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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Nat Meysenburg wrote on 1/26/2015 9:59
AM:<br>
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cite="mid:87r3uhpm79.fsf@pigtown.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me"
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<pre wrap="">
Hi John,
Perhaps someone has a better offhand suggestion than I do, since I don't
have one. I think it is possible that you have uncovered a bug in our
implementation.
To that end, I'm going to step through your email inline below, and try
to make sure I understand everything you're doing, so that we can
attempt to replicate and test this issue.
john coleman <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jcolema1@wisc.edu"><jcolema1@wisc.edu></a> writes:
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">We have a small mesh of 3 PicoStation M2 HP units. It has been running
for about 9 months.
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">
What version of Commotion are you using?</pre>
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<span id="commotion-release">recently upgraded to Grumpy Cat 1.1 . I
don't know for sure if the problem was happening before the
upgrade, but I did not notice it previously. <br>
I could go back to a previous version but if I recall that
requires a factory install and other monkeying around that I would
just as soon avoid.<br>
</span>
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cite="mid:87r3uhpm79.fsf@pigtown.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me"
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<pre wrap="">
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">All 3 nodes provide gateways to the internet.
Occasionally a node will lose connection to the internet and will
register as "Providing Gateway No" in the Basic Status screen.
However in the Advanced Status screen it still shows "IPv4 WAN Status"
as connected.
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">
What is the nature of losing an internet connection here? Does that mean
the uplink get unplugged, or that there is something else happening to
the connection that makes it otherwise unavailable? Just making sure we
model this the right way.</pre>
</blockquote>
I unplug the router from the cable modem<br>
or I unplug the Picostation from the router. Both actions cause the
problem.<br>
The wiring is Picostation -> router -> cable modem<br>
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<pre wrap="">
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">In addition, even though the node is meshed with the other nodes and
one can see and log on to those nodes through the OLSR screen, the
node can no longer connect a user to the internet. Possibly because it
thinks it is still connected to the WAN and tries routing to the
internet through that non-existent WAN connection rather than routing
though the other mesh nodes.
The problem is resolved if I reboot the node. The node configuration
interface then shows that the node is no longer a gateway and the
Advanced Status screen shows "IPv4 WAN Status" as NOT connected.
Connection to the internet then properly goes through one of the other
meshed nodes.
Similar behavior happens when a node that was not connected to the WAN
is reconnected to the WAN. i.e. it does not realize it is connected
until I reboot the node.
Is there a reason the WAN status is not updated promptly? Is there a
setting that can cause the WAN status to be updated promptly?
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">
Hrm. Actually as I write this, I'm starting to develop the bones of a
theory of what's happening. Hopefully some other devs can help put meat
on them.
The WAN interface on single ethernet port nodes (like the Picos), is
configured to accept DHCP leases on boot. If it does not get a DHCP
lease, it is configured to then start handing out DHCP leases over that
interface.
What I think might be going on is that the node is getting caught
thinking it is a gateway, and never dynamically switching back. Given
the default configuration and reboot should always work, but I
understand that may be less than ideal; particularly if you are looking
to grow the mesh network.</pre>
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Rebooting is not a viable option because we set up the mesh to
increase reliability when one WAN link goes down (as they sometimes
do). The rerouting needs to be automatic in order to provide this
increased reliability.<br>
<br>
I agree with your theory but the curious thing is that the node
seems to partially know it is no longer a gateway: It says
"Providing Gateway No" in the Basic Status screen yet still the
Advanced Status screen still shows "IPv4 WAN Status" as connected.<br>
<br>
Alternatively, could this be a DNS problem? Doesn't seem likely
give the behavior noted in my previous sentence, but that was the
only other thing I could come up with.<br>
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<pre wrap="">
Thanks for getting in touch!
~~Nat
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