[Commotion-discuss] Trying to build a mesh in Italy: first questions

[Mario Giammarco]

Thanks for reply! I reply inline too.

2015-05-13 17:01 GMT+02:00 Andy Gunn <andygunn at opentechinstitute.org>:

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> Hi Mario - I have a few thoughts below, in-line with your questions.
>
> On 05/12/2015 11:13 AM, Mario Giammarco wrote:
> > Hello, just a quick introduction: I am trying to use mesh
> > technologies to win digital divide in Italy. I am planning a "self
> > sutstaining" network where people and enterprise will buy mesh
> > nodes to receive several services and so they will indirectly make
> > the mesh bigger. Eventually I will describe the "marketing"
> > strategies I am choosing. I have first two technical questions:
> >
> > 1) How can I monitor nodes from outside the mesh? Can I also change
> > all node parameters (e.g. modifying wpa password to all nodes) with
> > a centralized management tool?
>
> A few things on this. Right now, it isn't possible to change a setting
> across the entire network at once - such as changing the WPA password
> on all the Access Points. This was the trade off of making Commotion
> nodes more autonomous - people can set up their nodes and connect to a
> mesh and only share what they want, etc.
>

Nice, but I need to also support non technical people who want a node that
"just works", so I am interested to know if commotion is interested to
build a centralized tool.

>
> For monitoring, there isn't anything built-in to Commotion right now.
> You can install collectd or snmpd packages on the nodes using the
> normal software package installation pages (Advanced -> System ->
> Software, then update the package list and search for the monitoring
> packages you want to install). You will need to run a monitoring
> server such as Zabbix, Cacti, Nagios, or others. The setup for these
> servers is complicated, and a bit beyond the scope of our
> documentation currently (though I hope to have something more someday).
>
>
Thanks if snmp is supported I can use OpenNMS server that is probably
easier to setup than others solutions.


> We have a basic Zabbix setup guide here:
> https://wiki.commotionwireless.net/doku.php/general_resources/documentat
> ion/monitoring/zabbix
> But some parts of it may be out of date. I'm not an expert on the
> setup, unfortunately.
>
> Commotion is currently working with wlan-Slovenija to integrate with
> their dashboard and map:
> https://wlan-si.net/en/map/
> It will be possible to set up your own local or hosted dashboard
> server using this system - but I will let other folks talk about that
> platform, and when it will be available for use with Commotion.
>
> Good to know. Infact probably I expressed myself wrong, for "monitor
nodes" I meant also "access their web interface from outside the mesh".
If I need to quick change something o a node and I am not in the mesh it is
a problem.


> Other folks on the list may have other thoughts on monitoring solutions!
>
> > 2) In some use cases I need a level 2 mesh so I can pass dhcp to a
> > subset of nodes. Is there a pratical way to do this with commotion
> > wireless? I am thinking to put an "ether over ip" vpn on each node
> > that communicates with a (mikrotik) gateway that is also dhcp
> > server
>
> Commotion uses OLSR for creating a level 3 network layer mesh - but
> you can also mesh over Ethernet (or a point-to-point wireless bridge,
> or whatever) between nodes, as shown here:
> https://commotionwireless.net/docs/cck/installing-configuring/advanced-h
> ardware-setups/
>
> It should be possible to just pass DHCP to a subset of nodes through a
> standard point-to-multipoint network, if that would work...
>
> Each Commotion node assigns IP addresses to the attached clients
> (whether on the Access Point or LAN) via DHCP. If you want to allocate
> IPs to segments of the mesh clients from a central DHCP server, I'm
> not sure how (or if) that can be set up with Commotion...
>
> > Can you give me some suggestions?
>

If you look at cloudtrax routers they have two SSID, one for a level3 mesh
and one for a level2 mesh.
The level2 mesh is like a local network so if there is attached one router
that provides dhcp each node connected to that ssid will get dhcp.
With only a level3 mesh there is an alternative: you can use a vpn to
simulate a level2 network over level3 mesh.

So I can have:

PC1->VPNclient->commotion-router->....commotion-router->modem->internet->VPN-server->PC2

Assuming that VPNClient (and VPNServer) is some hardware router with vpn
support here we can see that PC1 can get a dhcp from PC2 because it does
not see the mesh at all.
But I would like to avoid to install VPNclient and I hope I can install
some package to commotion router to make it also work as a vpn-client. So
e.g. if I connect PC1 to ethernet1 of commotion router I go into vpn, if I
connect PC1 to ethernet port 2 I go in to commotion mesh.



> >
> > Thank you very much in advance, Mario
>
> Hopefully this gets things started, thanks Mario.
> - -Andy
>
>
Thanks again!

>
> - --
> Andy Gunn, Field Engineer
> Open Technology Institute, New America
> andygunn at opentechinstitute.org | 202-596-3484
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