can set you up!
-Dan
The list of all the pages I've contributed to: