I am involved in trying to get a bunch of guys across our county to setup our own little local mesh. I have a few guys tinkering with it, I have a few nodes up and I have gotten other people to setup nodes at their home. I have a lot of retired guys who aren't real computer savvy but they try!

One of the things I am trying real hard to do is make it easier on these guys who are NOT computer experts to enjoy this stuff... One of the things that seemed handy, EASY and pretty universal was HamChat. We have plans for much more, but this is a simple browser based chat these guys can figure out and use rather easily.

I have looked around, searched and read but don't see any cut and dried tutorials or documents on the web so far. It isn't a well kept secret is it? I see people talking about it, but no links to online documentation that I can read. And I went and looked on the router to see the packages it could install and I couldn't even find HamChat in the list – so I am lost...

Any links would be appreciated!!!

Not to mention – I don't know much about what I am doing in the Linux environment.

On another note – I finally got in a few WRTG54GS's so I can try tunneling between some nodes that are just a little too far out and with hills in between us, so we can link some of our mesh nodes together. If you have any experience or words of wisdom for a Linux neophyte like me I would appreciate those comments as well! I get lost quick... :)

If you want to see my little mesh out here near Chappell Hill and all the things we hung off of it, click this - http://n5mbm.endoftheinternet.org:8080/cgi-bin/status

I just need a little help figuring out how to install and deploy Hamchat and tunneling – the rest will come with time.

Bill – N5MBM

http://www.n5mbm.net

http://n5mbm.endoftheinternet.org:8080/cgi-bin/status

We've implemented vtun since it is light, simple, and firewall friendly.

the best way to allow PC/phones to the mesh is to add a wifi access point that has it's WAN port connected to the LAN of the mesh.

I use an old Linksys WRT54G with DD-WRT to get WPA2 encryption/security from my pc/phone to the mesh.

To K5DLQ -

In reference to tunneling...

Take a peek at http://n5mbm.endoftheinternet.org:8080/cgi-bin/mesh

Forgive my confusion here - but I have a node called N5MBM-10-ServerDMZ that sits between the mesh and my local 192. network and is the internet gateway.  Do I need to upgrade THAT one to 3.0.1 and use the tunneling off of that router or do I need to add another Linksys router to be the tunnel router?

The pile of linksys routers is getting sort of tall in the server room!  LOL

I am hesitant to ask because of all the config I had to do for all those resources hanging off of it and it isn't capable of taking 3.0.1 - which means I have to swap out routers with one that will!  And I have 6 of them now sitting here.  But damn...  Is there a way to backup the config so I don't have to go through and retype all that stuff again?  LOL  :)

Bill - N5MBM

If you are talking about changes made in the /cgi-bin/ports page (ie. services, dhcp, and port fwd)....

I think you are using OSX, so it's trivial.
You can:

scp root@YOURNODENAME:/etc/config.mesh/_setup.services.dmz ~
scp root@YOURNODENAME:/etc/config.mesh/_setup.ports.dmz ~
scp root@YOURNODENAME:/etc/config.mesh/_setup.dhcp.dmz ~

UPGRADE THE NODE
Do the initial node setup (ie. Assign the SSID and password)
Reboot

then, SCP them from your local machine back to the node
Then, go to /cgi-bin/admin and hit the SAVE button.

that should be a rudimentary BACKUP/RESTORE of the ports page stuff

Bingo... That is exactly what I am doing right now. Still, if I want to update other nodes on our net, having everything safely cached on the server will be nice.  Thanks

also, regarding the tunneling...

You should be able to upgrade your N5MBM-10-ServerDMZ (is it a "MESH" type node or "NAT" type?)  Hopefully MESH...  ;-)

Backup the files as previously mentioned via scp...

upgrade it to 3.0.1

It is recommended that you disable the Internet Gateway function (the node itself will always have internet if you plug a cat5 from your local lan into the WAN port of the node.)

restore the files you backed up (via scp), save

install the tunnel add-on and reboot

get the info from the server that you want to connect to (ie.  network number, password, dns name)

configure your tunnel client with that info.

done.  (watch your Mesh status page grow!)

Darryl

N5MBM-10-ServerDMZ is not a WRT54GS it is a GL. Thank God for ePray! A few clicks of "Buy it NOW!" and some GS v2's show up on my doorstep 5 days later...

Now I have six NOCALL routers ready to go. I am going to be handing them off to folks across the county. And see how this tunneling stuff works!

I am excited, but am sort of lost - but I will get it, eventually!

Bill - N5MBM

Uhhh... whats SCP? 

As I sit on windoze 7 box scratchin' my head... LOL

Bill - N5MBM

sorry. 

scp is a command/protocol used for transferring files.

on linux and OSX, it is built in.

On Windows, look for WinSCP.

Although, you should be careful.  Research how to use SCP/WinSCP before attempting.

D.

re: 3.0.1...

Ah.  the WRT54GL can take 3.0.1.  You just can't load the tunnel add-on to it.

