[PLUG-AV] Router Wifi AP "netbox"

[Nick Bannon]

On Fri, Sep 27, 2019 at 12:33:37PM +0800, Paul Del wrote:
> I setup a dedicated router/ap for PLUG to keep.
> We can test it at the next meeting.

Thanks, Paul! We tried it out at the October meeting and a couple of
times since then, it was exactly what we needed in that corner of Riff.

(It won't be enough in every scenario, of course - basically, it needs
a wired uplink with DHCP)

> netgear cg3100d-2 1x wan port. 4x lan ports. 1x wifi 2.4ghz g/n
> current network is 192.168.0.x
> router 192.168.0.1
> 
> wifi ssid plugav
> lan 192.168.0.x
> wifi ssid plugmembers
> isolated lan 192.168.100.x

It came to mind again with some poking that Harry and I were doing - we
need a slightly more flexible router - either OpenWRT or a full Raspbian
or similar. (though it wouldn't hurt if the AP was running that too :) )
Maybe even a: https://www.ui.com/edgemax/edgerouter-x/ , which was a
previous plan we talked about and haven't followed through on yet.

In addition:
  * a small VLAN-capable PoE-providing smart switch;
    * https://msy.com.au/tp-link-tl-sg108pe-8-port-gigabit-desktop-poe-easy-smart-switch-with-4-port-poe ?
    * hmm! some clearance items on https://msy.com.au/switch , but I don't know if they're useful for us
  * a wireless client interface for the the router, if the available uplink is wifi
  * a 4G or 5G cellular modem/device/hotspot
    * In the right circumstances that might be one of our phones, some of the time

Job for the router is:
  * to manually or automatically pick the best uplink;
  * give feedback on quality/latency/throughput/dropouts;
  * supply an ethernet uplink to wired devices; and
  * supply DHCP, maybe DNS cache, netboot host or similar services

Nick.

-- 
   Nick Bannon   | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick-sig at rcpt.to | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal