WorldSpot.net forum
English forums => Howtos => Topic started by: WorldSpot on May 07, 2007, 04:26:37 pm
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Worldspot is compatible with a lot of hardware and software because of its generic compatibility with chillispot.
This is why WorldSpot can manage all hotspot sizes from a single wifi router to a metro scale wifi coverage.
There are lots of techniques that you can combine to extend the range of your hotspot.
For example, one WorldSpot client has setup a metro scale experiment that reached more than 150 simultaneous users.
This sub-forum is a dedicated place to talk about all these techniques. Users are free to propose new howtos. Please try to maintain the first post of each topic updated. Also please don't create new topics to ask for help. Please go in the "Help" forum or reply to existing howtos.
I will first make an introduction about how chillispot works, about ethernet, wifi and IP routing.
Chillispot needs 2 separate interfaces to work: The internet (WAN) side and an ethernet network where it will manage the captive portal.
Ethernet
Ethernet is a local area network protocol which can transport IP packets. This protocol is widely used on many different transport mediums:
- wire: standard ethernet cables and switches. Ethernet plug is RJ45, which you can find on all network devices.
- wireless: WIFI is an ethernet network. A WIFI Access point extends an ethernet network into the air. Wimax also...
- powerline: You can use existing powerline network to transport ethernet frames. A cost effective solution to go through multiple floors of a building.
- Ethernet is fully plug and play.
If you have one ethernet switch on one place, and you want to connect a second switch, simply connect them together (today all switches are automatic).
If you want to extend the range with a powerline device, simply connect your powerline device to your switch, and all your powerline devices will be connected to your local area network.
If you connect a wifi access point to your switch, your wifi clients will be connected to your local area network.
You can combine all these mediums to extend the range of your hotspot. The most common way to extend your wifi range through walls or floors is to combine the powerline and wifi access points. There event exist wifi access points that integrate with a powerline access, so you just have to plug one or more of them at each floor of your building.
All you users can then move between all the access points transparently (this is called roaming)
There are also methods to extend the range of your wifi network without any wires like WDS, which allows you to setup WDS repeaters
You just have to connect your hotspot router to this extended local area network through an ethernet cable. Then configure your hotspot to handle both WIFI and LAN ports.
WAN side, or internet backbone
Chillispot needs to connect to the internet to serve the hotspot users and to connect to WorldSpot web and radius service. Any internet connection should work: DSL, cable, T1, phone modem, satellite, GPRS, WIFI, WIMAX, OLSR mesh network, etc...
Mesh wifi network
Worldspot is compatible with openmesh.com routers. These router have a plug and play firmware that handle a mesh network automatically. You can extend your wifi range easily and cover a large surface. Simply buy routers, create and configure a mesh on the dashboard, plug them, and that's all. Open-mesh setup is in the english documentation.
http://wirds.net has a nice howto about using the OLSR routing protocol with worldspot. OLSR is a little like WDS but is more flexible, and more scalable. However, it does not work at the ethernet level, but ip level. So I can't be used as a chillispot frontend but is a good solution for a backend. As there are multiple chillispot instances, you will have to login again everytime you move to another node.
To be continued
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Hi,
I have been using worldspot for several months now, i really like it
i have 3 wrt54gl with covaa 6, as access points.
i want to extend my range, my question is..
WDS?
more access points?
can i add more repetears to just one access point?
i want to add 3 repetears
but where is the option in covaa?
thank you very much
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It is possible to combine all the methods.
Yes you can add WDS repeater on just one of your access point (if it supports WDS).
You might look in Coova website to get some support. I know this is possible as people complained there was a bug in beta.5 which should have been corrected in beta.6
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HI,
I'm running two networks with 2 wrt54gl and 7 aps and by experience, I really don't recommend wds. I used to link devices by wds, it works, but you lose speed dramatically at the end of the chain if someone nearer the router is downloading...
A lan cable might seem old-fashioned but it really worth it. If your place is equipped with 4 pairs phone line cable, you still have the option to use the existing phone lines to extend your network. I've done it in my apartment block, (100 rooms, and it works!)
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I am trying to extend my wifi range for my hotspot and I am planning to install 2 to 3 Ubiquiti Unifi AP with a network cable to cover my 3 floors . I am not sure how to accomplish that , so far I have a router (Netgear WNDR3700v2) flashed with DD-WRT , I setup Chiilispot and it's working well on my Lan and Wifi. so far my clients will only connect thru wifi but I still setup the LAN as well since my Lan was not getting an IP address from the router anyway.
what I am trying to understand is how will I accomplish that ? if I plug my new APs to the LAN , then what is the next step to tell Chilispot or WorldSpot that this is an AP and not a user?
Thanks in advance.
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A wifi access point should be "transparent" to the network, as would be an ethernet switch.
So there should be nothing to configure, except the SSID.
It should work as is.
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I have a Linksys wrt-610n.
I use worldspot 2 years.
Now I want to extend wifi area.
May I connect, wired, a linksys wrt-350nv2 in a LAN port to extend mi wifi coverage?
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Yes you can if you don't separate wifi from lan in your hotspot, and select the lan bridge in the chillispot interface.
The routers must be connected lan to lan.
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Yes you can if you don't separate wifi from lan in your hotspot, and select the lan bridge in the chillispot interface.
this features is on my wrt-610n dd-wrt?
if I do this, the users have to SSID name to connect? (Hotspot1, Hotspot2?)
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I haven't used dd-wrt for a while, but yes it should be in dd-wrt.
You can set the same ssid so users won't have to choose.
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Hi,
I have my hotspot installed in a Picostation named pico_1. All work fine.
