Node Admin Guide#

You must login as the node administrator in order to perform node management tasks.

Normal user view Click the user icon at the far right of the top nav bar. Select login and enter your node’s admin password (which was configured when you installed the AREDN® firmware).

Admin user view Upon successful authentication you will see the admin icon, and the label to the right of your node name should say admin.

Admin navigation & actions#

In admin mode the sections on the node status display become editable and new sections with additional options will appear. When you hover the cursor over a section, a gray background appears which identifies that section as being configurable. When you click in a highlighted section, a new settings dialog display will be opened. The title at the top of the display tells you what settings you are configuring. There is also a Help button in the upper right corner which will enable extended context-sensitive descriptions of each option which has additional help text.

Settings can be edited or selected from dropdown lists by clicking in each of the fields. If a section has Advanced Options you can view and configure them by clicking the Advanced Options label to display those additional settings. After making any changes to the configuration settings on each display, you will typically click the Done button. Your changes have been recorded but they have not yet been committed or saved to your node. You may also click the Cancel button to discard any changes you have made and return to the admin view.

After clicking Done you will be returned to your node’s admin view where you will see a new item in the top nav bar. Click the Commit button to apply your change(s) or the Revert button to ignore any change(s) and revert to the previous settings.

For some configuration changes there may be additional action buttons that are displayed. For example, if you want to upload or remove an SSH security key you will press the Upload or Remove Key button. Or you can press the Fetch and Update button to install a firmware image, or press the Remove button to remove a package installed on your node. In some cases you may need to scroll down on the configuration display in order to see these buttons.

The sections of the admin display will be described below, beginning in the upper left corner of the left column and working down that column before moving to the center and right columns of the display, working from top to bottom on each column.

Basics#

Starting at the top of the left column, highlight and click the section which contains the description and notes. This Basics section allows you to configure the following settings. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Node Name: Begin the node name with your CALLSIGN in all capital letters followed by a dash character and some unique identifying information of your choice. Node names may contain up to 63 letters, numbers, and dashes, but cannot begin or end with a dash. Underscores, spaces, or any other special characters are not allowed. Amateur radio operators are required to identify all transmitting stations, so your node name is beaconed automatically by the node every five minutes. Recommended names follow the (CALLSIGN)-(label) format, such as AD5BC-MOBILE or AD5BC-BLACKMTN. As a general rule node names should be kept as short as possible, while clearly and uniquely identifying the node.
Description: This is not a required field, but it is a good place to describe the features or function of this device. Many operators use this field to list their contact information or the tactical purpose for the node. If you want to display information about your node, put that information here in the description rather than making it part of the node name. There are no character restrictions in this field, but the maximum length is 210 characters.
Notes: This optional field allows you to enter notes about this node which are only visible to the node admin. For example, you may enter information about special settings or configurations for links to nearby devices.
Theme: Click in the field at the right to select a theme from the dropdown list. Your node will immediately display your page in the selected theme.
Portable Theme: This switch allows you to enable theme portability. When Portable Theme is enabled, the theme on your localnode will be the theme used when viewing any node on the mesh. By default this setting is disabled, which means that the remote node owner’s theme will appear in your browser.
Password: Typically passwords may contain the characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, period ., dash -, underscore _, exclamation !, and tilde ~. Avoid Linux-reserved characters, including but not limited to #, $, &, *, <, >. Enter the new password again in the Retype Password box to verify it is correct. You can click the eye icon at the right of the password fields to toggle between hidden and visible text. Be sure to remember or record the new password so you can use it for any future administrative tasks on the node.

Additional options will be displayed when you click Advanced Options.

Admin Name and Security Advanced Options

Upload SSH Key: Uploading SSH keys allows computers to connect to the node via SSH without having to know the password. The SSH keys are generated on your local computer using built-in utilities or the PuTTY program’s Key Generator. Once you have the key files on your computer, you can upload the public key to your AREDN® node. Click the Browse button and locate the public key file, then click the Upload Key button at the lower right.

Note

If you plan to use ssh keys you may want to review Use PuTTYGen to Make SSH Keys in the How-To Guide section which describes this process for users of Microsoft Windows computers.
Remove SSH Key: To remove an existing SSH key, click in the field at the right and select the key from the dropdown list. Then click the Remove Key button at the lower right.

You can click the Cancel button to ignore any changes you made on this display. When you are finished with your changes, click the Done button. You will then be returned to your node’s admin view where you will be able to Commit or Revert your changes.

Time settings#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s time. Select your timezone from the dropdown list, where the default value is UTC. Two fields are provided for entering the hostnames of NTP servers if your node is connected to a network with network time services. You can enter valid hostnames in the NTP Server fields: for example us.pool.ntp.org or AD5BC-ntp.local.mesh. You may also choose how often NTP will update the node’s clock by selecting a value from the NTP Updates dropdown list. The default is once per day [daily] but you may also select once per hour [hourly] or you can have your node run the NTP program [continuously]. If you have mesh-based NTP servers, advertise them as services to ensure time synchronization across your mesh network when the Internet is not available. Review the Local Services section below for instructions on advertising a local NTP server.

By default the time on your node will be shown as a 12-hour clock with am/pm. To display node time using a 24-hour clock, enable the 24-Hour Clock switch.

Additional options are displayed when you click Advanced Options.

By default your node can use a local GPS Time source if one is available. To disable this behavior, slide the switch to the off position.

If you want your node to function as a GPS time server you will need to install the WhereAndWhen package. This third party package allows a node with adequate processing power and memory to have a USB GPS dongle connected so that it can provide GPS time for itself and other local DtD linked devices. Further information is available on the WhereAndWhen package website.

If you plan to use Wireguard tunneling, make sure that a GPS or NTP time source is reachable when the node boots so that the key exchange between the client and server will happen correctly. Without proper time synchronization, Wireguard will not establish tunnels.

Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button. You can click the Cancel button to ignore any changes you made on this display. When you are finished with your changes, click the Done button. You will then be returned to your node’s admin view where you will be able to Commit or Revert your changes.

Firmware settings#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s firmware version. The top field displays the currently installed version of firmware on your node. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button. There are three ways to update your node’s firmware.

