Post date: Jul 4, 2011 3:25:35 PM
It's quite often when giving support for MeshAP installations that I see the same issues crop up and so I've added some general advice here.
Settings
Don't flip all the controls randomly on the management screens, or enable lots of random software modules. I know it is tempting, when I get a new gadget I often try out all the features, press all the buttons etc. You should not do this with the MeshAP as it is part of a symbiotic network and although there are many options, quite a few of these are only for very specific applications and in general the settings need to be matched between all your nodes. If you want to experiment with the various options, you should do this with a controlled experimental network, where you can easily reset the nodes to default settings if you create a configuration which doesn't work.
The same applies to the traffic shaping options. These have already been optimized for most applications and simply adjusting the values, for example upping the capacity of bandwidth classes can easily reduce the total throughput of your network rather than increase it. Equally, be careful not to create impossible traffic shaping, for example telling it to allocate for a gigabit of wireless capacity is unlikely to perform that well. The same applies to setting the values to impossibly low values, zero is not recommended for any traffic class, and watch out not to set speeds like 1 kilobit which you'll find really is very slow!
Don't enable "wired captive portal" on your gateway node unless you really do want your router and anything on your lan to require authentication (automatic or password etc) before it will exchange traffic.
Hardware
You're going to have the most success utilizing hardware supplied by LocustWorld QSP's, building your own hardware is perfectly acceptable, but you must remember that you have to be extremely rigorous in ensuring your hardware is performing correctly. Combination's of hardware / wireless cards etc which have not been tested before may or may not work. If there is a piece of hardware you would like compatibility testing, feel free to contact LocustWorld and send it to us for testing.
Installation
Do make sure everything is earthed. Typically connecting earth wiring to the meshbox casing and antenna can improve radio performance, reduce static related issues and extend component life.
Do make sure your meshbox has checked in and functioned correctly for at least 24 hours before putting it somewhere remote and difficult to maintain. If there are any hardware problems you want to diagnose these on the bench rather than in the field.
Do keep spare meshboxes online and waiting on the bench in-case you have any problems with production boxes in the field. Swapping a box out with a known good one can often highlight a hardware problem or show that the problem is with the antenna.
Do keep your cable runs and antenna connectors to an absolute minimum to avoid signal loss.
Low gain omni's are recommended for the best meshing. Buying the most "powerful" high gain antenna for use with your mesh is likely not to work and equally, high gain directionals have poor performance for anything other than point to point links.
Don't mix omni's and directional antenna unless you really know what you're doing.
Don't turn on the meshAP without an antenna connected and then connect the antenna later. The meshAP could well have blocked all the signals it can't reply to by then resulting in much confusion when you connect the antenna. If the antenna is unplugged, the meshAP should be off.
Do make any antenna poles and fixtures out of waterproof and rustproof materials.
Do ensure you have adequate lightening protection for antennas that may require it. Make sure you understand potential risks associated with lightening and antenna.
Do ensure that you have all the required permits, licenses and insurance required to undertake any of your installations.
Don't fall off anything high whilst working with the mesh. If you think this is a joke please consider that lift engineers, roofing specialists and antenna installers have some of the highest incidences of death at work compared with other professions.
Don't exceed the allowable radio output power levels designated by your country of operation. If you live somewhere where for example you are limited to 100mw and you think that it is ethical to be transmitting at 200mw, consider how you would feel if someone else was drowning out your signal with 200mw of interference. Also consider the legal ramifications of what could happen if you are caught breaking radio regulations.
Don't think that amplifiers will help improve a poor signal, these quite often introduce more noise and are generally bad news.
Bonus
Connecting a regular wifi access point (in standard bridge mode) to the ethernet port of a wireless repeater node and then setting this access point to a different channel and essid to that which you are running your mesh on, is a very quick, easy and cheap way to utilize multiple channels and be more flexible with your coverage. Having clients sign on to this access point and using the internal radio(s) of the Meshbox just for meshing will give a performance increase.
Just think how long that ethernet cable can be and how you can do things like have the meshbox on the roof but the wifi AP inside the building. You'll probably want to enable "wired captive portal" on any repeater nodes you do this with, so that it asks for authentication through this wifi AP in the same way it would ask for it on an internal radio.
Best Regards,
Jon Anderson/ LocustWorlds