Now I need to extend the range using a backbone connection feeding internet to a second picostation named Pico_2, where must set a backbone client. I know the way to do all because I set this kind of configuration for long time in my previous chillifire hotspots.
For to do above configurations must login the routers.
The problem now is how I can login my routers? . Both, when I try to connect the IP address of routers display the following message
/usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:220: No valid theme found
stack traceback:
[C]: in function 'assert'
/usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:220: in function 'dispatch'
/usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:139: in function </usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:138>
There is a way to login?
Regards
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There is no web interface on older firmware.
But there new firmware have it in the full variant.
you may try latest firmware here:
http://worldspot.net/wsbeta/barrier_breaker-r45841-3/
there are 2 variants:
full: include the luci web administration (requires 8mb flash)
mesh: preconfigures a mesh network.
The mesh is a big feature allowing you to add unwired nodes that repeat the signal.
All nodes must be on the same channel.
On repeater nodes, you need to disable chilli using the following commands:
echo DISABLE_CHILLI=yes > /etc/chilli/localConfig
/etc/init.d/chilli restart
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Hello,
many thanks for your very prompt reply!
I have 8 MB flash, then you suggest to install full variant? I suppose I will have more options in full variant?
Regards.
G. trapani
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You just have access to web interface, and openssl is installed.
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One more tip. If you want to connect another AP to your pico, as you have a single ethernet port, you can bridge br-lan to a vlan like eth0.4 (in worldspot firmware)
Then you can configure the other AP using existing ubiquiti firmware to bridge vlan4 (eth0.4) to the wifi.
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Hello,
If I run worldspot firmware on a Picostation M2 connected by cable to the main DSL router, can I extend the coverage using repeater mode function in the ubiquiti firmware of a second Picostation M2 ?
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Hello
It is probable that it won't work.
However, you can use new wifi mesh feature of worldspot firmware to create a repeater.
You must follow the instructions in the new worldspot firmware doc.
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Hello,
Thanks...
1. Which firmware do I use on the Pico M2's to attempt the mesh feature ?
(I see 8 folders in Index of /wsbeta/barrier_breaker-r45841-4/........)
Should I select from "Mesh", or "Full Mesh" folder ?
I'm assuming I use a "sysupgrade" .bin file, but which one, "openwrt-ar71xx-generic-ubnt-bullet-m-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin" 3,4 MB ?
Lastly, do I use the same firmware on the base/dsl Pico and on the repeaters ?
and.....Has this been tested ?
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full means that the openwrt web interface is included. It is optionnal.
You can use mesh or full-mesh as you want. As you might not need the web interface, use the mesh version.
sysupgrade files are for upgrading from openwrt or worldspot firmware.
factory files are for upgrading from stock firmware.
I know that mesh feature is in production in one campground site with about 6 nodes mesh network, no known problem.
Please report if it works for you.
This feature uses batman-adv mesh network which is a very powerful feature.
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Putting the Pico M2 into tftp mode took around 10 or 12 seconds.
The transfer was fast, it took 11 seconds.
I left the Pico connected for 10 minutes then connected it to the Internet.
I set up the node but it didn't check in.
I remembered something about Ubiquiti Mac addresses needing to be modified.
In Luci (I'd flashed the full version), under Network/Interfaces/WAN, I noticed that the 8th character of the Mac address had been incremented by 1, so instead of a 2 there was a 3.
This was the only difference from the Mac address of the "Unknown device" reported on the Node setup page.
So I edited the Node Mac address and it checked in within a few seconds.
I used the root password in the WS documentation/troubleshooting section to access Luci.
So far so good..........
Question: Does a repeater node need to be added to the dashboard ?
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Yes the displayed mac address is often wrong.
You should use the one given in unknown node.
Yes, you should setup the repeater the same way, then disable coova-chilli using the commands given in the instructions.
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1. The MAC given in "Unknown Node" didn't work until I incremented the 8th character from 2 to 3.
2. To add the repeater and configure it from the dashboard I will need to use more credits.
Are you willing to refund these, or offer them FOC ?
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1. This is really strange. Are you talking about the subscripbtion mac address or the worldspot node mac address?
2. No you won't need another subscription as you disable coova-chilli in the repeater nodes. There is only one hotspot instance and your users will be able to roam between your wifi nodes.
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1.
The mac printed on the device was x8:xx:xx:x2:xx:xx.
The device didn't check in.
The unknown device mac reported xA:xx:xx:x2:xx:xx, so I used the edit button to change the mac to this.
Still no check in.
In the GUI I saw that the WAN interface was reported as x8:xx:xx:x3:xx:xx, so again I used the edit button to change the mac to this.
The device checked in.
2. How can I add the repeater to the dashboard without using credits ?
Are you suggesting that I use putty to disable coova-chilli and not add the repeater node to the dashboard ?
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2. You should register the node as usual.
no need for putty, you should use the dashboard to disable coova-chilli
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The repeater mac (The one printed on the device) needed similar modification to enable check-in.
Once again I increased the 8th character by one (again a 2, to a 3).
Now I'll send the shell commands.....
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Both devices, one wired to dsl, and one repeater not connected to dsl, are now checking in correctly.
Thanks for your help.
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What is the shell command to disable the chilli controller for a mesh repeater please ?
It used to be on the instructions page but I can no longer find it......
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the commands are:
echo DISABLE_CHILLI=yes > /etc/chilli/localConfig
/etc/init.d/chilli restart
this has been removed from the focumentation because there is a new command for this in latest worldspot firmware.
Does your mesh network work OK? I have very few feedback...
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Thanks for the fast reply.
OK I understand now, and yes, the mesh is working very well indeed.
I'm just adding two more repeaters to help cover the site which has many mobilehomes, some of which are clad with aluminium.