Download Firmware: If your node has Internet access or access to a firmware server on your local network, you can click the refresh icon on the right side of the field in order to update the list of available images. Select the image to install and click the Fetch and Update button to begin the process. You may need to scroll down in the display to see the Fetch and Update button.
Upload Firmware: If you have a new firmware image that you already downloaded to your local computer from the AREDN® website or a local firmware repository, click the Browse button and navigate to the location where you saved the firmware file. Select the image to install and click the Fetch and Update button to begin the process. You may need to scroll down in the display to see the Fetch and Update button.
Sideload Local Firmware: If you need to remotely upgrade the firmware on a node which has a marginal connection to the network, the standard web/http method may not reliably transfer the image to the node. In this situation you may want to use an independent means of uploading the firmware to the node before beginning the upgrade process. Choose an upload method such as scp (secure copy) with a long connection timeout, which may allow the file transfer to continue the upload in the event of a network interruption. Transfer the new firmware file to your node, place it in the /tmp folder, and name it local_firmware.bin. Once the node detects the presence of /tmp/local_firmware.bin, then the filename in the field at the right will become active. Click the Update button to begin the process. You may need to scroll down in the display to see the button.
Backup Configuration: Once you have your node configured the way you want it, you can save those configuration settings by clicking the Backup button. This will create a compressed archive of the node’s configuration settings and it will download the timestamped backup file to your local computer. This snapshot file can be used to restore your node’s configuration to a known good point in time, and it also allows you to transfer a configuration to new hardware.
Restore Configuration: Once you have generated and saved a backup configuration, you can restore that previous backup to your node. This will replace the node’s configuration with the settings in the backup file. Be aware that no attempt is made to validate the backup file. Also, restoring to a different type of hardware could result in unexpected behavior.

A progress bar at the bottom of the display will show the status of your download or upload. Any error messages will also be displayed in a message bar at the top of this display. You should then see a display showing that the image is being installed, along with a timer and progress indicator.

Additional options will be displayed when you click Advanced Options.

Keep Configuration: This is enabled by default and will allow you to retain your existing configuration settings during the firmware upgrade process. If you do not want any existing configuration settings to be retained, you can disable this setting and the node will come up in “firstboot” state.
Dangerous Upgrade: This setting allows you to disable the normal firmware compatibility safety checks that typically prevent you from loading the wrong firmware image on your node. The default setting is disabled which means that the safety checks remain active, and this setting should not be changed unless you have a specific reason to bypass the firmware compatibility checks. One example for using this setting would be if you mistakenly installed an incorrect firmware image and would like to correct that mistake by installing the correct firmware image.
Firmware URL: This is the source URL that is queried by the Download Firmware process in order to refresh the list of available firmware for your node. The default value is http://downloads.arednmesh.org which allows your Internet-connected node to retrieve firmware from the AREDN® website. You can also set this firmware URL to a local server which provides firmware images.

If you are only making changes to firmware settings, you will click the Done button. You are then be returned to your node’s admin view where you will be able to Commit or Revert your changes. However, if you are updating the node’s firmware as described in the previous sections, then the Fetch and Update process will begin immediately and you are not required to click the Done button.

Package settings#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s installed package count. This display allows you to install or remove software packages on the node. When you install packages, your node will remember them in its package store. When you next upgrade your node’s firmware, the package store will be retained. After the firmware upgrade your node will automatically reinstall any packages in its package store. If you originally uploaded the package to the node, then the package store keeps a copy of the package code itself. If you originally downloaded the package, then your node will attempt to re-download it. Also, if you later remove one of your extra packages, it will be automatically removed from the package store. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Download Package: If the node has a connection to the Internet or to a local package server, it can retrieve a package from the AREDN® website or from the local server. Click the refresh icon at the right of the field to update the list of packages available for download. Select the package you want to install, click the Fetch and Install button, and wait for the package to be installed. A progress bar at the bottom of the display will show the status of the process. A status message will appear at the top of the display to indicate whether the package was installed successfully.
Upload Package: If you have a package file that you already downloaded to your local computer from a package repository, click the Browse button and navigate to the location where you saved the package file. After selecting the package, click the Fetch and Update button and wait for the package to be uploaded and installed. A progress bar at the bottom of the display will show the status of the upload and install. A status message will appear at the top of the display to indicate whether the package was installed successfully.
Remove Package: Click in the field at the right to show a list of packages currently installed on the node. Select a package and click the Remove button to uninstall the selected package. You will only be able to remove packages that you have added to your node. A progress bar at the bottom of the display will show the status of the remove process. A status message will appear at the top of the display to indicate whether the package was removed successfully.

Additional options will be displayed when you click Advanced Options.

Package URL: This field contains the URL which your node will use to download packages. The default value is http://downloads.arednmesh.org which allows your Internet-connected node to retrieve packages from the AREDN® website. You can also set this package URL to a local server which provides packages.

If you are only making changes to package settings, you will click the Done button. You are then be returned to your node’s admin view where you will be able to Commit or Revert your changes. However, if you are installing or removing a package as described in the previous sections, then the install or remove process will begin immediately and you are not required to click the Done button.

Network settings#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s network settings. This display allows you to update the network configuration on your node. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Mesh#

The Mesh Address is the primary IP address of your node. The AREDN® firmware has been designed to simplify the process of configuring network interfaces. Network values are automatically calculated based on the unique MAC addresses on your node. Normally you will not need to change this, so keep this value unless you fully understand how the mesh works and why the defaults may not be suitable for your situation.

LAN#

The LAN Size allows you to set the number of devices your node will be able to host on its Local Area Network (LAN). Click in the field at the right to see the dropdown list of options for the size of your node’s LAN. The default value is 5 hosts. You may also disable your node’s ability to provide a LAN network. If the LAN is disabled then the node’s DHCP server will also be disabled.

It is important not to select a size that is larger than necessary because the chance of an IP address conflict on the mesh increases with the size of the subnet. The LAN subnet parameters are automatically calculated and depend on the IP address of the Mesh interface. If a conflict does occur it can be fixed by changing the Mesh IP address above.

The most common configuration is to have the LAN address space managed automatically for you. In this case the LAN shares the same address space as the mesh at large, and every host on the LAN has direct access to and from the mesh. You have the option of selecting the size of the LAN subnet which can accommodate either 1, 5, 13, or 29 LAN hosts. A single host subnet can be useful for either a single server or a separate network router using its own NAT which is capable of more advanced routing functions than those available on a mesh node. This design minimizes the amount of manual effort needed to provide services to the mesh, since many services do not work well if they are hosted behind a NAT router.

When you connect a device to your node’s LAN, not only will it have an IP address in the LAN IP address range, but it is best practice for LAN device to obtain its DNS Server information automatically from the node. Be aware that if a LAN device does not use the DNS Server entry provided by the node to which it is connected, then that device will be unable to resolve hostnames on the mesh network. Also, hard-coding a device’s DNS Server entry with the mesh node’s IP address could result in unexpected failures if that IP address changes.

NAT Mode

Another choice for LAN Size is NAT and in this mode the LAN is isolated from the mesh. All outgoing traffic has its source address modified to be the Mesh IP address of the node itself. This is the same way that most home routers use an Internet connection, and all services provided by computers on the LAN can only be accessed from the mesh using port forwarding rules.

In NAT mode you are responsible for managing the IP address space of your node’s LAN network. Enter the LAN IP address and netmask in dotted decimal format. Specify the final octet of the IP address that your node’s DHCP service will use as its DHCP Start address as well as the DHCP End address, which defines the IP address range that will be provided via DHCP for LAN devices.

