I just purchased 30 of the Motorola 5210 Hotzone units. Just couldn’t pass on a bargain. However, manufacturer support (both from Motorola and Tropos ) is understandably (I guess) non existant. Are there any readers who have configured a working network; and would share some suggestions.
I have a working Motorola Canopy network of 6 AP’s (“hopped” up to three times to give up to 10 mile spans without using any GPS syncing; and simply using Belkin Pre-n routers at LAN SM points 1 to 5 miles apart to connect the SM to the next AP hop. Still get close to 4MByte download and the 500 k upload speeds at the end of the links. A cheap Dlink 604 router serves as the gateway; DHCP and DNS server etc at the Internet service headend. It works flawlessly.
The DLink has an IP of 169.254.0.1; the Motorola Canopy radios (AP’s and SM’s of different frequencies) are manually given IP’s in the 169.254.1.XXX range; the Belkin routers are IP addresses set in the upper end of the 169.254.0.XXX subnet; all with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0
The plan is to use some of the Motorola Canopy radios as backhauls for the Motorola (Tropos) Hotzone 5210 units to the Internet gateway (DLink router). I’ve given them 169.254.3.XXX address (subset mask 255.255.255.0) except for the gateways which are on static addresses in the DLink pool outside the DHCP address it serves out. I’d like to keep everything on the same subnet; and let the DLink default router control everything, but find that the DLink 604 has a limit of about 20 static IP’s. I’m going to have more that that number of Hotzone gateways and nodes; not to mention a couple dozen potential client computers.
The Hotzone gateways and nodes seem to communicate and associate with each other without problem. I just can’t get Internet connectivity on more than one gateway at a time; and I can’t get the DHCP relaying to work on the Hotzone units to the Dlink router. Is the inadequacy of the DLink the problem; or my 169.254.xxx.xxx subnet not compatible with the suggested 192.xxx.xxx.xxx of the Hotzone units. I’m just extremely reluctant to make changes to the Motorola Canopy system that works so well.
Thanks; and I would sure like to correspond with the other buyers of this mesh network product; or anyone who has networking skills; and would like to try to help.
While I can’t condone anything your doing for a long term basis, your answers are “yes”:
Consumer D-Link firmware is very limited in what you can do with it. Personally I wouldn’t even use one at home. If you want a reasonably featured edge that’s ridiculously cheap check out a router that will run DD-WRT, or OpenWRT or something like that. The best example of this is a Linksys WRT54GL. Tons of features - just get the el cheapo router and load in the custom firmware.
The other issue is your use of the 169.254/16 subnet. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-local_address) In a nutshell you cannot subnet this address space and expect it to work properly. It is reserved for local links only and most IP stacks will not route packets for these addresses. IMO Motorola made a poor design choice when they made the radios default to addresses in this range. You will need to switch everything over to proper private address space if you want any of this to work properly (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_ne … ess_spaces)
A deep thankyou to salad. I certainly will work on the more “powerful” router issue and private IP addressing with 192.168.xxx.xxx subnet. Thanks again for steering me on this path.
Any further comments on the mesh networks Tropos design as sold by Motorola are welcomed. I’ve found that there isn’t a wealth of information available outside the city wide deployments. I know that there are much smaller projects that have become feasible with the recently highly discounted Hotzone 5210 equipment. Please feel free to contribute through this forum. Thanks again. There is lots to learn.
Got something to add to this relatively old thread. Also have a request for some more help.
At the expense of countless hours of trying every option and finally hiring a networking expert who knows what he is doing; the answer is to turn on NAT on the Motorola hotzone. Then the gateway’s 192.168.xxx.xxx address and the Dlink router’s 169.254.0.1 (and its associated address ranges covering the Motorola Canopy network for example) can exisist in harmony.) and work together in a rock solid manner.
If there remains a problem; it is that the Hotzone network seems to be on the slow side; when connecting to built in laptop Wifi adapters at distances of more than about a quarter mile (from within moving vehicles). Of course this is partly (or maybe all ) due to the limited range and power of the computer’s wifi card. I will try an Alfa AWUS036H wireless network adapter next. When within more reasonable outdoor line of sight conditions; I get about 1.5Mb download speeds and the full 500KB uplink that the ISP provides.
However; the Hotzone nodes all connect flawlessly to each other and the gateway at distances of one half to three miles each. With the previously existing Motorola Canopy network still working exceptionally well at up to 3 1/2 to even 4 1/2 miles between hops; I’m going to add additional redundant Hotzone gateways as a next step.
I would be pleased to hear from anyone who could add thoughts to this or similar type projects.
I’ll provide further details on Hotzone signal strength’s etc. if there is any interest.
I followed up on “salads” suggestion about a better router tha Dlink and seriously considered getting an additional line from the ISP; but there appear to be more than one way to skin a cat. Thank you; especially salad. Please add more ideas.
the hotzones can cap transfer rates, aswell ratelimit to each other, they also can be configured in “mobile” node which does improve hand off and being in a moving car. keep in mind, wifi by nature is NOT intended to be used at a long range (1000’) with using diffrent protocol stucture. the hotzones are not designed for long range traffic, ifact if you find a document on deployment by spec, they should be installed 900 to 1,200 feet apart. as far as your 169.254 usage I’m suprised you haven’t had more trouble. 169.254 is not supposted to be used in a routed enviroment. you can route around inside of a 169 but you can’t route in or out of it like your 192 range. and a 2nd little tib bit i wouldn’t use any “common” ip ranges so you don’t have subs trying to use them and the call you complaining there router won’t work. use something like 10.83.72.0/24 also when you add extra tropos gateway nodes, they will not see traffic from the other gateways, and your nodes will ONLY link to 1 gateway node at a time, if the gateway fails to pass traffic, the nodes will look for a diffrent gateway but you are looking at up to three minutes for those guys to setup a new route and they will not switch back until a route is disturbed. my advise would be get your canopy setup more stable hopping 5 APs down will turn into a problem i promise. oh on the wifi keep in mind you don’t get 54 MB, you get about 13mb agro, give or take a few, the hotzones with “cut up” the router to router bandwidth and the to customer bandwidth, so keep that in mind when you configure these guys. if you have a lot of hot zones you might want to put 2/3s of the traffic for routing and the other 1/3 for sub access. just my two cents.
Johmur,
I wish to do a joint venture or Contract agreement with a person such as yourself working the Hotzone 2510 for a metromesh energy saving system in the Atlanta area can you assist or put me in contact with a enterprise seeking individual,
Salad, I am financed to establish a metro mesh energy saving project, can you assist or direct me to someone?
I have the installation settings and software to completely progam your Hotzones Call me at 770682373 Located in Lawrenceville Ga. near to you I am sure it will help......Val Shires