Help with Mesh Portal

[Chris Crawford]

Javier,

Thanks for the reply. 

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 11:39 PM, Javier Cardona <javier at cozybit.com> wrote:
>> I want to set up a mesh portal, but I'm running into a problem.  I have a laptop
>> with a ethernet port (eth0) and mesh connection and ideally this mesh portal
>> would bridge the two. I have followed the directions at
>> http://www.open80211s.org/trac/wiki/HOWTO#MeshPortalMPP
>>
>> Only the mesh or the wired connection will work after I bring up the bridge, but
>> never both.
>
> Can you be more specific about the meaning of "will work" in this
> context?  What failures did you encounter?

Sorry, that wasn't very clear (and maybe not entirely accurate).

Ideally, I'd like the following setup:

+-------------+
|             |
|     INET    |
|             |
+-------------+
       ^
      | |
       v
+-------------+
|             |
| 192.168.1.1 |
|   gateway   |
|             |
+-------------+
       ^
      | |
       v
+-------------+ ==================
|   (eth0)    |                     
|192.168.1.20 |                                         
|     ^       |                      
|    | |      |                      
|     v       |                      
|   (br0)     |                     
|192.168.2.20 |  <= MPP                                       
|     ^       |                      
|    | |      |                      
|     v       |                      
|192.168.2.20 |                                         
|   (wlan0)   |                     
+-------------+                     
                                    
+-------------+        M            
|             |                      
|192.168.2.30 |        e            
|   (wlan0)   |                     
+-------------+        s            
                                    
+-------------+        h             
|             |                     
|192.168.2.40 |                     
|   (wlan0)   |                     
+-------------+                     
                                    
+-------------+                     
|             |                     
|192.168.2.50 |                     
|   (wlan0)   |                     
+-------------+  ==================

I can get the mesh set up fine and each node in the mesh can ping the other.

192.168.2.20 can ping any other mesh node and any other mesh node can ping
192.168.2.20.

192.168.1.20 can also ping 192.168.1.1.

After I follow the directions to set up an MPP, 192.168.2.20 can't ping anything
and nodes in the mesh cannot ping 192.168.2.20.
In both cases, ping reports that the destination is unreachable.

> Perhaps the HOWTO could be clearer regarding what you can do with the
> current implementation:  it can only be used to connect a number of
> 802.3 subnets via a mesh network.  There needs to be a mesh portal set
> up for each subnet that you want to connect.  Once you set up the mesh
> portals, the subnets will be connected at layer 2.

Ah, pings are at layer 3.  Is that why they're failing?

If that's the case, how can I test if my connections are working at layer 2?

> What you won't be
> able to do is to connect from an internal mesh node to nodes in the
> external subnets.  Is that what you are trying?
Ultimately, I would like to do that, yes.

What can you do with a mesh portal if it doesn't allow internal nodes to connect out?

Thanks,

Chris