WAN#

WAN Mode: This specifies whether your node’s WAN interface is enabled, and if so, how it gets its IP address. The default is to use DHCP, so the WAN IP address is assigned to your node by your Internet router. If you select Static you will see several new fields which allow you to specify the IP address, netmask in dotted decimal format, and gateway IP address.
DNS: These two fields allow you to enter the IP addresses of the DNS servers of your choice. By default Google’s DNS servers are listed because their name resolution servers are configured to detect error conditions properly and to report them correctly.

Advanced Options#

Additional options will be displayed when you click Advanced Options.

WAN VLAN

Many of the devices used as AREDN® nodes have only one Ethernet port, but more than one type of network traffic must share that single port. The AREDN® firmware implements VLANs in order to accomplish this. Different types of traffic are tagged to identify the network to which they belong. By default the WAN uses an untagged VLAN on multi-port devices, and VLAN 1 on single port devices. This can be changed if your network requires something different. Enter the VLAN number or leave the field blank for untagged. If you change this setting and want to use a single digit identifier, use numbers greater than three, but do not use any number larger than can be supported by your network equipment. Different types of network equipment can support various numbers of VLANS, but the maximum number is limited by the 802.1Q standard to no more than 4094.

The following VLANs are preconfigured in the AREDN® firmware:

VLAN 2 identifies traffic from a DtD node directly connected to your node.
No VLAN tag identifies LAN traffic from devices on the local area network.
For single-port nodes: A VLAN 1 tag identifies WAN traffic to your node from the Internet or another external network.

It is important to understand AREDN® VLANs when configuring network smart switches for single-port nodes to access the Internet, tunneling, or DtD linking of nodes. There are some useful tutorials available on the AREDN® website for configuring VLAN-capable switches: Video or Text+Images. Also, on the AREDN® GitHub site there is more information about node VLANs that have been preconfigured in the firmware images for specific types of radio hardware (Ethernet Port Usage)

Mesh to WAN

Enabling this switch will allow your node to route traffic from its Mesh interface to/from its WAN interface. This allows any device on the mesh network to use the WAN on your node, typically for accessing the Internet. It is usually not desirable to route Internet traffic over your Mesh interface. AREDN® is an FCC Part 97 amateur radio network, so be sure that any traffic which will be sent over the radio complies with FCC Part 97 rules. If you want local devices to have wireless Internet access, consider using an FCC Part 15 access point instead of your node’s WAN gateway. The default value is disabled and it is recommended that you keep this default unless there is a special reason to enable it.

LAN to WAN

The default value is enabled which allows devices on your node’s LAN to access your node’s WAN network. Setting this value to disabled will prevent LAN devices from accessing the WAN, which means that your LAN hosts will not be able to reach the Internet even if your node has Internet access via its WAN. You may need to disable WAN access if your device needs to be connected to two networks at once, such as an Ethernet connection to your node as well as a wifi connection to a local served agency network.

LAN default route

Your node’s DHCP server will provide routes to its LAN devices so they can access any available networks. A default route is required for WAN access, and that is provided automatically if LAN to WAN is enabled as discussed above. However, some LAN devices (such as certain IP cameras) may not support DHCP option 121, so they will require a default route in order to access the mesh network. Setting this value to enabled will provide a default route to those devices. If a LAN device is connected to two networks at once, such as an Ethernet connection to your node as well as a wifi connection to a local served agency network, care should be taken to understand how the device will deal with default routes for more than one network. The default value is disabled and you should not enable it unless you have a special reason to do so.

Location settings#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s location. This display allows you to update the location settings on your node. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Any values you enter should be in decimal format, and the values in these three fields are linked. Any changes made will automatically update the fields and the map thumbnail. You can also change the location information by clicking on the map and panning around to set your location. As you pan the map, the location values will follow your movements automatically.

Location information is used to determine the distance between your node and others, and it is required for optimizing connection latency and bandwidth. A Maidenhead grid square is a six character designation of a node’s location. A grid square identifier consists of two uppercase letters, two digits, and two lowercase letters. Each grid square is approximately 3x4 miles in size.

Additional options will be displayed when you click Advanced Options.

By default your node will attempt to set its location from a local GPS source. If you want to disable this behavior, slide the GPS Location switch to the off position.

The Map URL is used to embed maps in your node’s displays. The default value is https://worldmap.arednmesh.org/#12/(lat)/(lon) which attempts to get map data from the AREDN® server. The (lat) and (lon) parameters in the URL are substitutes with your GPS coordinates before the map is rendered. If there is a local map tile server available on your mesh network, then you can point your node to the local server for its map data.

Internal Services#

When you are logged in as admin you will see an Internal Services status display at the top of the center column. This shows the state of each of the listed services, which will be described below in more detail. The Metrics status is informational only, and it simply indicates whether this node is being monitored by providing metrics to an external service (such as Prometheus). The Supernode status is informational only and indicates whether this node is configured as a Supernode.

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s Internal Services, which allows you to manage the internal settings on your node. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Cloud Mesh

This switch allows your node to use any available Supernode on your local mesh. Supernodes are a way to link multiple mesh island networks in a safe and efficient way. If your local node is part of a network with a Supernode then you have the ability to view other nodes which are part of the Cloud Mesh network. This feature is enabled by default. Clicking the Cloud Mesh icon will navigate to the mesh status display of the closest Supernode available to your device. For further information see the Supernode Architecture description in the Network Topologies section of the Network Design Guide.

Cloud mesh view You may connect to any node on the worldwide mesh by clicking your node’s Cloud Mesh icon on the left nav bar. Disable this option if you never want your node to provide a method of accessing devices on the worldwide mesh network.

iPerf3 Server

This switch enables the built-in iperf3 tools on your node. This makes it easy to perform throughput tests between nodes in the network. The client and server are only invoked on demand, so there is no performance impact on the node except during testing. The default value is enabled. If you do not want your node to participate in any remote iperf3 tests then you can disable its ability to respond to those queries.

Remote Logging

The limited amount of memory for local node logs means that older information will roll off, and all log history is lost when your node is rebooted. By entering the URI for a remote log server, you can send your node’s log info to a server using the syslog protocol. The format for this option is udp://ip-address:port or tcp://ip-adress:port. Leave this field blank if no remote logging is desired.

WAN ssh

This switch enables SSH access to your node on its WAN interface. Disabling this option will not prevent SSH access to your node from the Mesh and LAN interfaces.

WAN telnet

This switch enables telnet access to your node on its WAN interface. Disabling this option will not prevent telnet access to your node from the Mesh and LAN interfaces.

WAN web

This switch enables http/https access to your node on its WAN interface. Disabling this option will not prevent http/https access to your node from the Mesh and LAN interfaces.

