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bridging the digital divide... |
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BLOG04 March 2008 What happened to 2007 network upgrades? Quite a bit of upgrading to the main network did happen although not complete the final two wireless links will be converted this month. Almost the whole network is now running on MikroTik equipment which provides dynamic routing using OSPF and QoS. 16 February 2008 Work to move the repeater from Mrs Wards garden to a new location in Lt Cornard is complete, now just have to move people to it. 12 November 2007 A sad day today, Mrs Ward passed away. She was a kind lady with a bright outlook on life, in the early days of SVW she who had let us use her house as a repeater site in Lt Cornard without which our network link into the Internet in Sudbury would not have been possible. 15 December 2006 It has been a busy year running the network gradually improving reliability and stability. Our upgrade project is well underway to convert the main backbone of the network to a new frequency of 5.8GHz.
24 August 2006 With help from an American ISP we now are using Freeradius for PPPoE authentication, this makes adding new kit / users to the system easier. Using a RADIUS server will also allow SVW to offer higher speeds.
11 February 2006 Reestablished link from Clive's house back to the main SVW backbone, reconnected remaining users (some decided to leave the club at this point) back onto the network. Using Clive's house as the main Glemsford wPOP is working very well indeed :)
06 February 2006 The building owner inexplicably switched off power to our main Glemsford repeater without warning! The UPS ran the system for an hour and then our network was off in Glemsford :( Later that day Clive and I managed to reroute most users through his house.
19-20 January 2006
09 July 2005
28 June 2005
10 June 2005
Connected a new internet connection in Mount Bures and began to test it.
Finalised network rearrangement for Lamarsh and Henny by installing an extra radio in Lamarsh to connect into the main network at Workhouse Green.
12 February 2005
Whilst it was not a Friday (it was a Monday) it was unlucky for a leg of the SVW network which included Workhouse Green and Glemsford. A core router on the network had been running continuously for over three months until that morning when a gardener decided to unplug it! He said, and I quote "When I unplugged that lead I did not like the buzzing sound so did not plug it back in", the buzzing sound was the battery powered UPS keeping the system going in spite of the gardener! The UPS will only keep things running for about 20 minutes before it switches off, at that point we noticed the problem and John Quick popped over the road to switch it back on. The system would not work once switch back on.... Three hours was spent that evening installing a replacement router which also had a new wireless circuit in it to stabilize the Glemsford link.
With the kind permission from Malcolm of the Glemsford Tyre Centre, Clive and Harvey set about installing the first Glemsford repeater site. Installation took a morning of hard work and the result is that the area surrounding the Tyre Centre can now receive Stour Valley Wireless and with the Clive connected up in the afternoon we were very pleased with the day.
Well it has been a while since any updates have been posted here so: SVW has been growing very slowly over the past months and much work has been done on the main network infrastructure. A few weeks ago further tests were made to link Glemsford (Suffolk) into the SVW network. To make this we will require a 12Km link which should be possible in one hop due to fortunate topography. Once this is established people in Glemsford will be able to share in the broadband project.
First user connected from the Twinstead telephone exchange area, this user also had their phone line DACs and was please to get broadband.
Network edge PPPoE router installed Workhouse Green.
New authentication router (PPPoE) installed in Sudbury, This helps us manage the network and also provide some protection for the network from abuse.
11 October 2003
Repeater site power failure. Went and reset RCD unit and all seems OK now, we've calculated that it would cost about £450 to install Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) at each network point giving use about 1 hour Up-time in the event of power failure. Any one want to buy these? ;-)
NETWORK GOES LIVE. ADSL was enabled at the Cornard
site last night, and after a prolonged battle with a piece of network
hardware, Harvey has managed to get the Internet gateway running.
Our Internet supplier has confirmed ADSL will be supplied to the network next Tuesday. This should mean SVW going live at the same time. Here's hoping...
Success! In blistering temperatures, the final antenna has been erected in Sudbury providing the final link to ADSL. The final 'hop ' is thus finished. The ADSL is ordered, and all being well will be enabled the start of next week. We're very close now...!
Reworking the first hop from Sudbury as antenna was not 'seeing' the ADSL uplink house. Very hot work but now have line of sight to our ADSL connection in Gt Cornard.
User connected to network, this household has been directly connected to the network backbone, as their house forms part of it! 26 July 2003 John and Harvey have video conversation between John's office in Lamarsh and a field very near to Sudbury, using wireless backbone to carry the data.
John has been looking at some fantastic free piece software that will greatly simplify the distribution of the network off the main links we've already put in place: the LocustWorld Mesh AP. See the documentation for more details. It really is as easy as plugging it in and you're on the network! No technical knowledge involved...
Trigger level met. Thanks to Harvey who in his somewhat limited spare time has been running the Broadband4Bures campaign. Check whether you are able to get the ADSL service here. The next step is for BT to give a ready for service date, which optimistically could be around November apparently. As far as we can see, SVW ploughs on regardless- the Internet link in Sudbury will always be faster than anything we will get out in the village. SVW will also be crucial in distributing the link to those who live more than 3 km from the village and those who want a cheaper alternative to ADSL enabling their phone line. The secondary goal of SVW remains the same- to provide a wireless community network enabling fast data transfer through the village- video phone calls etc. all become free and easy once it is in place.
Trigger level for Bures exchange set for activation of ADSL at 150. Interest from a group in Workhouse Green in getting involved in SVW as they will always be too far from an exchange to get ADSL. Various options suggested for the final link into Sudbury, all of which look very possible. We will look into it when we've got some time!
Skeleton of network now in place. Network running from Bures to Lamarsh and up to Gt Cornard. Still some tweaking to do, all of which is documented. Network accesses Internet through ISDN in Bures; Internet access throughout the network seems to be stable, and the equipment seems to be performing well. Still looking for the final link to Sudbury.
Problem solved! We now have somebody willing to act as a repeater 1/2 way along the valley. Kit is installed and working well.
[John] The history of the project so far:
Last update Thursday, March 6, 2008 9:33 PM |
