IA server on the meshnet

[mitra42]

@benhylau - great to see the meshnet plan, no issues or particular concerns from my side.

A big chunk of my work is getting an Internet Archive service running on small devices - currently I've got it running on Rachel3+ boxes and Raspberry Pi 3+ either in a raw out-of-the-box state, or configured using Internet-in-a-box. I'd like to have all three of these on the net somehow, and I think we can assume that I'll configure them.

Specifically I'd like to figure out how to get the mesh working on both the RPi configurations, I have the antennas you recommended for this, but they are back in Australia but I'm at IA HQ for March) so can't check on them till Apr 10th.

Note the boxes are currently a work-in-progress, the repo is @internetarchive/dweb-mirror and I also have material including a list of other projects on @internetarchive/dweb-universal.

Currently they partially support IPFS, but by the time of the camp I expect to be supporting WebTorrent, GUN and possibly Wolk and DAT on those boxes.

[benhylau]

The IP assignment scheme hasn't been figured out, but I expect to have switch ports where your Pis can plug directly into the network for reliable serving of content over the meshnet!

[mitra42]

Great - and I was interested in the RPI's being able to be mesh participants themselves as they have the hardware to do that.

[benhylau]

You can also use meshable USB radios (e.g. one you have in Australia) for short range (couple metres away) networking with compatible devices.

[mitra42]

Really - only that short range ? I thought these were for building a much wider network (within the range of the WiFi which I would assume is a lot more than a couple meters with those antenna.

[benhylau]

What is the device you have? The USB ones are very short range, especially without a directional antenna. For long range WiFi communication, devices like these would give you a hundred meter (e.g. the OmniTIK) to a kilometer and a bit (e.g. the directional SXTsq).

[mitra42]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035APGP6/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_6?smid=A2LM6ZPY06LT1N&psc=1 which I believe is what yhou recommended to me at the Dweb Summit - I haven't used it yet, its in Australia, and I'm in SF till end of the month,

[benhylau]

Ahh okay I thought you had something else. It would be great to try this both with the antenna that it comes with and a directional antenna. I can see this picking up signals 100+ m away yea.

Notes on alfa-awus036nh from @darkdrgn2k

[mitra42]

Cool - I'll be back in touch after I get back to Australia April 10th

[darkdrgn2k]

@mitra42 The omni directional nature of the devices makes them no great at broadcasting out. Also in general i found usb not to be the best method of wireless radio but sadly most of the time that's all we have.

The alfa-awus036nh is the only device i know that have a 2watt capability. But most of the world its limited to 1 watt due to regulations.

For Educational reasons if you want to unlock its full potential there is a script here that will do it for you

I tried it with a Yaggi Antenna with very little luck but it may have just been the antenna or the user.

However I have not had good experiences getting them to really work. One thing i will say is if your going to push that much power make sure your pi is powered properly. Another through we had it to use a USB powered hub to power the wireless device.

As for distance. I thought it was just the poor quality of USB radios until I did tests.

I used a TOP-4M02 USB device (Cheap Chinese radio) with a Libre Router antenna and it worked surprisingly well.

[darkdrgn2k]

Specifically I'd like to figure out how to get the mesh working on both the RPi configurations

I will also point out there are 3 "layers" of meshing that are independent of each other.

Layer 1 Which is the Physical layer. Cables cant be "meshed" as they are by physical construct point to point (only 2 ends) while radio waves can go in every direction at the same time. This just creates "physical" links between two nodes but does not traverse them in any way

Layer 2/3 meshing is the software that runs on top of the physical. It only sees the connections of the physical and does not care if its meshed or traditional or a hybrid. Its goal is to get your from point A to point B based on the connections that are established.

note: 802.11s uses layer 1 and layer 2 meshing. We normally disable layer 2 meshing on 802.11s as most of the time our mesh is not wireless only.

Third layer is P2P apps. They really dont care what the underlying routing protocol is or what the physical link looks like. They are happy on a mesh or on the internet and anything in between.

So my point is that even if you don't participate in the PHYSICAL mesh (with radios) but plug you pi into a switch port, you are still meshing!