Watchdog

Watchdog is a background monitor that keeps track of core node processes. If any of the processes has issues, Watchdog will reboot the node. This feature is disabled by default. Currently the set of node processes that are monitored include olsrd, dnsmasq, telnetd, dropbear, uhttpd, and vtund. Watchdog events are logged in the standard log on the node. Because the watchdog is part of the hardware, the device will still reboot itself even if the kernel crashes. Be aware that you must disable Watchdog and reboot your node before you can upgrade the firmware, since Watchdog may interfere with the normal upgrade process.

If Watchdog is enabled, the following two fields will also be displayed.

Watchdog IP address: You may also include one or more IP addresses, at least one of which should always be pingable. Your node will be rebooted if none of the IP addresses are reachable across the network. Enter IP addresses as a whitespace-delimited list. It is strongly recommended that you keep this list to the absolute minimum. Too many address can take a long time to check, especially if several are unavailable. This can result in reboots if the testing is not performed before the watchdog timer expires. Ideally use only one address.
Daily Watchdog hour: Enter an integer between 0 - 23 which represents the hour of each day that you would like Watchdog to automatically reboot your node. The default is an empty field, in which case Watchdog will not auto-reboot your node.

PoE and USB Power Passthrough

These settings will only appear if you have node hardware which supports PoE or USB power passthrough. One example is the Mikrotik hAP ac lite which provides one USB-A power jack (~5v) as well as PoE power passthrough on Ethernet port 5 (~22v). You are allowed to enable or disable power passthrough on nodes with ports that support this feature.

Message Updates

The AREDN® development team may post messages which Internet-connected nodes will automatically download and display. You may also use a local message source to display messages on your node’s status page. Enter an integer in this field for the number of hours you want your node to wait before refreshing its messages. Decimal fractions of an hour are allowed (for example, 0.5 for every 30 minutes). The default value is 1 hour between updates.

Local Message URL

This field allows you to enter the URL for a local message source. If you configure a local message server, then even nodes without Internet access can receive alert messages pertinent to your local mesh. Enter the URL without a trailing backslash.

A local message server can be configured on a mesh-connected web server which allows nodes to query the URL you entered. There is also a separate package called AREDN® Alert Message Manager which allows the local message repository to be hosted on the node itself, rather than requiring a separate LAN-conneted web server. You can find out more about this application by reading AREDN® Alert Message Manager in the Applications and Services Guide under the Other Services section.

Message Groups

In addition to local messages addressed by node name, it is possible to subscribe to group messages. Multiple group names can be added to this field as a comma delimited list. Group messages are retrieved from the web server specified in the Local Message URL field. The following are example grouping ideas:

Geographic regions (State, county, ARRL section, neighborhood)
Connection types (backbone, leaf nodes, tunnels)
Infrastructure Change Management notices
Weather alerts
Wildfire, flooding, tsunami or volcano alerts
SKYWARN activations, DHS threat level

Local Services#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s local services. The Local Services display allows you to manage the services which will be available on your node. The purpose of the network is to transport data for the services which are being used. Network services may include keyboard-to-keyboard chat or email programs, document sharing applications, Voice over IP phone or video conferencing services, streaming video from surveillance cameras, and a variety of other network-enabled features. Services can run on the node itself or on any of its LAN-connected devices. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Adding a Service

To add a service, click in the field to the right and select the type of service you want to add. Then click the [+] icon to add a row to your services list for the new service of the selected type. You will provide different parameters for the new entry based on the type of service selected.

Generic URL service template

This template allows you to enter a descriptive service name to clearly identify your service (“Generic URL” is a placeholder). Click in the field to the right of the service name to select from the dropdown list the type of icon that will be displayed for this service (if any). The icon you choose will be displayed to the right of the service name on mesh status pages.

In the protocol field on the next row, enter the protocol to use for this service. Common protocols include http for website services and ftp for file transfer services. Other services may use other protocols. From the dropdown list in the next field, select the node or host on which this service is running. If you defined Host Aliases (described below), you will see these host aliases in the dropdown list.

In the next field enter the network port on which the host is listening for service connections. There may be several applications provided through a single web server on a node or host using a single port, and in that case a valid application Path must be entered after the port number. In other cases the network port alone will uniquely identify the application or program that is listening for user connections to that service. You can find additional information on ports at the following link: Network Ports.

Simple text service template

This template allows you to create an informational label which is not clickable. Enter a descriptive label (“Simple text” is a placeholder). Click in the field to the right of the text label to select from the dropdown list the type of icon that will be displayed for this label (if any). The icon you choose will be displayed to the right of the service name on mesh status pages. From the dropdown list in the next field, select the node or host with which this label is associated. If you defined Host Aliases (described below), you will see these host aliases in the dropdown list.

Network time service template

To advertise a local NTP server, select the NTP Server template. The required field values are all filled for you. You can change any of the defaults that are not appropriate for your situation.

Additional service templates

Additional templates have been created for common services, with the goal of making it easier to define these services on your nodes. These templates fill in some of the fields with typical values, while allowing you to customize the information appropriately. Templates exist for several types of IP cameras as well as Winlink, MeshChat, WeeWx, Mapping, Proxmox, and web-based services.

Viewing, Editing, and Deleting Services

On the Local Services display your services are listed as a series of rows. You can change any of the fields for any of the services in this list. If you want to delete a service row, click the [-] icon on the right side of that row.

Service Advertisement Process

OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing) propagates service entries to other nodes across the network. Once every hour your node will verify that its own service entries are valid. Your node will not propagate services across the network if it finds any of these conditions after three attempts:

The LAN host is not pingable from your node
There is no service listening on the specified port
An HTTP service does not return a success status code

The node’s Advertised Services list will still show the defined service (with an alert icon and hover text marking it as non-advertised), but your node will not actually advertise that service to the network. If the service URL becomes reachable in the future or if the dependent package is later installed, then your node will resume advertising the service across the network.

Managing Host Aliases

Host Aliases provide a way for you to create a hostname alias for a device on your node’s LAN. This can be useful if you want a computer or device on your LAN to be identified by something other than its actual hostname. Your Host Alias will be propagated across the network even if the actual hostname has Do Not Propagate checked in its DHCP Reservation, allowing you to hide the actual hostname while still advertising the alias on the mesh. Once an alias is defined, it will become available for creating local services (described above).

To create an alias, click the [+] icon on the right and enter an alias name in the first field. The alias should be prefixed with your callsign in order to follow the naming convention used when defining any unique host on the network. Then use the dropdown selector to choose the name or IP Address of the existing host for which you are defining the alias. Once you have entered these values, you can change any of the fields in any of the aliases. If you want to delete an alias, click the [-] icon on the right side of that row.

