[Voyage-linux] New Ubiquiti PowerStation 2 w/Voyage

[Edwin Whitelaw]

All,

A couple of early observations on the new PS2 from Ubiquiti.

The vast majority of my APs are WRAP/ALIX with some 5GHz radio in one 
slot (typ, CM9, SR5, etc.) and the Engenius 2511 200mw .11b Prism 2.5 as 
the AP.  I just recently purchased some of the new PS2s and installed 
one yesterday without problems at about 1+ miles.

Today we tried an installation at just under 5 miles.  Signal strength 
was great at -60db and the system readily associated.  However, DHCP 
address acquisition was very slow and simple pings dropped most of the 
packets.  The AP site has two APs so I tried the other one (slightly 
weaker signal at -70db) and successfully linked, got an address but was 
dropping some packets and speedtests within my own net showed <1mbs.

Subsequent review of the dmesg on both APs showed the following.

-------------dmesg output----------
wifi0: assoc from 00:15:6d:a6:3d:af with extra data (74 bytes) 
[<dd><26><00><0c>         
<42><00><00><00><01><1e><00><00><00><00><1f><66><09><02><ff><0f><55><42><4e><54>         
<00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><df><20><01><1e>         
<00><00><00><00><1f><66><09><02><ff><0f><55><42><4e><54><00><00><00><00><00><00>         
<00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00>]
wifi0: 00:15:6d:a6:3d:af assoc_cb - STA associated
wlan0: dropped received packet from non-associated STA 00:08:74:e0:44:85 
(type=0         x02, subtype=0x00)
handle_ap_item - data frame
wifi0: Could not find STA 00:08:74:e0:44:85 for this TX error (@690913172)
wifi0: assoc from 00:15:6d:a6:3d:af with extra data (74 bytes) 
[<dd><26><00><0c>         
<42><00><00><00><01><1e><00><00><00><00><1f><66><09><02><ff><0f><55><42><4e><54>         
<00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><df><20><01><1e>         
<00><00><00><00><1f><66><09><02><ff><0f><55><42><4e><54><00><00><00><00><00><00>         
<00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00>]
---------------end dmesg output----------

multiple times though some less on the system that did work (although at 
poor speeds).

We ultimately switched out the PS2 and used our older client setup using 
an Engenius CB3 into a Pac Wireless 19db grid.  Speeds were just under 
3mbs download and the link seemed to behave quite normally.

I wonder if an atheros card on the AP end would work better or is there 
a configuration tweak on the PS2 menus I've overlooked?

I did try a number of setting tweaks on the PS2 without success. 

On a related note, has anyone (Punky?) taken a look at using the new 
driver from Ubiquiti for the atheros cards?

I'd be interested in anyone else's experience with this new product and 
Voyage.

Edwin


-- 
<=+=+=+==+=+=+==+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=>
Edwin Whitelaw, P.E.
New River Valley Unwired, LLC
2200 Lonesome Dove Dr
Christiansburg, VA 24073
540-239-0318