This page describes how to load the Roofnet wireless mesh software onto the Netgear WGT634U Wireless Media Router.

The wgt634u has a 200MHz MIPS32-like CPU (Broadcom BCM947XX), 32MB RAM, 8M flash, an Atheros AR5213-based 802.11b/g card, two Ethernet interfaces (one of them has 4 ports on it) and a USB 2.0 host port. The shipping router is already running Linux 2.4.20, so this page just explains how to install sshd and compile binaries for the system. Each router costs between $80-$100, including the radio card, which makes them the cheapest Roofnet nodes so far.

With ssh installed, the router has around 3.3MB of flash available. Extra storage can be added using USB keychain devices.

We’ve deployed wgt634u Roofnet nodes at TentCity and in our Central Square net.

Internal Links

• Hacking: Notes on adding serial ports, compiling the kernel/click, etc.
• Future Work: New features and other (to be implemented) ideas

External Links

• SAR wgt634u: Info on porting openwrt to wgt634u, including an openwrt-click port.
• wgt634u wiki: Community wiki with details about serial consoles, tftp booting and existing software layout
• OpenWRT forum: General discussion board
• FCC Documents: Internal photos and RF details

You can install Roofnet on the router from any type of computer (Linux/Mac/XP, etc.):

1. Download the latest Roofnet image file (roofnet-558.img) to your computer.
2. Login to the router’s admin interface at http://192.168.1.1/ (default login is “admin” with the password “password”)
3. Select the Router Upgrade option on the left-hand panel, then upload the image file under the upgrade file section.
4. Hit the upload button and watch the status bar on the screen to check on progress.

• Note: if you hadn’t changed the default password, it is now “r00fnet” (with two zeroes).

(note: some routers ship with a incompatible upgrade interface. If the firmware upgrade page complains, try upgrading to the official 1.4.1.9 release.)

The router will automatically restart after installing the roofnet package and come up as a gateway node. If it can’t reach MIT over it’s wired connection at boot, it will operate as a normal Roofnet node. After installation, you should see a wireless access point named roofnet. You can use the AP mode or directly connect via the 4 ethernet ports on the back to get a route to the Internet.

You can check up on Roofnet routing status through the standard admin interface at http://192.168.1.1/ (or http://10.0.0.1 over wireless) – there should be a new option in the left-hand menu titled MIT Roofnet. Using this control panel, you can enable/disable Roofnet or just view real-time statistics about routes, gateways and link quality.

What works:

• Single-step install/upgrade interface
• AP mode performance is faster than shipping netgear firmware
• Integrated Roofnet control panel page

Here’s what doesn’t work:

• userlevel click throughput is abnormally low over multiple hops
• Interface for setting ssid/channel
• Network management tools: statistics reporting, upgrades, etc.

Changelog:

v1.6.1     Added an upgrade to 2.0 menu option, which fixes the v2 image too large problem
v1.6.0     More performance updates, added srcr2 interface for transition to roofnet 2.0
v1.5.5     Added alignment fixes, lighter-weight gateway selection code, increased queue lengths
v1.5.4     Default root password now "r00fnet" (two zeroes), changed DNS search order
v1.5.3     Temporarily remove 802.11g rates, longer queues, change beacon period to 500ms (2005.12.19)
v1.5.2     Fixes minor DNS lookup problem
v1.5.1     Automatic gateway detection/failover
v1.5.0     Disabled shorewall, new click binary. 50% thoughput improvement. 
v1.4.3     Reports stats back to CSAIL every 5 minutes. 
           Automatically reboot every morning at 4am, or if less than 1M of free memory (2005.10.02)
v1.4.2     Added build metadata to release, for stats tracking. (2005.09.30)
v1.4.1     Compatibility fixes to make image work with 
           official releases > 1.2.0.6
v1.4.0     Initial single-image netgear release
           Started Changelog