Helderberg Wireless Network (Somerset West, Strand, Gordons Bay)

[daysleeper]

Life after ournet/varynet ect

Hello! After using ournet and atw I have a got a dsl line. I now see the HWS kid ridding around in his bakkie with the fancy stickers.....

After using wirless for 2 years, DSL comes as a relief to put it lightly. The little bit of extra money you spend every month is piecemeal when compared with unrelaible service.

I have had dsl a while and its more reliable and a lot less stressful when you really need to get something done.

For a new years resolution get DSL it makes working fun and effiecent and you make up lots of time.

 

[wezley]

All the wireless ou can get

hey guys.

Im know the owner of netcontacts hi-site was going to go into business with him, but deceided not too. Highsite on top of the sentropz block of flats on beach rd.
(orange builing/lifesaving club)

I get awsem singal quality from them 74% at 11MBps.
With the following pings to the site. Which I bet no one can beat.
IM in somerset west.

ping -t -l 65500 IP
Pinging 192.168.203.85 with 65500 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=192ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=241ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=208ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=190ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=203ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=224ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=217ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=212ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=254ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=251ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=198ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=196ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=197ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.203.85: bytes=65500 time=197ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.203.85:
Packets: Sent = 14, Received = 14, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 190ms, Maximum = 254ms, Average = 212ms

Im sure we could alganise this if there is enough intrest.
As currently there is few users, so its untapped.
The also have an out going connection to pretty much the hole of capetown.
at +-40MBps. site here www.netcontacts.biz They do every thing.

If any one's intrested, and knows any one in stellies, mabey we could get connection in there, use wireless to us, that would be alsem DC.

If you might eva want a connection to internet contact me, give you good deal. or at least say how refered you.(Wesley)

These are the other high site that I know of, let me know if any are unprotected. We can use them as communication points.

GETY01 00026F39B9DF 8 32 AP
Greenwood 0011D8622039 11 32 AP
bester.net 00032F1D5EB3 6 12 AP ->> 192.168.1.1
BENBELSTTHS1 00026F22CF59 4 15 AP
LOOT 02027802C04A 9 24 Ad-hoc,WEP
ap11g 000E8E7A2ED8 6 19 AP
FSW410 00E098C4FA65 7 11 AP

Waiting for replys.. talk to your buddys.

Wezley

 

[WISPMAN]

DAYSLEEPER:
Hi there! Perhaps I know you, if you used to be an OurNet client. I bought OurNet about July last year, just after Savage got fired. Poor Tony couldn't handle the stress anymore, and I didn't do too well myself!

WEZLY:
Hey! I don't understand the first sentance of your last post, but from what I understand, you are a NETCONTACTS client. That is a bit funny to me, as the only people who are allowed on St Tropez, are VaryNET (now owner of OurNet too), ATW and Megaserve. Does Megaserve market their wireless under Netcontacts? The list you posted with all the SSID's must be very old. That MAC address of GETY01 was replaced about 2-3 months ago. BTW, the pings you posted is not too bad is packets of 65500 bytes have been sent, but tell me, where is the IP you pinged? As far as I know Megasurf install WRAP boards on the client side and let it do the routing. You could pretty well be pinging the WRAP board instead of the highsite. Some of our older clients with old 13dB Yagi's etc, get higher latencies as traffic goes up, but since we started using 24dB grids etc, we also get around 100ms-200ms replies when larger packets are being sent via ping. Just for interest sake, open say 10 pings (preferbly from a Windows pc) and run each of them at 65500, I would really like to know if you get the same results. Bear in mind, wireless is half-duplex, so when sending that much pings, you might not get timeouts from your side, but it is possible that you get timeouts from the other side. Also, don't trust the 76% comms your bridge tells you, that is not a propper reading, only a guideline. I have had 80% links with timeouts to die for, then install a more directional antenna such as a grid, and your signals goes up little to nothing, but the pings dissapear. O, to refer back to you list of SSID's, the BENBELHS1 etc ID's doesn't exist since about September last year, so your list is REALLY outdated. I did some experimentation for BENBEL on 2.4GHz which didn't work well, we ended up in 5.8GHz equipment.

You mentioned you are looking for unsecured HS's to use as repeators, well, it's not hard to find, but anyone with a little bit of wireless knowledge would know how to stop you from doing so. With the routers WISP's use, there is a simple funtion to turn default forward off. This way you HAVE to be logged in, or gatewayed to the router (if you have the WLAN IP) in order to get any access to anything. On normal AP's, when run in ISOLATION mode, clients cant see each other, EVEN if you know your friend's LAN IP. Most, if not all, WISP's don't use WEP filtering, so its easy to link to their sites, but you have to have some sort of authentication to it. This can be done via PPPoE, PPTP etc or by gatewaying into it like I exlplained. If your WISP uses MAC filtering like I do, it's almost impossible to hack into the system, unless you know how to spoof your MAC address AND you know someone else's MAC address that does have authentication. I used to see a couple of MAC's trying to connect to my sites, but I decided to leave default auth off. This makes my entire network more secure for both my clients and myself.

Hope everyone has a nice last week of holiday!!! Yes, ok, some people are working... like myself..... but for those lucky bastards with no worries!!


