Basic Setup screen, this is where clicking on the [Setup] button brings you
Starting at the top we have the red lettered selectable text, as soon as clicked on they become highlighted. We are now on [Basic Setup]. We will now go over the parts of this screen.
The line of buttons starting with Help are pretty much self explaining. We will go to the line labelled node name. This is very important as it is where the node derives its identification. The leading part of the entry is the callsign you may follow it with something that describes the device or location, or your name. No spaces, use dashes in place of spaces, preferably in upper case. Below that is a space labelled Node Description (optional) Here you may put more information about your node, or whatever you want as long as it passes Part 97.
Over to the right we have the password entry point. You can click on the “eye” symbol and view what you are typing. This is the password used to access the node setup. Check with your local mesh as generally there is a local standard configuration.
Below are blocks labelled Mesh, LAN and WAN. This will change from device to device. This device in question is a Mikrotik hAP ac-Lite, it has two radios. It also has a WAN port and 3 LAN ports, both are shown in this screen. Devices that only have one radio will have a Mesh, LAN and WAN but the lower sections will not show up in all of them as they do on the hAP.
Mesh is checked so it is enabled. The radio is on the 2 Ghz band, you can also see the IP address for the radio port, and the Net mask. The SSID is pre determined by the type of radio. You do not change it unless for a special reason, changing it from what it is set to will not allow the device to associate with the mesh.
Next is shown the channel number and frequency in this case channel -2 or 2397 Mhz. And the channel width has been set to 10 MHz. This setting must match the setting for the devices that the node will link to over the radio path.
Under the LAN heading we see LAN mode, which has been set to 13 host direct, you may select 1 host, 5 host, 13 host or 29 host. Note, if you have started out with one value and change to another your LAN assignments will all change. When you setup a node try to plan ahead and select what you need, but do not select more than you need.
In this case 13 have been selected due to this device being the shack AREDN router, it has several devices attached to it, as will be seen when we view the Port Forwarding, DHCP and Services screen.
Shown is the base IP address for the block of LAN addresses, Netmask. DHCP Server is enabled, it maybe disabled if not needed. Below are the start and end address for the DHCP block.
In the WAN block we see, first the Protocol
You may select Static, DHCP, or disabled, this is for the WAN port if used. The selection will depend on how your network connected to the WAN port operates. If it uses DHCP you will select that, if you have to enter a fixed address you will select Static, if nothing, you will use disabled.
Next are the DNS entries 1 and 2. Here an address is shown for DNS 1. it normally defaults to 8.8.8.8 but in the case the DNS of the local supernode has been entered. This is no longer needed as the present AREDN code will detect any local SuperNode and provide access to it. You may now leave it as 8.8.8.8.
Below the Mesh entry we have a sub block:
Here you can set the maximum Tx power, Max distance, if set to 0 it will do the calculations automatically. Min SNR, this is the minimum signal level the node will accept. Min Quality, minimum signal quality the node will accept. And the [Apply] button is to set any parameter after changing.
Under LAN we have the following block:
The hAP has a second radio a 5Ghz radio if enabled it will become a WiFi port for the LAN on the router.
AP Band or Access Point Band 5Ghz
SSID, the standard is callsign lower case dash AREDN as seen above.
Encryption defines the encryption type. Since this is on a part 15 channel it may be encrypted. So you select the encryption type.
Finally Password, must be 8 to 64 characters in length.
In the next section we will deal with Port Forwarding, DHCP and Services, this is where you can assign URL’s to your devices on your LAN so they maybe reachable from the mesh, port forward to devices on the network on the WAN port (if used) and other settings.
Chuck, KP4DJT
