RussellSenior - Personal Telco Project

Name: Russell Senior
Email: seniorr@aracnet.com
Email: russell@personaltelco.net
Homepage:

Hardware history:

2002 June 28: Got started with wifi when I bought a couple Linksys WMP11's and a WPC11 PCMCIA card for the laptop.
2002 July 14: Bought a Proxim RangeLan DS (8430) from AdamShand on July 14, 2002. Got it working on a Debian laptop with 2.4.18 kernel after a short struggle. When I started, got a single low beep when inserting the card. Eventually found "cardctl ident" which gave me the information I needed to put in /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf. From there, it has been pretty easy, with the exception of figuring out getting it all to autoconfigure itself when starting up. Noticed getting better range with the RangeLan compared to the Linksys WPC11. The external antenna connection has always been a bit dodgy.
2004 Fall: From Netgate, a Senao 200mW card and two small external antennas.
2004 Fall: Linksys WRT54G, running OpenWRT and as of October 20, 2005, hosting NodeKlickitat.
2005 September: Four NetgearWgt634u devices, three deployed in an experimental roofnet providing broadband to neighbors, and the other with one of the Wistron Neweb CM9 radios mentioned below, being groomed for an 11a backhaul client. Two of the Wgt634u were purchased in a batch of three refurbs from justdeals.com. One had flakey Flash and was returned (they had no stock for replacement, so I eventually got a refund). Another of the refurbs had a broken antenna wire, for which I got an RMA but decided to keep for its mini-PCI slot and potential utility as an 802.11a client device. Two others I purchased new from Amazon (awaiting rebate).
2005 September: From Netgate, two Wistron Neweb CM9 Atheros a/b/g radios.
2005 September: From Lenovo, a Thinkpad T42 with Atheros a/b/g radio.
2005 September: From WispRouter, a miniPCI/PCI adapter, currently holding the other of the CM9 radios, installed in my gateway router.
2005 October: From HyperLinkTech, purchased an 802.11a 8 dBi omni antenna, two 802.11a 17 dBi backfire antennas, and 20 feet of LMR400. The omni is currently located on the Mississippi Commons as part of the HistoricMississippiCommunityNetwork. Planning to order a replacement.
2005 October: From CompUSA a ZyXEL AG-225H hotspot finder and USB client device. It uses the ZD1211 chipset, reportedly supported by linux drivers. As of November 1, the device doesn't function under linux. As of April 10, 2006 the svn driver does support it. Despite advertising, it does not find 11a networks and its hotspot sensitivity is not strong.
2006 January: Now up to 15 NetgearWgt634u devices. Five of them are currently deployed in a neighborhood roofnet. Recently purchased a few Hawking HWU54G (zd1211-based) USB 802.11g radios to combine with the Wgt for use as a dual-radio repeater.
2006 May: Metrix Mk 2
2006 July: ChannelMaster gable-end roof mount arrived today, July 24, 2006. Planning to finally put up the metrix and omnis here very soon. Howard Barney and his helper Jake helped me build some dual-omni brackets. CalebPhillips and I put one of them up on MississippiCommons on July 23rd, seems to work well. I just need a section of mast material and a tall ladder, and maybe some fishtape and a lick of paint, and my rooftop node will be in business. I have also (again with Howard Barney's help) put together an enclosure for a NetgearWgt634u and PoE splitter, to go on to one of my neighbors houses, doing 11a backhaul to my house.

2006 November: Using rented scaffolding and the help of CalebPhillips, managed to mount the metrix on the west end of the roof. A few weeks later, installed the backhaul link to the neighbor's house.

Since Spring 2005, I have been volunteering on the HistoricMississippiCommunityNetwork project, initially the nominal coordinator for the ReconGroup, and lately playing an active role in expanding the network to new roofs. I provided the 802.11a 8 dBi omni antenna currently located on the Mississippi Commons roof and the ladder used to chimney-mount metrix-ed on October 28, 2005. With CalebPhillips, got metrix-ed online and talking to the world. I even worked up the nerve to climb on a roof other than Commons (which is trivial) to help install metrix-west on October 29, 2005. Been working on diagnosing problems in the network, and just today managed to deploy a working WDS configuration on all five metrixes which lets users off the entire network get DHCP resolution and access to the Internet for the first time.

I host NodeKlickitat. At MeetingMarch2006, I was asked by DonPark and agreed to take over the duties of Secretary from RobertPetersen. On July 26, 2006, was elected unanimously to the BoardOfDirectors of PersonalTelco, and have assumed the office of Secretary.

For the first few months of 2007, teamed with CalebPhillips to investigate aspects of the MetroFi proof-of-concept network. Results of this study were published at the Unwire PDX Watch website.

I have been a GNU/Linux user since 1992 and have been involved with the PortlandLinuxUsersGroup since about 2000.

The list of all the pages I've contributed to:

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