[wsfii-discuss] Mesh networking with Nokia Web-Tablet N810

Wed Apr 8 11:27:48 UTC 2009

Hi!

A while ago there was a posting about the DUMBO project, which included 
the idea to use Nokia Web Tablets in a mesh with Olsrd. I wrote that the 
Web Tablets use a WiFi chipset from TI (Texas Instruments) which doesn't 
support ad-hoc mode, because someone owning the old N770 told me so.

I have bought a Nokia Web Tablet N810 as an upgrade for my old Sharp 
Zaurus SL-5000, since I refuse to use a PDA not running Linux. The N810 
uses a Connexant chipset (Connexant bought Harris semiconductor a couple 
of years ago, they are the manufacturer of the great Prism chipsets) 
which does support ad-hoc mode without any issues. I was running it for 
days in our local Freifunk mesh network, and I have experienced no 
problems whatsoever.

So it makes a perfect mobile mesh device for surfing the web, Skype, 
VOIP with SIP. Price in Germany is now 200€ from cheap retailers. The 
WiFi range of the device is awesome. The only issue is that running 
WiFi/mesh all the time will drain the battery in approximately 4 hours.

Currently I'm using Olsrd. Batman 0.3.X doesn't work yet because it 
needs policy routing enabled in the kernel and the "tun" kernel module 
which is missing in the web tablet Linux distribution. So I will need 
some extra hacking to get a up-to-date batmand running.

cu elektra