Hi Marlon- I learned the hard way- Upgrade your firmware immediately!
I bought 5 2000's plus one of the ones with the panel antenna built on the front because I had kept hearing about how good StarOS was and I wanted to do a couple of things with them: 1. Try out the OLSR meshing because, as you know, I do a lot of mesh and I am looking for a lower end solution than Tropos or Cisco for the small projects. 2. Use them as transparent bridges to feed docks at a marina. The Lucaya product was attractive to me: reasonably priced, it seemed that a lot of people used it, they were FCC type accepted systems (a big thing for me, as I have several licenses at stake personally), and they were supposedly good at making a dual-radio mesh. The striking thing about these is the almost near total lack of documentation. There is a decent piece on StarOS itself, but nothing is available about the product we bought- hardware wise. There is not a tech support number, and no way I can see to communicate with Valemount other than the forum, which Lonnie does seen to monitor often. I made the mistake of asking what you did: "How do you make a bridge"? I finally got an answer, but prior to that was lectured endlessly about how I should be using routing instead of bridging and why would I possibly want to use a bridge- EVER. Remember- all I wanted to do was make them act like a simple pair of Canopys, Tranzeos, Trangos, or Ligos, all of which have a simple bridge function and are used in many systems by some of the biggest players as such. I made the bridge, but made the mistake of using the same subnet on all interfaces (normal practice with Ligo, Canopy, Tranzeo, etc.) Well DON'T DO THIS ON STAROS! You end up with an internal bridge loop. Simple, I thought, I'll just factory default it and not do that again. WRONG. After many more forum messages back and forth and no really straight answers, I finally learned that the button does nothing but reboot the radio. Turns out that the button only works as a defaulter in the latest firmware. I get to send them all back to be reflashed. Sure you can do it with the serial port, IF you have the proper header plug and IF you happen to have a TTL to Serial converter laying around. I am going to make an adapter cable so I can use my Motorola RIB (a box used for programming Motorola 2 way radios) to talk to these, but in the meantime I had to deinstall all of the Lucayas and replace them with something else (Ligowave 1a23 bridges) because I had screaming customers and this marina is a 3 hour round trip for me. Now don't get the idea that I am totally dissing this product. I really like the way it programs and that settings can be applied without a time consuming reboot. I only wish the SSH terminal allowed other terminal options. All of these are behind MT routers that we use as captive hotspot portals, and we normally make pass-through's in the routers to allow us to remotely administer. Doesn't work. I have also been unsuccessful in talking to the Lucayas through the SSH terminal on the MT router itself. It seems to be a terminal emulation incompatibility issue. The only command you can get to work is F2. I can't find how to change the emulation on either the MT or the Lucaya. Since there's no GUI, I can't use a browser either. I want to continue using them and playing with the mesh, once the units work again! The packaging is also intriguing. The shielding looks excellent! Also- in mesh design, we sometimes have to mount on strand, and this package looks similar to a cable TV amp and may blend nicely in this application, if I can find a professional way to clamp it on. The supplied bracket is kind of goofy. I am going to have to be creative to figure out how to mount this on a power pole or street light arm and not create a hazard that will make us lose our bond. I did note that after only three weeks outside (fresh water marina) the cases looked like they were 2 years old and the brand label on the outside was so sun-faded that it could hardly be read. So- to sum up- 1. Upgrade immediately- even if the units were just received new and just produced. Otherwise its back to Mama for defaulting. 2. Don't ask dumb questions like "how do I make a transparent bridge" <g> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:46 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] star os config help Where is that? I'm not seeing it at all. marlon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Nash" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:23 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] star os config help > It's on the Interface, under IP addresses. Change the bridge group number > from 0 to something else. All interfaces with the same number (other than > Zero) will be bridged. > > Mark Nash > UnwiredWest > 78 Centennial Loop > Suite E > Eugene, OR 97401 > 541-998-5555 > 541-998-5599 fax > http://www.unwiredwest.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Marlon K. Schafer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 4:33 PM > Subject: [WISPA] star os config help > > >> Hi All, >> >> I have a 4000 ap. I'll only be using one radio card and the ethernet. >> >> I can't figure out how to turn it into a bridge ap. Can anyone tell me >> where to look? >> >> The only thing I've found so far talks about bridging is spanning tree >> (not >> helpful) and some kind of rf to rf bridge thingy. Also not helpful. >> >> Can anyone take the time to walk me through the setup on this box? >> Kindly >> send your phone number (off list) and I'll call you around 8 or 8:30 am >> tomorrow (wed). >> >> Thanks!!! >> marlon >> >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- >> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >> http://signup.wispa.org/ >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- >> >> WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] >> >> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >> >> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >> > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > WISPA Wants You! 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