I didn’t have a lot of time to do further experiments with my tiny AREDN network, but I did figure out a few things.

To recap: I currently have three devices which have been flashed with AREDN firmware: a Microtik hAP ac lite (which serves as the indoor hub and wireless access point), a TP-LINK CPE-210 (which serves as a node which I can mount outdoors) and a GL.iNet GLUSB150 (a USB dongle).

I currently have the Mikrotik hardwired via Port #1 to my Google Wifi home network. It will acquire an IP address automatically on my home network. The TP-LINK is attached to the Mikrotik via Port #5. Communications between the TP-LINk and the Mikrotik go over this Device To Device (DTD) link, and not via Wifi. I’ve also configured the Mikrotik to create a wireless access point (with SSID K6HX-AREDN) that any Wifi Enabled device can use to access the AREDN network. One slightly unexpected (but welcome) benefit is that any device that is attached to this access point can not only access the AREDN network, but conventional Internet as well. In fact, I’m typing this post as I’m connected to my Mikrotik, and can access both my nodes and the regular Internet. Cool and convenient!

Freed from the need to use the GLUSB-150 to access the AREDN network from my laptop, I decided to move that dongle out to my garage where I maintain a small server. The GLUSB-150 communicates on the AREDN network by talking to the TP-LINK via RF, which then talks over Ethernet to the Mikrotik, which then tunnels through the conventional Internet to other RF nodes in the San Francisco Wireless Emergency Mesh. Neat!

Previously my garage server was serving up a small webpage that monitored the low power WSPR beacon that I setup. I took that beacon down when the weather turned bad last fall, but it should be possible to make that data available via the AREDN network as well. I experimented a bit with creating new services on my server machine (conceptron) that was linked off K6HX-GLUSB150, but had some difficulty and deleted them. Oddly, some dangling references to them (and legion, my laptop) seems to linger on the node. Not sure what’s going on there.

Oh well, I’ll learn more as I go on. Stay tuned.