Hello all --
I am trying to build a tower-mounted two-radio setup as described on the "channel planning" part of the AREDN site. I need to send PoE to the 2GHz and 5GHz radios at the top of my tower. And I need the 2GHz and 5GHz radios to mesh together, which I understand is what DtD is for. After several days of attempts I have not had success getting the two radios to talk to each other, although I know that each one of them is running separately.
I am now trying to simply prove the DtD concept on my workbench. I have an hAPaclite and an hAPac3, both running AREDN 3.24.10.0. I have plugged "port 5" of each device together. (Maybe this is called a "back-to-back" setup?) See picture:
I can access the AREDN dashboard of each device but I cannot seem to confirm whether DtD is working. With the radios on, the devices mesh together. I turned off the radio on the hAPac3 so that the only possible connection would be through the CAT5 cable. But a ping test using the tool on the dashboard shows nothing -- the only result is "Ping Terminated."
Pictures of the AREDN dashboards for both devices:
I have zero networking experience and there's virtually no AREDN activity where I am, so I need a lot of help -- what should I do next to try to get DtD working?
73 de K1ZK
I am trying to build a tower-mounted two-radio setup as described on the "channel planning" part of the AREDN site. I need to send PoE to the 2GHz and 5GHz radios at the top of my tower. And I need the 2GHz and 5GHz radios to mesh together, which I understand is what DtD is for. After several days of attempts I have not had success getting the two radios to talk to each other, although I know that each one of them is running separately.
I am now trying to simply prove the DtD concept on my workbench. I have an hAPaclite and an hAPac3, both running AREDN 3.24.10.0. I have plugged "port 5" of each device together. (Maybe this is called a "back-to-back" setup?) See picture:
I can access the AREDN dashboard of each device but I cannot seem to confirm whether DtD is working. With the radios on, the devices mesh together. I turned off the radio on the hAPac3 so that the only possible connection would be through the CAT5 cable. But a ping test using the tool on the dashboard shows nothing -- the only result is "Ping Terminated."
Pictures of the AREDN dashboards for both devices:
I have zero networking experience and there's virtually no AREDN activity where I am, so I need a lot of help -- what should I do next to try to get DtD working?
73 de K1ZK
In aclite.png is shown an (AREDN/'mesh') RF connection between the ac-lite and the ac3,
Yet, in the ac3.png image no RF radio appears configured.
Were these 2 images saved close to the same time?
IIRC, in AREDN firmware if there is both a DtD and a RF connection to the same node,
the DtD connection will be used and the RF connection ignored.
You have sufficient equipment to join your 2 GHz and 5 GHz tower radios if you configure 2 DtD ports on your ac3.
See attached image.
Use the POE injectors that came with your 2 and 5 GHz radios.
Connect the 2 and 5 GHz radios to port 4 and 5.
I hope this helps,
Chuck
I set up my hAPac3 with the 2GHz/mesh radio OFF and with ports 4 and 5 set for "dtd" just like in your picture. (I wasn't aware of the "Ports & XLinks" window until now!) Then I plugged my hAPaclite into port 4 and my BB2 into port 5.
Using the "traceroute" feature from the hAPac3 dashboard, I queried both the hAPaclite and the BB2. Here's what I got:
I also see at least the BB2 showing up on the hApac3 dashboard, even though the hAPac3 mesh radio is off:
So I think this means DtD is working with the hAPac3 as the intermediary.
What should I try next?
73 de K1ZK
A laptop usually qualifies as a 'workstation'.
K1zk:
Indicate the operating system of your workstation.
Remove power from your hAP-ac-lite and set it aside.
Connect your workstation into a LAN port of the ac3.
Try whatever your 'BB2' is plugged into port 4 or 5 of the ac3.
(and at the same time)
Try whatever your '5GHz' radio is plugged into port 4 or 5 of the ac3.
Apply power to the ac3.
Apply power via POE injectors to the '2GHz' and '5GHz' radios.
Wait ten minutes.
With your workstation's web browser displaying the '/status' page ('dashboard'?) of the 'ac3:
I hope this helps, Chuck
The workstation here is a MacBook Pro 14-inch (Nov. 2024) running macOS v.15.1.1.
I set up the hAPac3 indoors and tested it with a BB2 radio plugged into one of the DtD ports. That worked fine -- the hAPac3 "status"/"dashboard" page showed the BB2 under "LOCAL NODES".
Outside, under the tower, I set up the hAPac3 with the tower-mounted M2 and BB5 plugged into ports "4" and "5", both of which are still set for DtD. I powered up the PoE injectors and waited 10 minutes. Here's a picture of the setup:
The hAPac3 status page did not show anything under "LOCAL NODES". The hAPac3's 5GHz radio was on, and it did show the BB5 as a "Neighborhood Node". See picture:
To verify that both tower-mounted radios are running, I plugged each directly into the workstation, one at a time. See pictures of resulting dashboard screen captures:
Interestingly, the BB5 screen capture shows the hapac3 under "LOCAL NODES" but grayed out. When I clicked on it, the web browser said "webpage not found."
If DtD is working, should I expect to see the DtD devices under "LOCAL NODES"?
Thanks,
Zach
"The workstation here is a MacBook Pro 14-inch (Nov. 2024) running macOS v.15.1.1."
Kewel.
