Hello all,
My club is the recipient of an ARDC grant with which we are deploying an RF data backbone with six (6) DR-2X’s in a linked repeater network in Rhode Island. All of the links that the repeaters are on are RF, no tunnels.
Currently, we can not see any of the other repeaters using Yaesu's IMRS. We have the IP’s reserved in the nodes and the repeaters are set for static IP's. We have tried everything we can think of. It is frustrating because we did have two repeaters linked as a proof of concept but after we moved some equipment to another site, they stopped recognizing each other. All repeaters are able to be pinged from the other sites.
I have seen some posts from other groups that are undertaking similar projects and any help you could offer from your experience would be appreciated!
Seth/W1SGB
My club is the recipient of an ARDC grant with which we are deploying an RF data backbone with six (6) DR-2X’s in a linked repeater network in Rhode Island. All of the links that the repeaters are on are RF, no tunnels.
Currently, we can not see any of the other repeaters using Yaesu's IMRS. We have the IP’s reserved in the nodes and the repeaters are set for static IP's. We have tried everything we can think of. It is frustrating because we did have two repeaters linked as a proof of concept but after we moved some equipment to another site, they stopped recognizing each other. All repeaters are able to be pinged from the other sites.
I have seen some posts from other groups that are undertaking similar projects and any help you could offer from your experience would be appreciated!
Seth/W1SGB
Hi, Seth:
If
"All repeaters are able to be pinged from the other sites.",
then you do not have a network issue.
It seems to me that you have a "Yaesu's IMRS" configuration issue.
Did any IP addresses change after "we moved some equipment to another site" ?
73, Chuck
Hi Chuck, and thank you for responding,
I'm working on the same project with Seth. He's at the fire station and asked me to respond to you.
Yes the IP address did change and we have adjusted the configuration accordingly including the other associated repeaters. We are not using the same node at the new site. The old site node had a Ubiquti PowerBridge. The new site configuration has the repeater into a switch then into a hAP ac into a MikroTik LHG XL but ultimately it's a static IP from the hAP.
Seth did try Yaesu support and they couldn't help.
Denis KD1HA
I spoke with John this morning and he mentioned
that in addition to to correcting IP addresses to
pay attention to enabling UDP and matching ports (e.g.port 21000)
73, Chuck
Chuck, the items you suggested seem to be in order. The IP's are correct. The default port that Yaesu recommends is 21110. It is the same on all repeaters. I have opened that port with UDP in the nodes that we are using and still has no effect. My network guys tell me that UDP port forwarding would only come into play if we were working with a WAN solution. These repeaters do not communicate outside the RF Mesh. Is there something in the newer builds that block this type of traffic? As mentioned before, we did have 2 DR-2X's at separate sites linked previously as a proof-of-concept. Still at a loss here as to why this is not working.
I believe there is a group in Maine that has this concept operating successfully.
...
All repeaters are able to be pinged from the other sites.
Fri, 05/19/2023 - 21:39 #4
...
The other ones are unable to see the other sites.
#1 and #4 seem to contradict. :-|
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Mon, 05/29/2023 - 21:38 #6
...
My network guys tell me that UDP port forwarding would only come into play if we were working with a WAN solution.
True.
In my reply (#5), I was relaying what I thought I heard John Kruk say.
I did not try to make sense of it.
I am unwilling to try to learn 'DR-2X linking'. :-|
----
Back to networking, which is all I could help with...
You used the word 'static'.
I would assign a hostname and a reserved address on an AREDN node for each repeater.
Then test for connectivity from a workstation on the network:
ping -c 1 <each hostname or reserved-IP-address>
nmap -p21110 <each hostname or reserved-IP-address>
If your workstation's OS is Windows(r), then a Windows(r) user is invited to join in as
I don't do Windows.
73, Chuck
Forgive me for using the wrong terminology. I am not an IT professional, just a firefighter who is trying to learn networking :)
Thank you for the info. I would not be using windows either but it is a necessity with this software. I do have a Linux box in my shack but am not learned enough to use it as my daily driver yet.
Sorry #1,#4 were not clear. All the devices in question can ping each other through CLI but will not recognize through Yaesu's IMRS software.
All IP's are reserved on their respective nodes and repeaters have hostnames.
I would not waste time learning DR-2X linking either. It is not well designed and can not be managed remotely. Alas, we have invested in the equipment now and are committed. I would suggest to other groups planning a similar project to look at commercial equipment that can be remotely managed.
Through process of elimination, We now suspect that newer versions of the node firmware are blocking the UDP traffic from the repeater for security. . We are going to roll back firmware to the version that we were on when the repeaters were linked previously and test. I will report findings here.
73,
Seth
Hi, Seth:
'static' is good terminology.
As close as we can get with AREDN is a DHCP Address Reservation, which is, hopefully,
indistinguishable to DR-2X.
I like open source, I don't like proprietary.
I have purchased a few devices that required a Windows(r) OS and often Windows(r) .NET(r) addon
to be configured. What a P.I.T.A.
Folks should be able to configure devices with a plain-jane browser or via command line.
It seems to me that you have your nodes configured properly.
I do not suspect that 'newer versions of the node firmware are blocking the UDP traffic'.
Others have reported configuring DR-2X networks over current versions of AREDN networks without issue.
Contact
Jean-Michel V (VA2XJM) for more information.
There is a conversation on SLACK (which is a p.i.t.a., too) on this topic.
https://arednmesh.slack.com/archives/CA2EWCNUF/p1685549270834449
vy73, Chuck