Port Forwarding

There may be situations where your node must act as an intermediary, typically between a remote client device and a server device on your node’s LAN network. More information can be found at this link for Port Forwarding.

To create a port forwarding rule, click the [+] icon on the right. Unless the LAN is in NAT mode, port forwarding is only meaningful for WAN-connected nodes so you will only be allowed to create rules for the WAN interface. If in NAT mode you may select the WAN, Mesh, or both Mesh & WAN interfaces when defining your port forwarding rule.

For inbound port, enter a single port number or a range of ports separated by the dash character. Click in the protocol field to select TCP, UDP, or both. Use the switch on the right to enable or disable this port forwarding rule. On the next row, click in the IP address / hostname field to select from the dropdown list a LAN host to process the requests. In the next field, enter the port or the first port in the range on which that host is listening for those requests.

To delete a port forwarding rule, click the [-] icon on the right of the existing row for the rule you wish to delete. You can click the Cancel button to ignore any changes you made on this display. When you are finished with your changes, click the Done button. You will then be returned to your node’s admin view where you will be able to Commit or Revert your changes.

Local Devices#

This section displays any devices that are directly connected to your node’s LAN network. There is no admin action available.

Local Nodes#

As described in Node Status, this section shows any local DtD nodes that are directly connected to your node. In order to be considered “local” the GPS coordinates entered in the Location section must be within 100 meters of the local neighbor. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

The node name of each Local Node is a clickable link which will navigate to that node’s status page. When you hover over the row of any Local Node, a gray background appears which indicates that row is selected. If you click in the selected row (but not directly on the node name link), the Local Node popup will be displayed which provides more detailed information about your node’s connection to the selected local node.

To the right of the node’s name there is a field that shows the current link status. Clicking in this field will give you several options for handling the link to this node, including the ability to always block or never block that node’s traffic from reaching your node. The following details may be displayed (if available) for this node’s connection to your node – from top to bottom & left to right:

type, mac address, and ip address
model and firmware version
Latitude, Longitude, and Distance
lq, nlq, and etx
ping time, ping success rate, and average packets per second
link state and active routes

Neighborhood Nodes#

As described in the Node Status section, this area shows a list of neighbor devices that are directly connected to your node. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

The node name of each Neighborhood Node is a clickable link which will navigate to that node’s status page. When you hover over the row of any Neighborhood Node, a gray background appears which indicates that row is selected. If you click in the selected row (but not directly on the node name link), the Neighborhood Node popup will be displayed which provides more detailed information about your node’s connection to the selected local node.

To the right of the neighbor node’s name there is a field that shows the current link status. Clicking in this field will give you options for handling the link to this node. Select always block if you want LQM to disable the link. Select never block if you want LQM to keep it enabled even if the link is marginal.

The following details may be displayed (if available) for this node’s connection to your node – from top to bottom & left to right:

type, mac address, and ip address
Latitude, Longitude, and Distance
lq, nlq, and etx
ping time, ping success rate, and average packets per second
neighbor ping time, ping success, errors
local snr, neighbor snr, and transmit failure rate
physical receive bitrate, physical transmit bitrate, and retransmissions
link state and active routes
For RF nodes there is a graph of the signal level and noise floor on this link over the last hour of history (approximately). Hovering over the graph lines will display the instantaneous values which were plotted at each point on the graph.

This provides an excellent troubleshooting tool for diagnosing issues with node connections, especially via RF.

Radios & Antennas#

At the top of the right-hand column, highlight and click the section displaying your node’s radio information. The Radios & Antennas display allows you to configure the radios on your node. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

If your device has two radios, you can configure them separately but you cannot put them both into the same mode. For example, you can use one radio for Mesh RF while the second radio functions as a LAN Hotspot or a WAN Client (as described below). Some devices may not have any available radios, but some of the radio options will still be shown if they are applicable to the device.

Click in the first field on the right to set the radio’s purpose. You can choose one of several different radio functions from the dropdown list. Off disables the radio.

Mesh Radio settings#

This option configures the radio to link with other nodes via RF across the mesh network.

Channel

Click in the field on the right to select a channel for mesh RF communication. Nodes communicate only with other nodes that use the same channel, channel width, and SSID. You can determine the correct settings by talking with other local node operators to find out which settings are required for joining their networks. The options in this list show the channel number as well as the center frequency of each channel.

Warning

You are responsible for using frequencies, channels, bandwidths, and power levels that comply with your country’s Amateur radio license requirements.

Channel Width

Click in the field at the right to select from the channel widths supported on your device. Most hardware will support 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz channel widths, but some devices will only support specific channel widths. If the choice of channel width is limited, the device will only show its supported widths in the dropdown list.

As a general rule, a larger channel width will allow more data to be transferred, but it may only do this over shorter distances. One suggestion is to start with the largest channel width that yields a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of at least 15 dB. There may be several reasons for reducing the channel width setting:

To achieve a better SNR on a marginal link.
To extend the usable distance between remote nodes.
To increase the number of available channels in a crowded RF coverage area.

Please review the Network Design section for more information about designing a network that meets the specific requirements of your applications and services.

Transmit Power

Click in the field at the right to select from the power settings that are supported on your device.

SSID Setting

The default SSID is provided in the field at the right. Typically you will not need to change this default unless you have a specific reason for putting radios on a non-default SSID to filter their traffic. The SSID is analogous to a CTCSS tone; radios with different SSIDs but using the same channel may generate RF energy that causes interference, even though the radios will not be decoding each other’s signals.

All of the following settings will be visible when LQM is enabled. If LQM is disabled, only the Maximum Distance setting will be visible.

Minimum SNR: This is the minimum Signal-to-Noise ratio that you require in order to reliably pass radio data between nodes. The default is 15 dB, but you can lower this value if you require your node to continue passing data even on links with reduced signal characteristics.
Maximum Distance: This is the maximum distance between nodes at which you can expect to achieve a usable radio link. The default value is 50 miles / 80 kilometers, but you can adjust this setting if your node is only able to maintain a usable radio link with nearby nodes. The distance can be limited in order to prevent distant nodes from intermittently connecting to your node due to changes in atmospheric (or other) conditions. Communicating with these distant nodes uses more radio time and can negatively impact local communications.
Minimum Quality: This is the minimum link quality required in order to reliably pass data between nodes, and the default value is 35%. This is calculated as the moving average of total sent packets over total sent packets plus retransmissions. For example, if a node must send every packet twice for it to be successfully received, the link quality would be 50%.

LAN Hotspot Radio settings#

This option configures the radio as a standard 802.11 FCC Part 15 wifi hotspot for your node’s LAN network. Any device that connects to your node using its wifi hotspot will receive an IP address on your node’s LAN subnet.

