5212 does not work?

[saigon]

I have Soekris 4511 board and two Atheros miniPCI cards (microtik and netgate), and I cannot make them work as AP. StarOS states that everything works, but no one is asotiated, niether my laptop can see it.

With prism, both miniPCI and PCMCIA, everything works smoothly, but with Atheros, my laptop cannot see the AP (I have some netgear 802.11a/b/g card in it).

I see that all of you run these cards without problems.

All things I left as defaults, I tried to change many parameters, but no results.

Could anyone tell me if there is any parameter I should enter i.e. which cannot be left as default?

Tomislav

PS I run 1.13.3 trial version

[lonnie]

It is important to make sure the country codes match or you might not have the same channels allowed. Also make sure that you have the cards set for the right band - a/b/g

We have not used those cards so I am not an expert. Thge Senao 5354 mini PCI is the one we have standardized on.

[bkehoe]

Out of interest, is the 5054 supported?

[bobbyc]

How far are you shooting? You need to set the ACK on each end.
Bob C

[lonnie]

The 5001 Atheros are not supported (maybe). We have never had any cards with those old chipsets so we simply do not know. It is quite likely we have done something that breaks 5001 support. If you have the cards, please check it for us.

[bkehoe]

I actually think it may use the newer chipset, just without whatever it needs to make 2.4 work (like the way atheros g cards just have the 5GHz stuff removed). One of the reasons I think this is because the specs say it'll work in the 5.8GHz band. The old 11a only cards couldnt do this, though I could be wrong (just going on what mikrotik were advertising back then). All the other specs look the same, and the board is the same as the 5354 minus the 2.4GHz antenna connectors (blank pads where they should be). I've got 2 on the way to try out and should know whats the story by next week. ;)

[tony]

The 5001 Atheros are not supported (maybe).

We support the ar5211 (a/b) and ar5212 (g, a/b/g) cards. We do not support the original 'a' cards as they have been discontinued, and are no longer supported by Atheros and their drivers.

[mvarner]

Eje was out of the 5354 and sent me some 5054 in my Routerboard systems. I cannot get my PtP shot client 5054 to associate with the AP in 5.8. They communciated just fine in the shop. Is the 5054 supported? By the way it shows as a 5212 in Star-OS.

[bobbyc]

If it associated in the shop but not now that you are shooting distance, it is most likely either a cable/connector/antenna issue, or a ACK issue. What is the distance and type of antennas/cable/pigtails you are using?
Bob C

[mvarner]

The assembled radios and antennas were tested on the ground. The only variable that changed was the distance(was 35 ft, now 2.75 mi). Using two Routerboards, with 5054's. ACK 400 both ends, already tried with higher values. Clear LOS, radios at 64ft and 50ft. Using Equinox 18" grids with NM pigtails to radio NF bulkhead pigtails. Not a hint of association. Ideas? The radios show in Star-OS as 5212, could this be an issue?

[lonnie]

If they worked at 35 ft. that means they are supported. You must have a signal issue with a bad pigtail or antenna.

[mvarner]

I finally got a little time to troubleshoot this link. I have a third box that I have set up to communicate on the ground with both sites. I did this to see if there were any pigtail issues on the towers. Weather has not been good enough to climb lately. It's either wet, windy or both lately. I can communicate at about 100' distance with -54dB signal at both tower sites. It sounds like I have an alignment issue, even though I can clearly see both sides. Very odd. I have tried numerous channels and ACK ranges. I need some expert help here.
Mike

[tim]

I have noticed some oddities when mixing 2.4 & 5.8 cards in the same WRAP board. I have only been using the WRAP for about 24 hours now so maybe it was a hallucination brought on by all that extra bandwidth <g>.

I put an ar5054 in pci slot 1, and a prism 2.5 in pci slot 2. Staros showed the atheros in slot 2 and the prism in slot 1.

As soon as I took the prism out, staros showed the atheros moved to slot 1

This was using atheros router edition drop of 3993 of staros, in a WRAP.

[tony]

The prism 2.5 cards are detected before the Atheros, so they will always be the first in the list.

Thanks!

[lonnie]

When you say you can get a signal from both towers, how exactly are you doing that? Hopefully you are changing each system to AP mode and connecting with the third system.

WDS is not supported yet, so you cannot use each unit in in AP mode. One must be in AP and the other in Client mode. Make sure they are on the same band - select 802.11a - and check they are on the same channel, with the same ESSID. Do the radios have more than one antenna connector? If you are on the wrong one it might not switch to the other one.

[mvarner]

I am changing the 3rd, ground, system between AP and client mode to communicate with the two towers. All are on the same band, channel, ESSID, as evident by only needing to change the ground system to AP or client mode to communicate. I am not 100% confident that both pigtails are on the same relative antenna port. I will check when I can climb again. Wouldn't there be some signal level difference communicating with the ground system if there was an antenna mismatch? Do you agree that it does not look to be a pigtail issue with the -54dB signal on both ends?
Mike

[lonnie]

This certainly doe appear to be working correctly. Are you certain that you have the polarization correct? I am not familiar with the Equinox antennas, but the SuperPass antennas we use have the N connector coming out one edge, so as long as we have the connector coming the same way on all antennas we maintain the same polariztion. If the connector comes out the middle it might be easy to have them out of phase. That would make a signal at least 20 to 30 dB lower and might be enought to eliminate a link.

[mvarner]

Mine have a pigtail coming out the back of the feedhorn. The only thing I am not certain about is the assembly of the feedhorn. The Equinox have two assembly locations for the feedhorn(as well as different feedhorn lengths), and the 5GHz grids come with the 2.4 instructions, so I had to guess on the location. I ordered two 18" and 1 24" and received two short feedhorns and 1 long one. If the feedhorn were installed incorrectly the focal point of the dish would be off. I assembled the feedhorns in the outermost mounting location; because they looked most correct this way. Anyone have more experience with the Equinox? There are no instructions on their website.

[lonnie]

Do you have the orientation of the feedhorn the same on both units? Typically the orientation of the feed matches the grid and that must match on both units.

Are you saying that they use the same dish and different length feedhorn for 18 or 24 dB gain? Do you have a camera so you can get me a couple of pictures?

[mvarner]

The antennas are both horizontally polarized. They use the same mounting bracket for different size dishes, so have two mounting locations on the bracket for the feedhorn. I understood this scenario until I saw the two different lengths of feedhorn, and no instructions on where to mount the feedhorn for the 5GHz dish. I will try and get a pic this afternoon. Out of pocket at the moment.

[mvarner]

Well, a phone call to Equinox has proved me wrong! I assembled the feedhorns incorrectly. The closest set of mounting holes to the dish must not be used. I will go play with my link now. I suggested that they include 5GHz mounting instructions in their 5GHz kits. They seemed to agree.
Mike

[lonnie]

I hope you get good results. Let us know how it turns out.