Computers

This is not going to be of interest to many, so I will keep it short. My dad gave me a D-Link DWL-800AP+ wireless repeater which he attempted to set up years ago without success. I really had no use for it, but I stumbled onto a post about converting the unit into a wireless bridge. The conversion only requires a firmware change. It has an 802.11b radio, but that's ok for low bandwidth devices such as printers. Click here for the firmware and instructions.


7/1/2008 - Someone sent me an email and said the link to the firmware was broken. I searched and found it again:

http://www.seattlewireless.net/dwl800ap%2Bhack

Here is a link to the firmware:

ftp://ftp.prestonmoore.com/download/firmware

I'm sure that most people in the networking world are aware of the m0n0wall open source firewall project. The m0n0wall package really shines when teamed with an embedded computer such as those from Soekris Engineering. I had a spare Soekris Net4521 left over from a rural wireless project that I decided to use to guard the newly formed Burns Ranch network. As you will see, there is very little to installing the m0n0wall package on the Soekris 4521 single board computer.
Parts List

Soekris Net4521 SBC
Compact Flash card (8 megs or more)
m0n0wall "net45xx" image
physdiskwrite utility

Installation

Installation is very easy and you can be up and running in five minutes. First, make sure you have a copy of the m0n0wall image and the physdiskwrite utility on your Windows desktop. Plug in your card reader and insert your Compact Flash module. To copy the m0n0 image to the CF card, you simply "drag" the image and "drop" it onto the physdiskwrite utility icon. This should cause the utility program to spawn a windows shell which will allow you to choose the destination of the CF card. Choose the destination associated with your CF card and the utility will transfer the image in a flash. This completes the software installation.

Plug the CF card into the Soekris board and connect a ethernet cable between the LAN port of the 4521 and the browser equipped computer. The LAN port on the Soekris will be the port nearest the serial port connector (see the above photo, marked "L"). You can now fire up your browser and point it to "http://192.168.1.1" to configure. The default user is "admin" and password is "mono".

It doesn't get any easier than that!

I'm sure a lot of people have heard of the FON internet access system. If you haven 't heard of FON, click here to hear from the CEO of the company. After you review the video, you will see what the general plan is and will have been introduced to the "La Fonera social router." As many already know, the La Fonera routers were available a couple of years ago for $5 and were even given away for free in San Francisco. I ended up buying one of the $5 La Fonera routers after reading an article at the "Nerd Vittles" website. I installed the router at the house and patiently waited for my clients to start making me rich. Well, two years later I was still waiting for my first customer.

I never had a single user for the entire two years I had my La Fonera connected. Granted I live in a residential area, but I would have assumed with all the new construction around me I would have had at least one client. Ok, not big deal. I still have the Linksys-built, La Fonera router that only set me back five bucks. The problem was the original FON firmware is very limiting. A Google search found that the La Fonera could be reflashed with the wildly popular DD-WRT firmware.

I also found that a serial port could be added to the La Fonera in basically the same manner described for the Linksys WRT-54G. I didn't expect to gain much by adding a serial port to the La Fonera, but mainly just wanted to experiment. I planned to use a Compsys serial port kit left over from a project that never got off the ground.

Adding the serial port is pretty easy. I just followed the Rod Whitby guide and made a few changes to the connections. I also made my connections to the rear of the header pins. The use of a Dremel tool made quick work of mounting the 9-pin connector in the case. The Comsys serial board will fit inside the case as the pictures show. The easiest way to insulate the board is just to wrap it in electrical tape. You can then button up the case, fire up your favorite terminal program, and see if it works. Don't forget your port settings will be "9600-8-N-1" with the stock FON firmware.

Flashing the DD-WRT firmware is simple with the added serial port. I followed the guide found here at the DD-WRT WIKI. The baud rate setting will need to be changed to 115200 after flashing to DD-WRT. The screenshot on the right is of the Windows HyperTerminal program and shows the command-line login screen after the DD-WRT flash. Also note the screenshot shows the "cpuinfo" of the La Fonera.

The modifications to the La Fonera router turn what would be a very limited piece of hardware into something that is usable. The device is limited by its single ethernet port, but I intend to mainly use mine for creating a wireless bridge.

I was digging through a box of junk and found an old Logitech Quickcam Express. I started to throw it away, but wanted to see just what could be done with the archaic device. A little google-searching turned up a link to "webcam_server" which is a small Linux based program that allows you to view the Quickcam from a web browser. The installation is straight forward using the proper Linux Quickcam drivers. I wrote the install script for Centos, but you could modify it for other Linux flavors.

1) Download the Centos4 "Single Server CD" (it's 580 megs).

2) Install the "Minimal" software packages.

3) yum -y update && reboot

After the reboot, plug in the Quickcam to the USB port and check to see if the system recognizes it by entering lsusb at the linux prompt.
You should see the Logitech camera listed. If it does not show up, fix the problem before continuing.

4) wget http://www.prestonmoore.com/images/ezwebcam.sh

5) sh ezwebcam.sh

The Quickcam driver installation asks a bunch of questions. I just hit "Enter" for all of the prompts.

6) nano +10 /var/www/html/webcam.html
Change "http://localhost:8888" to the IP of your server "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8888"

Now open a web browser on a network computer and enter this line => http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/webcam.html
(the IP of the machine with the cam server for the "xxx")
Remember the browser must be Java enabled for the applet to run. You should have a live webcam running like this.

The default frame rate is set to one frame per second. You can change this by entering:

nano +11 /var/www/html/webcam.html
Change the FPS value="1" to FPS value="40" (this will set the Quickcam to use maximum frame rate)

Almost forgot to mention webcam_server is started by issuing webcam_sever -s at the prompt.
Check webcam_server -h for a list of settings.

Need a cam? The Quickcams are all over ebay for $5- $10.


11-9-07
I noticed on a new Centos 5 install the script failed for some reason. If you are having problems successfully executing the script just use the "cut and paste" method. Here is the contents of the "ezwebcam.sh":


yum -y install gcc httpd kernel-devel libjpeg-devel
cd /usr/src/
wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/qce-ga/qc-usb-0.6.5.tar.gz
tar xvfz qc-usb-0.6.5.tar.gz
cd qc-usb-0.6.5
./quickcam.sh
echo "modprobe quickcam" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local
modprobe quickcam
cd /usr/src/
wget http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webcamserver/webcam_server-0.50.tar.gz
tar xvfz webcam_server-0.50.tar.gz
cd webcam_server-0.50
./configure
make
make install
mv /usr/src/webcam_server-0.50/src/client/webcam.html /var/www/html/
mv /usr/src/webcam_server-0.50/src/client/applet.jar /var/www/html/
echo "webcam_server -s" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local
service httpd start
chkconfig httpd on
webcam_server -s

I was at Microcenter the other day an noticed they were selling Gigafast USB Wireless adapters for $5.00 after rebate. I bought one after checking to make sure it was linux compatible. I got home and found the chipset was acutally "zd1215", not the 1211 like the driver info showed. I also found that the driver would not compile on my Centos 4.4 system. I was able hammer out the problems with some help from theloveoflinux. I have only tested this on the Gigafast dongle, but it should work for any 1211b chipset.


cd /root/

wget http://www.prestonmoore.com/images/usbwifi

sh usbwifi


That should do it for the driver installation. The configuration will take some experimentation, but it is not that difficult. I followed the guide written by Ward Mundy here. This is all I had to do to get my system running.

netconfig --gateway=192.168.1.1 --ip=192.168.1.77 --nameserver=192.168.1.1 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --device=wlan0

service network restart

then I add the following line to /etc/rc.local file:

iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed essid "COHNET" key 8367b179c997675f4696969696

That's it. Your system will now connect on boot.



The rebate on the Gigafast USB wifi adapter ends 12/31/2006

I was looking through the web stats and saw that the Freepbx on Centos guide is still very popular. I guess people are getting back to the basics and really don't need all the extras. I updated the guide to install the latest stable releases of Asterisk and FreePBX along with making it executable for easier installation. I tested the script several times and all appears to be working fine.

Here we go:

1) Download the Centos "Single Server CD" (it's 580 megs).

2) Install the "Minimal" software packages.

3) yum -y update && reboot

4) wget http://prestonmoore.com/images/guide.txt

5) sh guide.txt

That should do it. Reboot and you should have a working system.

Enjoy



UPDATE 7-6-07

I have had a ton email requesting that I update the script. Here is the new version, but there is a bug in the freepbx 2.2.2 installer that will add a couple of steps to the install. I read the bug is fixed in the yet to be released 2.3 version. Until then we have to add a couple of steps. Anyway, the software packages are the latest as of 7-6-07.

1) Download the Centos "Single Server CD" (it's 580 megs).
(I tested this on Centos 5 and it works fine)

2) Install the "Minimal" software packages.

3) yum -y update && reboot

4) wget http://prestonmoore.com/images/guide070607.txt

5) sh guide070607.txt

You might see errors when you get to the freepbx installtion. Just continue anyway. Also, dont reboot when the script is finished.
Continue to step 6.

6) chown root:asterisk /etc/amportal.conf

7) asterisk (may have to press "enter" to get to the prompt again)

8.) cd /usr/src/freepbx

We have to run the installler again

9) ./install_amp



Your done. Like I said, not pretty, but it does work.

Uptimed is a simple program that allows you to track the uptime of your server. It is easy to install and works great.



Here's how:

cd /tmp
wget http://podgorny.cz/uptimed/releases/uptimed-0.3.9.tar.gz
tar xvfz uptimed-0.3.9.tar.gz
cd uptimed-0.3.9
./configure
make
make install


Now issue the following:

uptimed -b
uprecords



You should see a display of your current uptime similar to the above image.

Now we want the program to start at boot, so per the INSTALL doc in the package:

nano /etc/rc.sysinit
---add the following to the end of the file

echo "Creating unique uptime daemon bootid..."
/usr/local/sbin/uptimed -b

nano /etc/rc.local
---add the following

echo "Starting uptime daemon..."
/usr/local/sbin/uptimed

There are other settings available in the config file. You need to move the file to /etc/

cp /tmp/uptimed-0.3.9/etc/uptimed.conf-dist /etc/uptimed.conf


Happy T-day