SSID: A default SSID is provided, but you should change this value to a unique name that identifies the hotspot to potential users who will connect to it locally.
Channel: Click in the field to the right to select a valid wifi channel. You are responsible for using a channel that complies with your region’s wifi requirements (for example, FCC Part 15).
Encryption: Click in the field to the right to select a wifi encryption method.
Password: Click in the field to the right to enter a valid wifi password for accessing your node’s hotspot. You can click the eye icon at the right of the password fields to toggle between hidden and visible text.

WAN Client Radio settings#

This option configures the radio as a wifi WAN client to an available Internet gateway. This can be useful for providing Internet access to your node via wifi rather than requiring an Ethernet cable plugged into the node’s WAN port. Enabling a radio as a WAN Client will disable VLAN1 on your node, so Internet access will no longer be possible through the physical WAN port.

SSID: Click in the field at the right to enter the SSID of the local wifi access point you are connecting to for Internet access. Set your node’s WAN interface to receive an IP address via DHCP from the wifi AP which will provide Internet connectivity.
Password: Enter the authentication password for the wifi AP to which you are connecting. Your node uses WPA2 PSK encryption to connect to external wifi APs. The password length must be between zero and 64 characters. If the key length is 64, it is treated as hex encoded. If the length is 0, then no encryption will be used to connect to an open AP. A single-quote character (') must not be used in the passphrase. You can click the eye icon at the right of the password fields to toggle between hidden and visible text.

Antenna settings#

Various devices may have differing antenna configurations, so the appropriate fields will be displayed depending on your radio hardware. If there are multiple antenna types available for your hardware model, then you can select one from a dropdown list.

Azimuth: Click in the field at the right to enter the direction (in degrees) toward which your directional antenna is aimed. This field will not appear if your device uses an omnidirectional antenna.
Height: Click in the field at the right to enter a height in meters above ground level at which you have your antenna mounted.
Elevation: Click in the field at the right to enter an angle (in degrees) of uptilt or downtilt that you have set on your antenna. Note that some omnidirectional and sector antennas have a built-in downtilt, and that value can be entered here.

Advanced Radio Options#

Additional options will be displayed when you click Advanced Options.

LQM Enable: This switch enables Link Quality Manager functionality on your node, and the default value is enabled.

All of the following settings will be visible when LQM is enabled. If LQM is disabled, these settings will not be visible.

Minimum Distance: The minimum distance that must exist between nodes in order for a link to be considered for activation. The default value is 0. This value can be increased if you do not want your node to pass traffic with nearby nodes, for example at a tower site with collocated backbone nodes each of which should have an RF link only with other distant nodes.
RTS Threshold: The packet size in bytes triggering RTS/CTS when LQM detects hidden nodes. The default value is 1 which means all packets will trigger RTS/CTS.
Maximum Packet Size: The maximum size of a packet which is sent over wifi. The value is between 256 and 1500 with a default of 1500 bytes. Decreasing this value can improve link quality in some cases, especially in noisy environments with long distance connections.
SNR Margin: The margin above the Minimum SNR that must be detected in order for a node to be returned to the active list based on signal level. The default value is 1 dB.
Quality Margin: The margin above the Minimum Quality that must be detected in order for a node to be returned to the active list based on quality. The default value is 1 percent.
Ping Penalty: The Link Quality penalty that is imposed on calculations if a remote node does not respond to a ping request. The default value is 5 percent. This setting may be helpful for cases when a link would otherwise be marked active but the remote node is currently unreachable on the network.
Minimum Routes: The minimum number of routes on a link that are required to disable blocking.

LAN DHCP settings#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s LAN DHCP settings. By default each node runs a Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) server to provide client IP addresses for devices joining its LAN network. LAN devices connecting to your node will be assigned an IP address automatically. Be aware that if your LAN Size is disabled in the Network settings, then your node’s DHCP server is also disabled. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Address Reservations

Devices which are added to the Address Reservations list will display their hostname, IP address, and MAC address. The hostname of every device connected to the mesh at large should be unique. It is best practice to prefix your Amateur Radio callsign to the hostname of each of your devices in order to give it a unique name on the network.

You can create an Address Reservation by clicking the [+] icon to the right of the Address Reservation title. Click in the first field to enter the new device’s hostname. In the second field select an unused IP address from the dropdown list. In the third field type the MAC address of the new device. If you have a device which needs to be reachable via your node, but which should not be accessed across the mesh network, click the Do Not Propagate checkbox to prevent OLSR from propagating that information across the mesh.

There may be some devices on which you are not able to set the hostname, but once you add that device to your Address Reservations you can click in the hostname field to edit the hostname that will be propagated across the mesh. You may also want to assign a specific IP Address to the device by selecting it from the drop-down list. You can click the Do Not Propagate checkbox to prevent OLSR from propagating the new device’s information across the mesh.

In addition to adding an address reservation manually, you can also click the [+] icon at the right of any of the devices which have active DHCP leases as described below. You will then see that host appear in the Address Reservations list.

Active Leases

Devices which are currently assigned an IP address by your node will be displayed in the table of Active Leases. The first field displays the hostname, followed by the IP address that was assigned by your node’s DHCP server. The third field displays the device’s MAC address.

Since DHCP leases are dynamic and can change over time, there may be a reason why a host’s assigned IP address should be made permanent. This is especially useful if that host will provide an application, program, or service through your node to the mesh network at large. As mentioned above, you can reserve that host’s DHCP address by clicking the [+] icon at the right of the row. You will see that host now appear in the Address Reservations list.

Advanced Options

Additional options will be displayed when you click Advanced Options. This section allows you to specify DHCP option codes and values which are sent to devices on your node’s LAN network. In addition to providing an IP address, the DHCP protocol is able to send a large number of options for device configuration. Any LAN client joining the network can request specific DHCP options in addition to its IP address. These Advanced Options are especially helpful for configuring and provisioning VoIP phones on your node’s LAN.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a good source of information about DHCP options. Specific vendor equipment may or may not support all of the options, so you should verify which options are supported by referring to the manufacturer’s documentation for your LAN device.

Tags: The tags for advanced DHCP options allow you to define labels for values that will be assigned to clients which match specific properties such as Vendor Class or MAC address. Click the [+] icon to add a new tag. Enter a tag label in the first field, then click in the second field to select a tag type from the dropdown list. Finally, enter a text string which will be used to match a property on the device, such as the Vendor Class or MAC address. To delete an existing tag, click the [-] at the right side of the row you wish to remove.
Options: The options entries allow you to specify which devices will receive the DHCP options. Click in the first field to select whether you want this option to be sent to [all] clients or only to clients which match a specific tag. Option numbers can be entered directly in the second field or you can select them from the dropdowm list of well-known options. In the third field enter the specific value that will be sent in this option. A checkbox allows you to specify whether or not this option will always be sent.

To delete a tag or option, click the [-] icon on the right of the existing row for the item you wish to delete. You can click the Cancel button to ignore any changes you made on this display. When you are finished with your changes, click the Done button. You will then be returned to your node’s admin view where you will be able to Commit or Revert any changes.