G

 

[wezley]

WISPMAN:

Hey,

Yes im a wireless client of netcontacts, which as you say resells megaserve wireless for them.
Yes that is defintly the high sight, thesre's no rap boards here at all, just a brigde, which will drop any ping large than 10kb the 85 is the high sight.
Yes I know its half-duplex. I get time outs if I try just to, with such a large packet, droping the packet sizes improvise the perfomance and the amount of pings that work. 30kb ping with two windows is all ready getting better results one or tow drop packets.
The only thing I dont know, is weather or not im limited 128kb connection uplink by that gateway, which I think I am. cause all traffic past that point trends to be alot slower. So ping time outs may also be due to the high sight gateway limiting my connection to 128KB.

Anyways on to more intrest things.

I got bunch of friends, how eva wants in. We would like to set up a wireless network, for our use only. So question I have for you is, we want pofomance of course (gaming, file exchange, streaming video), So what equipment would you suggest, one to use.

Im sure that you would want in. So how would you set it up.
rember client side must not get too expensive.
at the moment we, not worried about internet on the severice's, but at a later stage impelement it thought.Once all these new regulations, and court cases, com to an end and we can see the result.

Im think 5ghz range, because of all the 2.4ghz routers around town, and wireless lan routers. each one must have at least 5mbits or 10 mbits, connection.

Wesley.

 

[WISPMAN]

Hey Wez! Well, you are definitaly on the right track by going 5.8GHz. We have some very long links, round about 10km per link, and all the 5.8GHz links give us 1,2ms replies. Sometimes there's a 50ms spike, but it's REALLY very nice. Currently, the best way to go would be a WRAP board (clients side) with MikroTik RouterOS running, with a CM9 Atheros card, and from 24dB to 31dB antenna's. On the Highsite, you should get a Mikrotik Routerboard 230 with CM9 card and a 120 degree 5.8GHz sector. If you are planning on using 5.8GHz, we could perhaps talk about making a deal about the use of one of my highsites. There are new 5.8GHz CSE bridges with integrated antenna's etc, running CM9's, which seems to work very well on the client side. We are testing them out currently and we're installing the first unit on Monday. BUT, with a WRAP board scenario, you have the option to use stronger and better antenna's as you please or need. On all my highsites I have backup ADSL lines, which we don't need anymore. If you want, you could perhaps take over one of those lines, and get a 30Gb Allyoucaneat account so you and your friends can have internet access aswell as gaming. We can shape the internet side, so each of you get say 128k, but games run on 11Mb (or up to 54Mb half duplex, depending on link quality). Everything is possible via routing, and it's really easy, I can show you how. You would need some form of IT experience though. Contact me on varycomp@webmail.co.za so we can discuss these things in more detail.

Have a good one!! G

 

[E_sential]

AP - IP hehe

Hey hey ppls - I just baught a 'Symbol' AP and would like to join your little wisp - If any-one is interested in more 2nd hand AP's - please contact me - I have about 3 (R300 +- ea.) I live Close to OK foods in the Strand. and I have Two Yaggi type andtenna's. please supply me with the IP's and Subnets so I can C if I can detect you oaks...

 

[pgleed]

Hi,

If possible can you forward me the IP,s to, i woould like to join aswell. Can you tell me will a normal access point work with a Yaggi arial?

Thanks

 

[bismay]

mesh

Hi,

is there a mesh running in the somerset west area? want to join if possible.
thx

 

[bismay]

what ssid's can i look for?

 

[wezley]

Lastest Scan of heldergberg Area

Lastest List of Acess point scan in Helderberg

GWInternet 00026F359630 1 32 AP
Greenwood 0011D8622039 11 21 AP
ERA-01 00026F238DEB 6 17 AP
snowball100 020B6B37071F 8 16 AP
Open_Gaming 00026F362534 6 11 AP
GETY01 000B6B37071F 8 15 AP
SRBS 001485379FF9 6 11 AP,WEP

 

[pgleed]

Have you been able to connect to any of these Acess Points? Where is Helderberg are you.

 

[daysleeper]

if you live in gordon's bay or strand or even somerset west and you have an ap and would like to participate in a community driven idea, please just pm me basic info, and i'll distribute it to other interested people.

 

[pgleed]

AP's For Sale

Hi,

Does anybody have any decent second hand AP's for sale?

Thanks,

 

[bismay]

Mesh -

Daysleeper,

Lets get a mesh started in swest.
Who do you know?

 

[NeuralBlade]

What is the status for the mesh?

Im moving to Somerset West (moving from Straing) in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Katoolsie]

Im in Strand, close to Strand High School. I would love to be involved in a wireless network! I am not very clever when it comes to stuff like wireless, but I am willing to learn quickly! I currently have a ADSL internet connection, but I want to be part of a wireless community too!

 

[Soppy]

I'm in Strand.

Is the a network like with the other WUGs?

 

[protzkrog]

cover ctwug nie hierdie areas nie ?

 

[Johnny_ctwug]

Unfortunately CTWUG has not reached the Strand/Somerset West area yet

 

[Wynand]

Unfortunately we haven't reached that side yet. We've actually just got round to giving signal to the Southern Suburbs from our latest highsite, now its upto new members there to connect to us.

The same was suggested to Stellenbosch peeps. I've actually spoken to SavageDavid in the past about Wifi in SSW area, seems there is possibilities, as long as there is enough interest there, so, I ask all of you please, start finding a couple spots, try get a highsite organized, link to each other, and then we'll do our best to link to you.

Just one thing, If you want to merge then you'll have to stick to CTWUG rules, which are quite simple. Our code of conduct, and constitution is on our page. www.ctwug.za.net

Its very basic, mostly things like no selling internet over the network.

Good Luck