Some thoughts and observations on the Open-Mesh wireless routers:
General Info about the units:
Pilot Hardware Purchased:
2 Open-Mesh Pro's ($49), 1 standard (aka lowest cost - $29) .
Pros:
- Cost obviously.
- Open Source nature of firmware (http://www.open-mesh.org/).
- Support for 3rd party hardware from Ubiquity and others.
- Good accessories such as higher gain antennas, indoor and outdoor enclosures, PoE injectors ($5!), etc.
interesting support for Captive Portals, redirects on access, Private and Public SSIDs, RADIUS support, bandwidth limiting (up and down) on the Public network, ACL's, public network status page, etc. See my previous post on the DashBoard configuration screenshots.
Cons:
- Can't do VLANing out of the box with these - all traffic from Private or Public flow trhough the same subnet (unless you do something like MAC filtering at your switch, but nothing built in)
- Seemed to get a little warm.
- Changes to configuration resets the AP. Connectivity is lost until the updates propagate throught the AP's which would be expected. The more hops from the wired connection the longer it takes, seems to be about 10 - 15 mins a hop. Recently however, Open-Mesh released a new update, and they set the "Disable Automatic Update" option in everyone's dashboard. so that administrators could plan for the outage that occurs. When I turned off that option, the update was pushed to the first AP in just a couple of minutes.
Thoughts on Best Practices:
- Note that the standard and the pro use two different A/C adapters - Std = 5v/2a, Pro = 12v/1a, so don't plan on compatibility for the wall warts.
- Before you build out the network, connect each node directly to the internet connection individually with the others shut off to allow it to flash the new firmware.This is for safety (so you don't pull the plug on it accidentally while it might be flashing - requiring a manual re-flash) and for time savings while testing, setup, etc. The same holds true any time you are adding a new node to your mesh - plug it in and connect it to the internet somewhere where it can't see the mesh, let it get the latest firmware, then add it to your mesh.
- Use inSSIDer (free), Ekahau HeatMapper (free) or Wi-Spy ($99-$199) to verify your coverage
Other Notes:
- Several members of the Church IT Roundtable group are using them in production. Tweet to the #citrt hastag or com to the #citrt IRC channel on freenode if you want to talk about them.
- See my other post on the DashBoard Configuration and options
- I'll write my findings as I go into production with them.
- There is a nice Google Maps mash up showing the status of your mesh an key data such as users, throughput, data sent, AP's with issues, etc. See my previous post for a screen shot.
- Open Mesh will email daily notices (or hourly if you like) on the status of your mesh. Here is a sample:
"The following nodes are down at Tenth Presbyterian Church:
Delancey 3rd fl . Last Check-in: 10 Hours, 4 Minutes.
Reception Hall . Last Check-in: 9 Hours, 34 Minutes.
Delancey 1st fl. Last Check-in: 9 Hours, 38 Minutes.
This is an automated once-per-day message. Please don't reply to this address.
You may view your network status at http://www.open-mesh.com/overview.php?id="
Testing the Open-Mesh wireless mesh routers
Testing Config:
Set them up in a Pro-Std-Pro linear mesh. Tested with the standard attenna that is included with the unit, higher gain and directional antenna are available.
Signal strength:
Set up in my house, typical construction, brick front. I did some ad-hoc range testing. Seemed comparable to most consumer level APs, and actually performed better than my FiOS ActionTek router (I put a Pro AP directly on top of the ActionTek). I was Able to listem to Pandora and do other streaming though My entire yardm, and was able to remain connected across street, approximately 100 feet away.
Speed Tests:
I will publish my findings on speed testing shortly.
Nice article. Curious to know if your using the public / private configuration. Have you tried to verify the traffic is segregated - one network can not see the other. Are you using this for your Church internal users or public access or both?
Curious how the devices are wired together. Sound like your pluging them together on the same wired subnet. Or are the ones that are not 'master' simply operating as a WiFi repeater without being wired into the same wired subnet?
We are only using for semi - public access (not totally open, just for events, conferences, etc.) Traffic however is segregated in the limited testing I have done. Others in the CITRT are using them for both Private and Public. The best option for info there is to tweet questions to the #CITRT hashtag.
As for how they are wired, it is flexible, you can have either approach.