On Thu, Dec 09, 2004 at 09:52:06AM +0100, Conrad Newton wrote:
> For the moment I am only interested in home use, but just to satisfy
> my curiosity, could you describe an alternate setting where you have
> used a different set of antennae?
I haven't yet modified a Linksys box, only read other people's accounts.
Highly directional aerials are usually good for crossing large distances
(provided, they have line of sight -- even trees attentuate the signal; also
you have to decide for yourself whether violating 100 mW EIRP will get you into
hot water or not) while omnidirectional radiators are good for covering
local users. Both are obviously complementary.
If I was to build a cheap router, using Linksys hardware, I'd use directional
aerials to mesh up (3-4 routers), and a single omni to serve local users.
I think IPv6 support in above setting would be useful (notice that WDS
doesn't scale beyond a few hops). Have no idea how http://www.olsr.org/
scales.
> I was also planning to use the Sveasoft software. What is your
> opinion of it? What is the difference in functionality between
> Talisman and Alchemy?
I wouldn't put the subscriber bleeding-edge firmware into
production blindly (duh). I suggest to read the forums, to get other
user's experiences with it.
Regarding Talisman (cutting and pasting from Sveasoft's forums):
* Smaller TFTP-able image
* RW partiton in flash for storing programs and files on the WRT
* (survives reboot/power cycle)
* Completely new web interface code (cleaner) designed by gultig (initial
* alpha code is in LW03)
* Package management system and web interface (work in progress, likely
* fully functional before Febuary if all goes well, maybe sooner)
* Full IPv6 support (again, work in progress and most apps will be add-on
* packages so it relies on the above feature or manual install)
* Support for more devices, as in, all Linksys WRT versions, Linksys WAP
* versions, Belkin F5D7230-4, and possibily others (definetly a work in
* progress, no promises on any of the previously mentioned devices
* working other then the Linksys WRT versions, but we have had some
* success already)
The first 3 items above are completed as of now and simply need
testing/debugging by the Sveasoft forum members (ya'll Very Happy )
After the package management system is complete, the feature list is
essentially endless since you will be able to add whatever you want to the
router (within reason).
The RW partiton will only be available on devices with more then 2mb of
flash. Without the RW partiton, the package management interface will be
disabled automaticly (or atleast thats the current plan). Users with Linksys
WAP devices and Belkin devices will not be able to have installed packages as
their devices will work as they do now with the current versions since they
only have 2mb of flash which doesn't leave enough room for an RW partiton.
I'm sure James will chime in here to comment on this as he is the one that
would know all of the exact details on the upcoming features, but this is
what I know. The above are listed in order of priority for myself personally.
The list may vary as we progress and priorities are different throughout the
dev team so overall alot can be accomplished in a short amount of time. Our
main goal is to keep the release stable (starting with Alchemy6.0-public as
the base for Talisman) and still add features. Since most of the future
feature additions will be packages you won't need to reflash your device
asmuch as you do now.
Hope this answers some of your questions. I think I'll make this a stickey
for a few days
...
Actually the thought I have is that on 2 MB devices packages will be
downloaded to the RAM disk on boot directly from Sveasoft. On devices with
larger flash the packages will reside in the read-write partition.
The new web interface looks great in IE and terrible in Firefox so it may not
make the first cut in Talisman. If we can sort out why the misalignments
occur in FF it will be part of the first release.
I just added WRT54G V2.2 and GS V1.1 support and am testing this now. Once
things test OK we will release a final Alchemy version and the first Talisman
release simultaneously (this is the plan anyway Smile ).
...
Off the top of my head the flash storage sizes are-
2 MB - Linksys WAP54G, Belkin F5D7230-4
4 MB - Linksys WRT54G, Buffalotech WBR-G54, WBR2-G24, ASUS wl500
8 MB - Linksys WRT54GS
...
If I had six months to spare, sure. OpenWRT criticized us back in February
for continuing to use the Linksys web interface. I said then it was a 6 month
job to re-implement it. They claimed to be able to do it in a month or two as
it was "trivial". OpenWRT has about 25% of the functionality of the Linksys
web interface almost 10 months later and has changed their motto to "who
needs a GUI".
We can do this but the question is how long folks are willing to wait.
Perhaps this could start as a Talisman package until it is ready for prime
time.
...
This is getting a bit offtopic for the list, perhaps we should take it to
private mail.
--
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a>
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