expo/expoweb
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/ synced 2025-12-08 23:04:35 +00:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Update network handbook page

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
addledo
2025-07-06 20:24:16 +01:00
parent 369b47b756
commit bf84529af2
1 changed files with 6 additions and 24 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

30
handbook/computing/netconfig.html
View File

@@ -17,15 +17,16 @@
<p>The Wavlink antenna sits on the outside of the potato hut and picks up the Gasthof WiFi. This is wired via ethernet cable and PoE (Power over Ethernet adapter) to the Netgear router, which acts as a switch and wireless access point. DHCP is done by the antenna. The antenna should be wired to one of the black LAN ports on the router, not the yellow WAN port. The Wavlink antenna is set up in "Repeater" & "WISP" mode. This is the only device seen by the Gasthof WiFi as it performs NAT for devices connected to its network. A device must manually login to the Gasthof network every so often, which autheticates for all devices on our network. In the past there has been an automated login script, but this is currently broken.
<p>The ethernet cable to the outisde is run into the ceiling vent above the kitchen and then out of the wall vent above the sink outside the tatty hut. The antenna is mounted to a screw on the wall near there. In 2025 the download speed achieved from this setup was 50-60Mbps.
<h3>Running cables outside<h3>
<p>The ethernet cable to the outisde is run into the ceiling vent above the kitchen and then out of the wall vent above the sink outside the tatty hut. The antenna is mounted to a screw on the wall near there. In 2025 the download speed achieved from this setup was 50-60Mbps. The cable was crimped after running through in 2025, and may be more difficult to run with the connector head attached if it is removed in the future.
<h3>USB Hub</h3>
<p>In 2025, two USB hubs were found with mini-USB ports, but no mini-USB cables could be found. A new hub with an attached USB A cable was ordered in order to avoid this problem in the future.
<h3>The Gasthof Wifi</h3>
<p>The Gasthof WiFi - which you can use if you are close enough to the main building - is "StaudnGast" and has no WiFi password but there is a login webpage. It allocates IP addresses in the range <samp>192.168.2.x</samp> etc. The antenna is now on the first-floor balcony within sight of the tatty hut window. You can get the password from the Gasthof front desk, or during expo it is usally written on the whiteboard in the potato hut. In the scripts published in this handbook we use the word GASTSECRET instead of the real password.
<p>If you are not actively using the internet, the Gasthof system will close the connection after a few minutes and you will have to re-login again, typing the password into the login page.
<h3>The potato hut wifi</h3>
<p>The potato hut WiFi has <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/334935/what-is-an-ssid-or-service-set-identifier/">SSID</a> "potatohut" with our usual cavey:beery password. Like almost every other wifi anywhere it is running DHCP (done by the Wavlink) and allocating IP addresses to your device.
@@ -49,30 +50,11 @@ Ignore the backup copy in /home/expo/fakenet.
<p>In 2023 we have an alternative wifi/router in Austria, a <a href="https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/tp-link/1401766/tp-link-tl-wr841n-review">TL-WR841N</a> belonging to Wookey which is configured identically to the Netgear device except that the username is 'root' not 'admin'. It would be good to test this so we could give ARM their WNDR4000 back, and the TP-link router can become expo's.
<s><p>One important difference is that the ethernet cable from the netbook is plugged into the blue socket on the WR841N (it is yellow on the Netgear), and the 4 white sockets on the Netgear are 4 yellow sockets on the WR841N.</s> A word of warning: the WR841N has been flashed with new firmware (openWRT) and so any documentation you may read in online manuals for it will be wrong: notably the reset and wifi on/off buttons don't have any effect, and the lights don't flash in the way the manuals say they do. There is also no USB socket, no 5Ghz, slower ethernet (100Mbps not 1Gbps) and the wifi range out to the tents is probably worse than the Netgear wifi.
<s>
<h4>Alfa wifi device</h4>
<p>The Alfa AWUS036ACH is a high-power external wifi aerial to connect across the campsite to the gasthof.
It uses the Realtek RTL8812AU chipset.
Annoyingly this does not have a mainline kernel driver so we have to use a dkms driver '8812au'.
This is not properly debianized so if you upgrade the kernel on the aspire it has to be rebuilt.
The source and the rebuild scripts are in /home/expo/alfa-driver/morrownr.
Installing the kernel headers for the runing kernel,
then running <tt>/home/expo/alfa-driver/morrownr/install-driver.sh NoPrompt</tt> will update it.
<p>I recommend not updating the kernel for the duration of expo.
We are getting 15-30 Mbit/s download speed with this device at the Acer Aspire netbook (3 July 2023).
<p>Note that this dual-antenna WiFi thing is a <em>high power</em> device: it won't work if plugged in via an unpowered USB hub. It is also fussy about which USB port it is plugged into on the netbook.
</s>
<h4>IP6</h4>
<p>While you can use 5Ghz wifi and IP6 to connect within the hut (if the Netgear router is being used),
there is no IP6 connectivity to the external internet. Sorry. We are dependent on the Gasthof system for this. Use a phone and data roaming if you want it.
<s><h4>Where the DNS happens</h4>
<p> DNS is what connects a computer name (such as <var>expo.survex.com</var>) with an internet address (such as <samp>78.129.164.125</samp>). To make the internet work, we need to tell every laptop and phone where to find a DNS nameserver, or what machine to ask in order to get DNS queries forwarded to a DNS nameserver.
<p>The DNS configuration happens in the netbook, using dnsmasq. The router just forwards DNS queries to the netbook, and tells laptops connected to the hut wifi to use that too.</s>
<h4>Where the DHCP happens</h4>
<p>DHCP is what decides what the <samp>x</samp> is when the wifi issues an address that a laptop must use when it connects to the wifi as <samp>192.168.200.x</samp>.
<p>We have done this in two different ways:
@@ -86,7 +68,7 @@ there is no IP6 connectivity to the external internet. Sorry. We are dependent o
<s><p>We also have the address <samp>192.168.250.200</samp> reserved for the expo laptop <em>crowley</em> in both routers.</s>
<h4>Printer</h4>
<p> We have a Samsung C430W printer, which can be connected to the network via ethernet, giving everyone printing access on their own device (2025).