Mississippi Network Diagram and Configuration

Buick serves DHCP, and does round-robin load-balancing between 2 DSL lines. (It doesn't actually, someone needs to set up the link to the second line and configure this)

All of the metrix boxes run STP. (We should probably pick a root bridge, and configure it. The SW NAYA metrix looks good. The commons metrix got elected by default.)

Last Thursday (Oct 19, 2005), Keegan and I had some trouble when we tried to swap master/client modes between metrix-naya-sw and metrix-commons (needed for commons to start relaying backhaul traffic via its omni antenna from multiple sites). When we swapped metrix-naya-sw to client mode, things puzzlingly stopped working. This evening I did some comparisons between the three metrixes I can reach from buick and think I've found the problem. I tar'd each metrixes root filesystem onto another machine and then did a diff -ru to find differences. Mostly, the differences I found between the metrixes were understandable. The only one I didn't understand was that metrix-naya-sw was missing a strange line in /etc/modules.conf: options ath_pci countrycode=840. I think I've discovered, thanks to [http://www.news4neighbors.net/article.pl?sid=05/07/30/1541232&mode=nested&tid=1 a News4Neighbors article], the explanation:

The only modification needed to make it work properly is setting the countrycode properly. /etc/modprobe.d/madwifi contains the line: options ath_pci countrycode=840 for this purpose.

I think that smells suspiciously like a smoking gun. --RussellSenior

The whole network is bridged, and in the 10.11.104.0/22 network.

Access points

Location	Part of roof	Hardware	Interface/IP address	Int/Channel	Antenna
NAYA	SW corner	Metrix	br0(eth0,ath0,ath1)/10.11.104.2	ath0/165/AP	17dBi to Commons
				ath1/11	9dbi 120deg pointing S
	NW corner	Metrix	br0(eth0,ath0,ath1)/10.11.104.3	ath0/165/AP (off)	17dBi to Ed's
				ath1/1	9dbi 120deg pointing NW
	SE corner	Cisco	BVI1(`Dot11Radio0`,`FastEth0`)/10.11.104.4	`Dot11Radio0`/11	9dbi 120deg pointing E
Commons	SE corner	Metrix	br0(eth0,ath0,ath1)/10.11.104.5	ath0/165/client	8dBi 802.11a omni
				ath1/11	??dBi omni
		Cisco	BVI1(`Dot11Radio0`,`FastEth0`)/10.11.104.6	`Dot11Radio0`/1	9dbi 120deg pointing SE
Cecily's	Chimney	Metrix	br0(eth0,ath0,ath1)/10.11.104.?	ath0/165/client	17dBi to Commons
				ath1/??	??dBi omni
Ed's	Chimney	Metrix	br0(eth0,ath0,ath1)/10.11.104.7	ath0/165/client	17 dBi backfire
				ath1/??	??dBi omni

As of Oct 21, 2005, Cecily's metrix is disfunctional (needs a swapout) and needs to have its ath0 antenna replaced with a 17dBi 11a backfire. Ed's is mounted on the chimney, but is currently non-operational. Will also turn Commons ath0 into master, and NAYA into client. NAYA SW is currently not visible from Commons mast due to vegetation, may want to use NAYA NW for 11a backhaul and eliminate SW 11a, perhaps even replacing the metrix there with a single-radio device. --RussellSenior

MAC addresses

metrix-naya-sw	Interface	MAC
10.11.104.2	ath0	`00:02:6F:21:EC:AA`
	ath1	`00:02:6F:21:EC:A5`
	eth0(br0)	`00:00:24:C3:A9:C0`
metrix-naya-se	Interface	MAC
10.11.104.3	ath0	`00:02:6F:21:EC:A8`
	ath1	`00:02:6F:21:EC:A6`
	eth0(br0)	`00:00:24:C3:A9:B4`
metrix-commons	Interface	MAC
10.11.104.5	ath0	`00:02:6F:21:EC:A9`
	ath1	`00:02:6F:21:E9:49`
	eth0(br0)	`00:00:24:C3:A9:A0`
metrix-west	Interface	MAC
10.11.104.8	ath0	`00:02:6F:21:EF:ED`
	ath1	`00:02:6F:21:EF:F2`
	eth0(br0)	`00:00:24:C3:E4:30`
metrix-ed	Interface	MAC
10.11.104.9	ath0	`00:02:6F:21::`
	ath1	`00:02:6F:21::`
	eth0(br0)	`00:00:24:C3::`

We need to complete this table next time we are in the field. IP addresses for metrix-west and metrix-ed were taken from buick:/etc/hosts. --RussellSenior

10.11.104.3 should be renamed from metrix-naya-se, because it moved (currently in the nw corner).

Firmware Image

The image for the Metrix boxen is at http://cornerstone.personaltelco.net/~brj/metrix-missnet.img It is setup with all 3 interfaces bridged, and br0 set to 10.11.104.5/22.

To flash:

Setup a sarge installer pxeboot environment.
- Instructions at http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s06.html.en
- The pxelinux included with debian tries to use both the VGA emulation and the serial console. This causes problems. Use pxelinux.0 from http://centerclick.org/net4801/pxelinux/ instead.
- Use the serial console pxeboot config.
- Change all the 9600 to 19200 in the config.
- You probably want to add DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text to the boot options of the kernel you'll use. Use expert26.
Netboot the metrix into the installer
- Attach a serial terminal.
- 19200 baud, 1 bit parity, no flow control
- Press ctrl+p at the prompt to get to the BIOS
- boot f0
- Use expert26. You don't need any extra options.
Go through the installer up through step 9 (Download installer components). This is where device drivers are loaded.
After the drivers are loaded, go to a shell.
wget -O - http://somewhere/foo/metrix-missnet.img | dd of=/dev/discs/disc0/disc bs=1M (don't get it straight from cornerstone, copy it to your machine first)
Reboot

Note: as of 2005-10-11 this process isn't working for me. The Metrix stalls during the PXELINUX stuff. I think it's probably just an issue with my setup but I've got it working fine using the documentation from Metrix. (- KeeganQuinn)

The way the Metrix website says to do it is actually better. When I was working on the metrixes, though, that documentation didn't exist, to my memory. The debian netboot was simply the easiest way I could find to get a shell netbooted. (- BenjaminJencks)

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