Ethernet Ports & Xlinks#

If you have a multiport node or one which supports xlinks, then the Ethernet Ports & Xlinks section will be displayed. This provides a way for you to configure the ports on your node and/or the configuration of xlinks. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Ports (if available)

The Ports section shows a table of the available port names at the top of each column, with configuration labels for each row along the left side, and checkboxes beneath the ports to show which settings have been assigned on each port. For more information about the standard AREDN® VLANs, refer to the VLAN description in the Advanced Options section of Network settings.

The example configuration shown above is for a Mikrotik hAP ac2/ac3.

The first port is configured with the WAN checkbox selected. The data entry field to the right of the vlan label can contain any valid vlan identifier if it is required. The default for the multiport node in this example is no vlan (untagged). Leave the default value unless there is a specific reason why it must be changed for your situation.
The remaining ports in this example are identified as LAN ports. The middle ports have no special settings (untagged), but the last LAN port is configured as a DtD link port which will have an Ethernet cable connecting it to another AREDN® node.

If you want to change a port’s configuration, simply check or uncheck the settings desired on each port.

Xlinks

A cross-link (xlink) allows your node to pass AREDN® traffic across non-AREDN® links. To add an xlink click the [+] icon, enter an unused VLAN number for the link. Enter the IP address of the near-side device, the IP address of the far-side device, the CIDR netmask, and a weighting factor which will be used by OLSR to determine the best route for AREDN® traffic.

In the example above on a multiport device, you also enter the port to which the near-side device is connected on your node. If you want to remove an xlink, simply click the [-] icon on the right side of the row to remove it.

Tunnels#

Tunnels are typically used as a means of connecting mesh islands if RF links cannot be established. Before using the AREDN® tunnel feature, be aware of how this type of connection could impact your local mesh network. If your node participates in a local mesh, then adding one or more tunnel connections will cause the nodes and hosts on the far side of the tunnel(s) to appear as part of your local mesh network. This essentially joins the two networks into a single large network, increasing the total network traffic across the entire range of devices.

If you want to participate in remote mesh networks, consider using the Cloud Mesh network established through worldwide Supernodes. If your local network does not have a Supernode and you need to connect to another remote network, consider establishing a tunnel from a standalone node that is not connected to your local mesh. Remember that AREDN® is first and foremost an emergency communication resource, so it’s possible that Internet-dependent links and the assets they provide will not be available during a disaster or deployment.

Internet Networking Requirements#

In order to run your node as either a Tunnel Server or Tunnel Client, you will need to configure Internet access. The following diagram shows an example of tunnel connectivity between two nodes using network port 5525 as an example.

If you are using Mikrotik hAP ac or GL.iNET devices, those multiport nodes have the appropriate VLANs preconfigured in the AREDN® firmware. If you are using any other type of node, then you will need to configure a separate VLAN-capable switch. Set your VLAN-capable network switch to appropriately tag traffic from the Internet with VLAN 1 before sending it to your node. This allows your node to properly identify the traffic as coming from the Internet to its WAN interface. See the equipment manual for your smart switch to determine how to configure VLAN settings.

Tunnels allows you to configure connections for both types of tunneling protocols (Legacy vtun & Wireguard) as well as both tunnel directions (Client & Server). The legacy vtun protocol provides an unencrypted TCP connection over the Internet, while the Wireguard tunneling protocol provides an encrypted UDP connection. Wireguard is preferred since it is more efficient and secure, and it only encrypts the traffic as it traverses the public Internet, so no encrypted traffic will be sent via radio in compliance with FCC Part 97 requirements.

Networking for Tunnel Servers

In order for remote tunnel clients to reach your tunnel server node, your Internet-connected firewall must allow that traffic to enter your network and it must also forward that traffic to your tunnel server node. In order for your router/firewall to have a consistent way to forward traffic to your node, it is best practice to set a static IP address on your tunnel server node’s WAN interface or to reserve its DHCP IP address in your router.

On your Internet-connected router/firewall set the firewall rules to permit TCP/UDP traffic from the Internet on an appropriate range of ports. The starting port should be 5525, which will provide for one Wireguard tunnel client connection as well as multiple Legacy tunnel client connections. If you want to allow up to 10 Wireguard tunnel links (for example), you would permit UDP traffic on the range of ports between 5525-5534. Then configure a port forwarding rule to send any traffic from the Internet on your range of ports to the IP address of your node’s WAN interface.

Tunnel settings#

Highlight and click the section displaying your node’s Tunnels to open the tunnel configuration display as shown below. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Tunnel Server: This first setting is relevant if you will be using your node as a tunnel server. Otherwise you can skip to the next section. A tunnel server node must be reachable from the Internet. Enter the public IP address (obtained from your ISP) or DDNS hostname in the field at the right.

Add Tunnel#

To add a tunnel connection, click in the field at the right to select from the dropdown list the type of tunnel you want to create. The newer Wireguard protocol is superseding the legacy vtun protocol because it is more efficient and secure. Be aware that without proper time synchronization, Wireguard will not establish tunnels. If you plan to use Wireguard tunneling, make sure that an NTP or GPS time source is reachable at boot time so that the key exchange between the client and server will happen correctly. If mesh based NTP servers are available, ask the owners to advertise them as services to ensure that time synchronization happens across your mesh network even if the Internet is not available. Review the Local Services section above for instructions on advertising a local NTP server.

Wireguard Client

Select Wireguard Client from the dropdown list and click the [+] icon. For tunnel client credentials, contact the Amateur Radio operator who controls the tunnel server you want to connect to and request client credentials by providing your specific node name. The tunnel server administrator will send you the public IP or hostname for the tunnel server field, the key you are to use, and the network IP address & port for your client node. If your client credentials were provided using the method described below for servers, you can highlight and copy the entire set of values, click into one of the fields on your tunnel client row, and when you paste into one of the fields then all of the credentials will be automatically entered into the correct fields for you. Otherwise, you can manually enter these values into the appropriate fields on your node. To the right of the network IP address is the Wgt or tunnel weight field. The global default tunnel weight is configured under Advanced Options as described below, but you can override this value on a per tunnel basis. Leave this field empty to accept the global default, or enter a tunnel weight to override the default if you desire.

Wireguard Server

Select Wireguard Server from the dropdown list and click the [+] icon. In the Node Name field enter the exact node name of the client node that will be allowed to connect to your tunnel server. Do not include the “local.mesh” suffix. You may also enter other optional information in the Notes field. The security key, network, and port settings are automatically generated and displayed. Leave the Wgt or tunnel weight field empty to accept the global default, or enter a new tunnel weight to override the default if you desire.

