[Commotion-discuss] Commotion meshing between DR1(Red Hook) and PR2, web speed vs. ping speed

Dan Staples danstaples at opentechinstitute.org
Mon Jul 29 16:09:12 UTC 2013


On Mon 29 Jul 2013 12:08:08 PM EDT, Preston Rhea wrote:
> So I can do this with the sysupgrade image and all should be fine?
>
> On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 12:05 PM, Dan Staples
> <danstaples at opentechinstitute.org> wrote:
>> On Mon 29 Jul 2013 11:12:12 AM EDT, Preston Rhea wrote:
>>> @Dan I checked the ETX while associated with the gateway node, but not
>>> the community center node - I (wrongly) assumed it would be about the
>>> same as before.
>>>
>>> @Ben I used speedtest.net, will try others next time.
>>>
>>> I have a follow-up to this:
>>>
>>> Lacking the admin password to the community center node
>>> (MtPCWN_Paloma), I SSHed in and used the command line to upload the
>>> sysupgrade DR1 Red Hook image to its /tmp directory and updated it
>>> that way. When the node came back online, it had clearly updated the
>>> software. Also:
>>>
>>> - It brought up the open RHIWiFi AP, as the Red Hook image tells it
>>> to, but I could never associate with this with either my laptop or my
>>> phone even though I was clearly within range,
>>> - It deleted the MtPCWN_Paloma open AP, but kept the
>>> MtPCWN_Paloma_secure AP online (also couldn't associate with this),
>>> - It brought back up the commotionwireless.net mesh BSSID, but even
>>> though I didn't go through Quickstart and the Red Hook image doesn't
>>> encrypt this, it wasn't associated with the gateway node and I
>>> couldn't get out to the Internet. I tested that by plugging in via
>>> Ethernet.
>>>
>>> Now I have the admin password and I plan to go back this evening to
>>> try and finish this. Do you think the problem with not being able to
>>> associate with the AP has to do with upgrading from a late version of
>>> PR2 via the sysupgrade image? Should I flash the factory image, and is
>>> there a way to do this without having to use TFTP mode (that would be
>>> really difficult in this case)?
>>>
>>> Thanks for the help,
>>>
>>> Preston
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 11:59 AM, Ben West <ben at gowasabi.net> wrote:
>>>> How do you test web speed?
>>>>
>>>> Do you use a 3rd-party service like speedtest.net?  If so, you may need to
>>>> first check that your ISP's connection to speedtest.net itself isn't having
>>>> speed issues.
>>>>
>>>> Likewise, you can try multiple 3rd-party speedtest sites, e.g.
>>>> http://speakeasy.net/speedtest
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Preston Rhea
>>>> <prestonrhea at opentechinstitute.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Yesterday evening I updated the software on a node in Mount Pleasant
>>>>> to DR1 (specifically the Red Hook build), the first update past PR3 in
>>>>> Mount Pleasant.
>>>>>
>>>>> The node I updated is a gateway node (connected to a Sprint Clearwire
>>>>> modem), and it meshes with a node on a community center down the
>>>>> street which runs PR2 (!)
>>>>>
>>>>> After updating everything, I checked some speeds. The web speed test
>>>>> connected to the gateway node only gave about 1.3 Mbps down, but it
>>>>> functioned fine. I then SSHed in to the gateway node and ran a ping
>>>>> test from it - average of 116 ms to ping out to 8.8.8.8.
>>>>>
>>>>> From there I SSH'ed through the mesh to the node on top of the
>>>>> community center and pinged 8.8.8.8 from it. It got an average of
>>>>> about 135 ms out. The average ETX between the two was 1.3.
>>>>>
>>>>> But when we went down to the community center and associated with its
>>>>> node, the splash page took forever to resolve. After clicking through
>>>>> it, no web page would finish resolving. I could ping out to 8.8.8.8
>>>>> from my laptop while associated, but it varied wildly between 1 s and
>>>>> 90 ms.
>>>>>
>>>>> My thought is that it is just old buggy software that needs to be
>>>>> updated - I just wanted to share in case folks thought there might be
>>>>> something else going on.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Preston Rhea
>>>>> Field Analyst, Open Technology Institute
>>>>> New America Foundation
>>>>> +1-202-570-9770
>>>>> Twitter: @prestonrhea
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Commotion-discuss mailing list
>>>>> Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Ben West
>>>> http://gowasabi.net
>>>> ben at gowasabi.net
>>>> 314-246-9434
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Commotion-discuss mailing list
>>>> Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Since it kept  the old AP SSID, it sounds like when you upgraded, you
>> did the equivalent of checking the "Save settings" checkbox when
>> upgrading via the web interface (I haven't flashed via command-line, so
>> I'm not sure how that works). In other words, it didn't overwrite the
>> settings when you upgraded it, which needs to happen. I can almost
>> guarantee that's why you can't associate with the AP, as something
>> similar has happened to me before. I would recommend next time to
>> upgrade it via the web interface, and make sure the "Save settings" box
>> is unchecked.
>>
>> Let us know how things go!
>>
>> --
>> Dan Staples
>>
>> Open Technology Institute
>> https://commotionwireless.net
>> OpenPGP key: http://disman.tl/pgp.asc
>> Fingerprint: 2480 095D 4B16 436F 35AB 7305 F670 74ED BD86 43A9
>
>
>

Yup, there is no functional difference between sysupgrade and factory 
images.

--
Dan Staples

Open Technology Institute
https://commotionwireless.net
OpenPGP key: http://disman.tl/pgp.asc
Fingerprint: 2480 095D 4B16 436F 35AB 7305 F670 74ED BD86 43A9


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