V2: Server Edition x V3: WRAP Edition ....

[antoniov]

I use the V2 Server Edition in the last 2 years, but I don't know the difference between Server Edition and WRAP Edition. Someone can help me ?

I have 11 License Keys for V2 Server Edition and now I need migrate
to V3: WRAP Edition. Can I use the same License Key ?

[lonnie]

The WRAP edition is a special version for the PC Engines WRAP board and will not run on a standard PC. It would lack the Ethernet drivers for the cards you have and the software would not find some key Geode CPU features.

For now we are not sure about supporting the PC architecture due to the amount of work to create the image and we are not seeing any sort of demand for the product.

The WRAP V3 product was much demanded before it was released, but I have to be honest, it looks like we have wasted our time in developing it. Demand after the release is underwhelming, to say the least. Our efforts would have been way more valuable to everyone had they been spent enhancing the WAR V3 software.

[Steve]

It will take us a month of testing before we upgrade anything and on top of that, we can't upgrade until there's a V2 to V3 upgrade image. Too many towers to climb. I bet demand will go up after you get that out. Personally, I can't wait to test the mesh in V3

[lonnie]

So we put everything on hold for 2 months to get this cranked out and nobody even wants to bench test it????

At this rate I cannot see contributing any more time to this project. The v2 to V3 upgrade is not trivial. While we want this we had hoped that at least the more vocal "We DEMAND V3 for WRAP" guys would at least test a couple of units. If you guys cannot even take the next step and do some testing we have no reason to put any further effort into it.

We have put projects on hold that have a LOT more demand and officially they are once again our priority.

It will take us a month of testing before we upgrade anything and on top of that, we can't upgrade until there's a V2 to V3 upgrade image. Too many towers to climb. I bet demand will go up after you get that out. Personally, I can't wait to test the mesh in V3

[tkerns]

I think you will find the demand is there.... myself, I do not do "bleeding edge" and don't jump to install and run in production the first software release, especially just a couple days after release. After all, I only recently replaced 2 WRAP AP's with WAR's (when I thought the stability and features were there to support my needs, one is runnig fair, the 2nd locking up daily with "N" in association table, check for my update in http://forums.star-os.com/showthread.php?p=34855#post34855 ).

Also, all of my AP's have 2511's installed which means everyone will need a climb and a radio replacement. Waiting on the WLG54's I ordered from you last week.

Tim Kerns

[Steve]

Just for the record, I've never been part of the "We DEMAND V3 for WRAP" crowd.

I do plan on doing some bench testing and as soon as everything checks out we will update all of our WRAP's if there's a way to do it without climbing 20 towers. If there's not, we'll wait until we are ready to upgrade to Quad Warboards and redeploy the WRAP's with V3 to smaller pops or as client devices.

I really don't expect too much excitement during the bench testing, the real test is how it performs on the towers. I'm looking forward to cloaking, replacing 200mw Prism AP's with 200mw Atheros cards and testing out the mesh capabilities of V3.

Hope you change your mind about the V2 to V3 upgrade image. You said it would be out next week and most people are probably waiting for that instead of creating new flash images and climbing towers. I think most people do their bench testing on the tower.

[tog]

Because v2 --> v3 upgrade capability is coming shortly, I am waiting until then.

Every WRAP I have left currently (only four of them) has v2 installed and licensed already. Every WRAP currently deployed that I want to update I will want to do over the network without visiting the customer premise. I really need to be able to upgrade an existing running v2 to v3.

If that capability never came, then I would very slowly have to schedule customer site visits and it would take many weeks to get 20 - 30 customer WRAPs switched from v2 to v3 just so I could change one AP to cloaked.

I've been using lots of WARs running v3, I haven't bought any WRAPs in a long time. The only reason I wanted v3 for WRAPs was so that I could upgrade some existing deployed CPE and switch a few APs to cloaked.

Don't get discouraged Lonnie, I'm sure you'll get some revenue from upgrades when the v2 --> v3 upgrade procedure becomes available.

[lonnie]

Steve, I did not say they should climb towers, but rather do an install and bench test it. A few days of bench testing would at least prove it was ready for actual tower use. Tower testing is for real and I would never advise that you use it as a bench test model. There are lots of simple ways to test where the stuff is easy to get at.

I am maybe over reacting, but I have been bugged by LOTS of people wanting to have early release, pre beta code, and yet not a single one of them has taken the step and done an upgrade when we released the code. How can something so important one minute be ho hum the next? I now put it down to some guys just like make an issue when we do not have something to deliver. When we actually provide what was demanded, then they run for cover and want to wait until someone else proves it is good enough for them.

I'll see about the conversion. It will depend on what stage it is at and how much effort has gone into it. If we have a lot to do for completion I likely will not finish it until we get some other in demand items finished.

Just for the record, I've never been part of the "We DEMAND V3 for WRAP" crowd.

I do plan on doing some bench testing and as soon as everything checks out we will update all of our WRAP's if there's a way to do it without climbing 20 towers. If there's not, we'll wait until we are ready to upgrade to Quad Warboards and redeploy the WRAP's with V3 to smaller pops or as client devices.