Click the copy icon to the right of the Notes field to display all of the connection settings in a new web page. These settings can then be copied and pasted into an email or text file to provide the credentials to the owner of the client node.

Legacy Client

Select Legacy Client from the dropdown list and click the [+] icon. For tunnel client credentials, contact the Amateur Radio operator who controls the tunnel server you want to connect to and request client credentials by providing your specific node name. The tunnel server administrator will send you the public IP or hostname for the tunnel server field, the password you are to use, and the network IP address & port for your client node. If your client credentials were provided using the method described for servers, you can highlight and copy the entire set of values, click into one of the fields on your tunnel client row, and when you paste into one of the fields then all of the credentials will be automatically entered into the correct fields for you. Otherwise, you can manually enter these values into the appropriate fields on your node. Leave the Wgt or tunnel weight field empty to accept the global default, or enter a new tunnel weight to override the default if you desire.

Legacy Server

Select Legacy Server from the dropdown list and click the [+] icon. In the Node Name field enter the exact node name of the client node that will be allowed to connect to your tunnel server. Do not include the “local.mesh” suffix. You may also enter other optional information in the Notes field. A default password will appear in the Password field, but you may change that as desired. The network IP address is automatically generated and displayed. Leave the Wgt or tunnel weight field empty to accept the global default, or enter a new tunnel weight to override the default if you desire.

The switch on the right is enabled by default, but it appears gray until the tunnel connection is established, at which time it will be green.

Advanced Options: The Tunnel Server Network address is displayed under Advanced Options. It is calculated automatically and should not be changed unless there is a specific reason why the default will not work for your situation. The Tunnel Weight is the weighting factor used by OLSR to determine the link cost of sending traffic via the tunnel. This value is a global default, but you can override the tunnel weight by providing an individual per-tunnel value as described above.

Tools#

Admin user view Click the Tools icon at the bottom of the left nav bar and select one of the tools from the popup menu.

For any tools with dropdown selection lists, you may filter the list by typing characters in the search box. This will limit the list to include only items which match the text you enter. As you type each character from your keyboard into the search field, the list will change to show only the entries that match your character string. The filter is case insensitive, so it will find both uppercase and lowercase entries for the characters you enter.

WiFi Scan

This displays the wifi scan page which will show the results of the most recent scan (if any). It will only appear if the radio is in Mesh mode. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Click the Scan button in the lower right corner to initiate a new scan which looks for wifi signals that are using the same channel width as your node. It is best practice to scan on 5, 10, and 20 MHz channel widths to find any 802.11 signals within range. Several scans may be necessary to find as many local devices as possible.

Note

The BSSID column shows the IEEE 802.11 wireless Basic Service Set ID. This is a 48-bit label that conforms to the MAC-48 convention, but it is not an actual MAC address. More information about the BSSID can be found here.

With some devices, a scan will momentarily disconnect the wifi from the mesh so the radio is available to perform the scan operation. It is recommended that you perform a scan when connected to the device in some other way than via WiFi. The most recent scan results are retained. When you are finished studying the scan results, click the Done button to return to the admin display.

WiFi Signal

This displays RF signal information as a realtime line graph. It will only appear if the radio is in Mesh mode. The default view shows the average signal of all connected stations in realtime. Click in the field to the right of the Node label to select a specific neighborhood node from the dropdown list. The graph will be cleared and redrawn using signal data from that node. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

The colored bars on the left display the worst and best signal values that are seen during the monitoring interval. The instantaneous signal value is shown above the colored bars on the left. Both the local node and remote node view of the signal levels will be displayed on the bars and the graph. All of these values will be adjusted over time as new data is obtained.

Below the line graph there are controls that allow you to enable an audio representation of the instantaneous signal value. Click in the field to the right of the Sound label and select OFF or ON to enable or disable the sound. You can control the volume and pitch of the tone using the horizontal sliders. The higher the pitch, the better the signal level. When you are finished studying the results, click the Done button to return to the status display.

Ping

This tool allows you to perform a ping test between devices on your network. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Target Address: Click the down arrow icon at the right of the Target Address to select a target device from the dropdown list. If your desired device is not shown, you can click in the field to enter or edit the hostname or IP address that you want to use as the target. This can be any device or address which is capable of responding to pings.
Source Address: The source must always be an AREDN® node, and by default the current node name is automatically entered. Click the down arrow icon at the right of Source Address to select a node from the dropdown list. If your desired node is not shown, you can click in the field to enter or edit the node name that you want to use as the source.

After selecting the Target and Source, click the Go button in the bottom right corner to view the results. You may want to test network connectivity in both directions by clicking the double-arrow icon to swap the Target and Source devices, remembering that your source must always be an AREDN® node. When you are finished studying the results, click the Done button to return to the status display.

Traceroute

This tool allows you to perform a traceroute between two devices on your network. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Target Address: Click the down arrow icon at the right of the Target Address to select a target device from the dropdown list. If your desired device is not shown, you can click in the field to enter or edit the hostname or IP address that you want to use as the target.
Source Address: The source must always be an AREDN® node, and by default the current node name is automatically entered. Click the down arrow icon at the right of Source Address to select a node from the dropdown list. If your desired node is not shown, you can click in the field to enter or edit the node name that you want to use as the source.

iPerf3

This tool allows you to perform throughput tests between two AREDN® nodes on your network using iPerf3. Context-sensitive help is available by clicking the Help button.

Server Address: Click the down arrow icon at the right of Server Address to select a node from the dropdown list. If your desired node is not shown, you can click in the field to enter or edit the node name that you want to use as the iperf3 server.
Client Address: By default the current node name is automatically entered as the client, but you can click the down arrow icon at the right to select any node from the dropdown list. If your desired node is not shown, you can click in the field to enter or edit the node name that you want to use as the client.

After selecting the Server and Client nodes, click the Go button at the lower right corner to view the results. You may want to test network throughput in both directions by clicking the double-arrow icon to swap the Server and Client nodes. When you are finished studying the results, click the Done button to return to the status display.

Support Data

There may be times when you want to view more detailed information about the configuration and operation of your node, or even forward this information to the AREDN® team in order to get help with a problem. Click the Support Data icon to save a compressed archive file to your local computer.

Node Admin Guide

Page Navigation

Node Admin Guide#

Admin navigation & actions#

Basics#

Time settings#

Firmware settings#

Package settings#

Network settings#

Mesh#

LAN#

WAN#

Advanced Options#

Location settings#

Internal Services#

Local Services#

Local Devices#

Local Nodes#

Neighborhood Nodes#

Radios & Antennas#

Mesh Radio settings#

LAN Hotspot Radio settings#

WAN Client Radio settings#

Antenna settings#

Advanced Radio Options#

LAN DHCP settings#

Ethernet Ports & Xlinks#

Tunnels#

Internet Networking Requirements#

Tunnel settings#

Add Tunnel#

Tools#