[Karlnet] KN-50 Stats, my new novel

[Travis Mikalson <bofh@terranova.net>]

Hi all,

I'm new here, but I've been reading the archives and this is obviously a 
helpful place to discuss all of our karlnet and related issues. I've been 
a WISP since late 1999 with Breezeaccess II equipment, but we've since 
moved on and are deploying a new infrastructure that will allow for a 
minimal CPE cost. It's mostly 802.11g, however I need Karlnet to fill in 
the gaps here and there since 802.11g has a limited range before the 
timing breaks down and Karlnet pretty much goes as far as you can throw 
the signal.

I just got some Karlnet hardware/software (one KN-50 and one KN-200, metal 
enclosure, two Agere 30mW cards, ISP base license) and will be deploying 
my first KN-50 at a customer's site soon.

The KN-50 seems pretty physically solid, even with a 200mW card in it and 
a simple passive PoE injector (with 15V, not 12V), there's almost no heat, 
and even if there were, the specs say it can operate hotter than I'd ever 
let my CPU get and still work. It definitely seems like the Geo Metro of 
hardware platforms in terms of horsepower; Throughput seems limited to 2.5 
- 3mbit depending upon encryption being 128, 64 or off. Before anybody 
gets possibly turned off, though, it doesn't have any latency problems. 
I've got mostly 6-8ms ping times except when maxing it out. Keep in mind 
this is only a bench test, your results (and my results) in the field may 
vary.
It's certainly adequate, though, and I have no problems taking this as-is 
and installing a bunch. If you need 3mbit or more from my network, we can 
probably get you a KN-100 instead :)

To get to the question, I have one small problem with the KN-50 so far and 
I'm hoping to tap into the experience well here. The signal strength and 
all of those three stats you use to see what's going on seem to be 
sometimes broken in the KN-50's software with the Prism cards I've got. 
Has anybody else been messing with the KN-50s? Right now I've got what it 
says is v1.00 of the software on it and Karlnet told my distributor to 
tell me that that's all I've got available for a while.
I don't think either of the two Prism cards I played with had the latest 
firmware, so I have yet to try that. One card is a Senao/Engenius 
EL/NL-2511CD with 1.4.9 on it and one is a Teletronics with yellow label, 
"High Power Version" unknown model with 1.3.6 firmware. The Teletronics 
with 1.3.6 seemed to work better, the two important gauges worked so I 
could actually aim an antenna. With all 3 completely broken it would be 
difficult to fine-tune the aiming of a customer's antenna. I guess if I 
had to I could use the CDMA card in my laptop (or dialup or whatever) to 
get into the KN-200 with the manager and do a remote link test during the 
install. That still works.

Also, I have no experience updating firmware on Prism cards so I'm kind of 
wary about it. Engenius's support section of their site provides firmware 
1.4.9 as the "latest" so I'm on my own here if I want 1.7.4. Search google 
for prism firmware and you can find a possible source from the first 
result. I'm going to have to break out that ancient WinMe laptop that's on 
its last legs to do any flashing as I understand it, since attempting to 
do it under XP is inadvisable.

So, is anybody messing with the KN-50s, has anybody run into this problem 
and has anybody got experience in terms of what works for them and what 
doesn't. Is it worth the effort to flash prism cards to 1.7.4, etc.

Sorry for the long post, but I believe in introductions and "too much" 
information as opposed to too little information.

Thanks,
-T
--
TerraNovaNet Internet Services - Key Largo, FL
Voice: (305)453-4011 x101   Fax: (305)451-5991
http://www.terranova.net/
----------------------------------------------
Life's not fair, but the root password helps.

_______________________________________________
Karlnet mailing list
Karlnet@WISPNotes.com
http://lists.wispnotes.com/mailman/listinfo/karlnet