I really don't expect too much excitement during the bench testing, the real test is how it performs on the towers. I'm looking forward to cloaking, replacing 200mw Prism AP's with 200mw Atheros cards and testing out the mesh capabilities of V3.

Hope you change your mind about the V2 to V3 upgrade image. You said it would be out next week and most people are probably waiting for that instead of creating new flash images and climbing towers. I think most people do their bench testing on the tower.

[Beebe]

Lonnie, I bet I'm in the same situation as a lot of other users. I don't even have a single working wrap board on hand other than what is installed and working. I don't have any spares because if anything quits working on the network, I replace it with a WAR.

I have about 30 wraps in use and I'd like to convert them all to v3 so that I can do cloaking everywhere. However, I can't do any bench testing until I get a wrap on the bench. I'd sooner just wait until I can remote upgrade them, and then if I upgrade and it goes pear shaped, I will go out to the customer I broke and insert a WAR board. THEN I'll have a wrap on the bench to do testing with. - It may never be necessary though, so why do it now?

An alternative course of action would be to go out with WARS and swap them for the installed WRAPS we've already installed, bring the wraps back into the shop and upgrade them locally. Then use them on new installs. But of course that's a lot of time.

Thanks,
Roger

[esandine]

Lonnie,
Definately stay the course with the v2-v3 converstion. We'll update our WRAPs once we can do the OTA upgrade.

Also, big issue for us is WPA in V3. Is it coming soon?


Eric

[oscarBravo]

Also, big issue for us is WPA in V3. Is it coming soon? Likewise. Whatever about backbone links, we won't be in a position to upgrade any AP routers to v3 until WPA is there.

[lonnie]

We are now back on track and those items will be the priority.

Lonnie,
Definately stay the course with the v2-v3 converstion. We'll update our WRAPs once we can do the OTA upgrade.

Also, big issue for us is WPA in V3. Is it coming soon?


Eric

[cal361]

The WRAP V3 product was much demanded before it was released, but I have to be honest, it looks like we have wasted our time in developing it.

That has to be the most blatant "I told you so." post you have ever made. You only released that image three days ago. Don't get so frustrated.

To be honest, this is pretty much the same thing as saying, "I just wasted two months of my time for you and you are all ungrateful." At least that's how I read it. Therefore I am mildly offended.

It's pretty hard to measure the success of a product just three days after it's announcement. I only learned about it today.

After months on top of months of daily monitoring your site for a v3 that runs on x86 hardware I can honestly say I quit looking after a while. Beyond that you don't give release dates so it's kind of hard to blame the end user for not running to your site and downloading the software the minute it comes out.

We understand you worked hard on this project, give people time to figure out that it is finally released and you will see people try it.

Personally, I will be trying it later this week and will be happy to share my results.

Try not to beat up your installed customer base too much.

[lonnie]

Not really I told you so, but rather, they told ME so. I over ruled what my guys and hardware customers were saying.

Anyway, it is released, so enjoy.

[go.fast]

All I can add is nothing :)

Ha Ha Ha Ha

Like Tog and others said, is what I'm saying. Eventually I'll upgrade all the wraps.

But when your done, forget about this backwards stuff for the other manboard systems, just move forward with wars.

The wars kick butt and there is no use messing with yesterdays technology.
And yes, I do have a bunch of pc based systems that I'll be throwing away, but who cares, it's old, it's going to break down sooner or later. Lets not waste any more time. I ain't got a lot of that and ...........
I want my voip qos !
:P

George

[ninedd]

Yea, personally I think you'll see a bunch of upgrades when people can upgrade their WRAP CPE's in place with an over-the-air upgrade.

Realistically though, this upgrade is for a smaller segment... it's only applicable for the WRAP's (not PC's or RouterBoards or Sokeris's) and only to those that have Atheros radios in them (Not Prisms) and only for those that want V3 features (like cloaking) more than they need other V2 features like WPA. Not that that's bad by any means, but the fact is that only a subset of the total number of V2 licenses are really target customers, and those with PC's, RB's, Prisms, WPA, etc are not really upgradable. :)

I'd say, if you're this far into it, get the V2 -> V3 upgrade procedure worked out and it sounds like you'll see some payoff. :) Hopefully. :)

[pti-andy]

If it means anything, I would not have invested in new WAR boards if I thought V3 would never be available for WRAPs. There are just too many WRAP boards out there and not everyone wants to upgrade all of their CPE's. Having both platforms allows integration of a newer product. Believe it or not, supporting the WRAP will help sell WAR's.

-Andy
PTI Wireless

[lonnie]

I'm not sure if everybody caught the fact that we released the v2 to V3 stepup release or crossgrade product. It preserves all settings except for WEP since we have a different mechanism for V3.

Other than that it is doing well. I did 15 WRAP boards yesterday and they all came up. I had near heart failure on two of them since they took almost 2 minutes to reboot. They must have been taking their sweet time on the new SSH key generation.

The important number is 15 good, 0 bad.