Lets get started.....

[ReD]

Evening all!

I recently came accross the Brisbane Mesh Project while looking online at whirlpool.net.au.  I am very interested in starting up my own node, and since I have a abundance of time and spare PC's I wouldnt mind setting up a route point for the Mt Gravatt/Holland Park Valley Area.

But before I can get started I need some information, I lie I'll need lots of information , ,  I have several spare PC's lying around here (166mmx to Celeron 300's) as well as a spare laptop that I can setup in my racks.  I understand the need for a Wireless NIC, can anyone point me in the direction of a reasonable quality NIC (I use a lot of 3COM and DLINK equipment, but I am interested to here your opinions on this matter, and preferably a nic that can handle BSS), Next an antenna is in order, I am situated on Mt Thompson, approx 15m up the mountain looking out towards MT Gravatt Mountain, (I am a alarm technician (I also hold two diplomas in information technology, as well as my Austel License), so I have a reasonable grasp of how It all works (I learnt a lot from the FAQ's on the Mesh's web site!), The biggest problem that I can see is that because I am on a mountain that is facing away from the city, and the primary nodes are on the other side of the mountain, what type of antenna would be the most efficient in this area? Is there any good FAQ's or readable's on construction of antennas?

Becuase of my position on the mountain I would have to have a very large mounting pole to get any signal in or out, Is there a recommended brand of AMP (Withing the 4W rating).

I also understand that everyone is mainly using LINUX to route packets backwards and fowards between sites and clients, being a son of DOS and then WindowZ, I have had very little to do with Linux (besides the odd installation and software setup needed for some alarm monitoring software packages), so any recommendations on Linux Variants, which one would be better suited etc would be appreciated. If anyone has it running on a NT4 box, and information is appreciated.

Also I noticed a lot of people are talking about the Apple Airport as the access port of choice, since I am a NT4/2000 network, and have no access to a Mac, is there any way to setup these units via a pc, everything I have read states that you have to have a mac to get them running.

Any information, comments suggestions rants or raves will be appreciated, as I have always found WAN's very very interesting.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Mark Allen
[e-mail]


This will get me started

[Nick]

Ok Mr windowZ, it's time to get some real mans software.



I made a post in Computing and routing about linux distrobutions. I'm trying to find a distro that not only newbies can easily install and configure (and preferably fit on a floppy), but one that is not so experimental that it will work !!

It's probably going to be more of a case of finding a good distro and learning how to modify it yourself. Check out the ones i have posted about, most of them are tiny downloads so you can grab them and play with them on a spare 486 upwards..

[jean-marc]

I'm in upper mt gravatt, so would be interested by a point in the area; but i'm not in the mountain.
ready to help as i can.