(sorry, I'm having too many QSO's at once.  I think my brain is not cross-band capable.  ;-)

Bill:

If you wish to automate the scp file transfers (like in a batch file or shell script) you will run into a problem entering the password, which must be done interactively. There are two solutions:

#1, learn how to use expect which will script the login process for you.

or

#2, upload your ssh key to the node and then configure your ssH_config file for the destination, port (2222) and user name (root)

I realize this post is quite cryptic. I'd be glad to post more complete instructions for either option if there is interest.

OK...  I finally figured out some of this tunneling install...

I needed putty...  I didn't know I needed putty.  I haven't used putty in YEARS!  LOL

Got putty installed and connected to the 192. address of the "router in the middle" in SSH mode with a port of 2222.  It took me a while to figure out how since there weren't very clear instructions as to what to use to ssh into it nor what port...

Username root

password (what I set it to)

And finally had a prompt I could actually type all this stuff into for the server scripts!  It looks like it all installed correctly...  I think...

The ServerDMZ router got swapped out for one that could use the VPN tunneling named N5MBM-3-Bridge.  I manually entered all those port forwarding entries and the advertised services very carefully.  Now only one out of 8 works...  So for some reason, 7 entries no longer function.  I can ping them.  I can see them on my 192. network.  But nothing on the mesh can get them to do anything...

I have the "router in the middle" (now N5MBM-3-Bridge) LAN port 1 plugged into the N5MBM-1-QTH mesh router and LAN port 4 plugged into the 192. network switch.  The Mesh Gateway is unchecked. LAN mode is NAT. Address is 192.168.1.2 WAN is disabled.  I can't seem to use the WAN port or it gets all confused...  I have to use LAN NAT mode to get all my local 192. servers and resources on the mesh.

The N5MBM-1-QTH mesh router is setup as the Mesh Gateway, WAN set to static 192.168.1.117 Internet gateway 192.168.1.1.  WAN port is connected to the 192. network switch.  LAN mode is 13 host direct.  This is where everything comes together between my farm mesh and the 192. house LAN and the internet.

I have tried different configurations and this works - most of the time.  But it has an annoying habit of losing its mind and I am guessing it is router loops.  The DNS on my network goes haywire and so does the DHCP sometimes.  Sometimes it takes a while for it to settle down and behave after rebooting one or two routers.  And I have a lot of routers scattered around the farm!  Different buildings, different cameras, etc.

But now that I have the server side setup - I am going to sit on my hands until I can get ahold of the other guys router across the county from me and slap the client side on it...  Patience is sometimes not my strong suit!

Tonight I get to bang my head into the keyboard and figure out why all those advertised services can't be gotten to that were there on the mesh a few hours ago working just fine with 3.0.0 on the other router...

Bill - N5MBM

Still trying to figure out how to add or where to find HamChat...

Try this Bill:

Link to Hamchat zipfile

It's a little bit of manual work.  It's not mine but I could make an .ipk file for it and that would negate all the file/directory creation.

Have phun!

Thanks to some help from Richard WB6TAE, I got HamChat working! 

http://n5mbm.net:8084/cgi-bin/hamchat

I have the tunneling setup and I will be installing the "other router" at W5TZ's place tomorrow hopefully - I have my fingers crossed everything works like it should!

Bill - N5MBM

I have a modified version of hamchat I sent to Bill. The major changes were to insert a message each time someone joins the chat, and a timestamp on each message. I also fixed a bug in the HTML page declaration and adjusted the styles a bit to make better use of the page space.

I can share the revised source or the diffs if there is interest.

It works!  It works!!  It works!!!

With the help of K5DLQ I got the tunneling to work!

But in order to do it, I had to add another router onto the stack in the shack.  We set it up as JUST the tunneling node with no other duties.  And N5MBM-3-TUNSERVER was born. see for yourself at http://www.n5mbm.net:8085

The node is setup as a 5 node host with DHCP enabled and a static address on the 192. home network on the WAN interface with that interface plugged into the main home internet router.  In this config, tunneling works.

We originally tried it on my N5MBM-3-Bridge node but since it was setup as NAT to allow all my 192. network devices the chance at being advertised services.  It didn't want to tunnel anywhere.  And it is evident that being setup as NAT the tunneling just didn't want to work.

Now I am going to add ANOTHER router onto the heap (N5MBM-3-TUNCLIENT) so I can run the client software to enable me to be more flexible about people connecting to me and vice-versa.  One for Tunnel Client.  One for Tunnel server.  One as a NAT bridge to advertise my local network services and one as my internet gateway.

So that makes 4 linksys routers, stacked on top of each other, just to interface with the internet, my home servers, my local network and the mesh.  Kind of clumsy, perhaps a little "kludgey" but it works!

Many thanks for all the help getting it up and running.  The first time I saw my status page proliferated with Waco nodes, I became ecstatic!

Bill - n5mbm

www.n5mbm.net

The main issue standing in the way of tunneling out of my bridge router - the WAN port cannot be disabled...  Food for thought!  :)  The tunnel router needs to talk to the internet through the WAN port, not a LAN port!

Bill - N5MBM