Apple's operating system is a fork of UNIX.
I run Linux, so we likely have access to the same tools.
I am still somewhat baffled by 'BB2', 'BB5', 'M2, '2GHz radio', and '5GHz radio'.
Please use more letters or more words or include a glossary.
The first image (1) is very blurry, please use screen shots and maybe crop with ImageMagick tool: convert.
However what is displayed below 'Neighborhood Nodes' seems much too many characters to be either 'M2' or 'BB5'.
:-|
"The hAPac3's 5GHz radio was on, and it did show the BB5 as a "Neighborhood Node". See picture:"
Please disable 'mesh' on both radios in the hAP-ac3.
Configure them as 'off', 'client', or 'server' so as to not compete with this DtD assessment.
Ah, in image(3) I see a 'Ubiquiti Rocket M2'.
Is that what you are referring to as 'M2'?
In image(4) I see a Mikrotik Routerboard 912UAG'.
I am not familiar with that device.
I notice that the 'BB5/RB912UAG' device displays your hAP-ac3 in both 'Local Nodes' and 'Neighborhood Nodes'.
Perhaps if you disabled the ac3's 5 GHz radio the RB912 would choose 'DtD'/'Local Nodes' link.
?
73, Chuck
hAPaclite is my Mikrotik hAPaclite. I have it on my bench for testing.
M2 is my shorthand for my Ubiquiti Rocket M2. It's installed atop my 50-foot tower.
BB2 is my shorthand for my Mikrotik BaseBox2. I have it on my bench for testing.
BB5 is my shorthand for my Mikrotik BaseBox5. It's installed atop my 50-foot tower.
Both the BB2 and BB5 are "supported devices" per the arednmesh website:
BaseBox 2
RB912UAG-2HPnD-OUT
BaseBox 5
RB912UAG-5HPnD-OUT
I guess I'm calling the "2GHz radio" and the "5GHz radio" the RF side of each mesh device. So the hAPac3 has both a 2GHz and a 5GHz radio inside. The M2 has just a 2GHz radio. The BB5 has just a 5GHz radio.
Sorry I didn't get a better picture from the base of the tower. It was cold and dark out there & my fingers were cold! All it really showed was my workstation plugged into the hAPac3 port 2, and the two cat5 cables from the M2 and the BB5 plugged into hAPac3 ports 4 and 5.
Next I'll try disabling the 5GHz radio on the hAPac3 and see what happens!
73 de K1ZK
It is likely too late to suggest, but
I would recommend bringing the ethernet cable from your
'M2' and 'BB5', their POE injectors, and your hAP-ac3
indoors.
I have several outdoor rated POE powered switches at several sites that
POE power and DtD connect multiple node switches.
With an (outdoor rated) Ubiquiti N-SW($45) and a suitable 30 watt POE power supply($15),
you can power and DtD connect 3 nodes with one cable to the tower.
However, we are still working on getting your nodes DtD connected.
Let us get this resolved 1st.
Perhaps you could configure one of the ac3's radios as an Access Point
so that you can access your 'M2' and 'BB5' with your workstation or hAP-ac-lite
from a warm and dry location.
;-)
73, Chuck
Ok good idea to set up the hAPac3 as an ordinary access point. I set the 2GHz radio as a wifi access point, and turned the 5GHz radio off, and then I plugged the cables from the M2 and the BB5 into ports 4 and 5.
After 10 minutes, I connected to the hAPac3 access point and I got this "status" page:
It doesn't look like either the M2 or the BB5 is showing up. Hmmm..
The "Ports and XLinks" page shows ports 4 and 5 as "active":
Orv W6BI
73 de K1ZK
I have port 4 and 5 of my ac3 configured as DtD.
I powered up a node (SXTsqg-5ac) for 5 minutes then plugged it into port 4 of my ac3.
After 11 minutes there was no indication of the node being linked.
I moved the node to port 5 of my ac3.
After < 60 seconds the node appeared.
After configuring ports 2 and 3 to also be DtD and
waiting > 10 minutes for the ac3 to settle,
now port 4 DtD is working!
Oh, and ports 2 and 3 DtD worked.
73, Chuck
I plugged the M2 and the BB5 cat5 cables direclty into my workstation and was able to see the "status" page for each of them; they appear to be running ok.
Am I missing something obvious? What should I try next?
I see you are on lates version, I could not make DtD work on a first time release installed hAP ac lite port 5, I read somewhere that installing a previous release then upgrading to latest release makes the DtD work. I went for Night build and DtD works.
If you read Issues and bugs I believe the AC3 is affected also.
Frank
I am now seeing the tower nodes under "Local Nodes"!
My next step is going to be to try to replace the hAPAc3 and the two POE injectors with the switch that I have. Bet it will work now!
Have we discovered a bug? What's the best way to report it?
73 de K1ZK
the tagging of DtD ports was rectified in one of the first NB after latest release, I did not see that before after days of scratching my head.
Just hope they will make it work in upcoming stable release.
I notice that I've lost the icon on top line that makes it possible to get into Old UI, I see you don't have it either on your screenshots ?
Frank
I recall it being mentioned that the old UI was removed, but
I did not find it mentioned in nightly-downloads-changelog:
https://downloads.arednmesh.org/snapshots/CHANGELOG.md
Chuck