Categories
epmp

ePMP Tip of the Day: GPS Radio Inactive and Active software banks

http://community.cambiumnetworks.com/t5/ePMP-FAQ/How-does-the-GPS-Sync-Radio-utilize-the-Active-and-Inactive/m-p/82855#M143

Categories
Uncategorized

Looking into to 2018

As the snow is melting off during the 50 degree days I have a moment to pause for some of the things coming in 2018.

One of the things we will be working on is some tweaks to our pricing and support structure.  Over the past year, we have been moving to a deeper relationship with our clients.  This helps me provide better support as well add stability to income.  MTIN will be rolling into a more personalized service for clients in the upcoming months.  This will mean more one-on-one attention to clients. With this, we will still be doing “walk-in clients” but only as time allows.   Customers with service contracts and retainer balances will get priority.

Secondly, partnerships with other companies will become a way we will be able to provide customers with a great experience.

 

We look forward to this new year!
Justin

Categories
xISP

MTIN is now a FLexOptic Reseller

MTIN typically is not a reseller for many product lines, for several reasons.  We like to be vendor agnostic and not chasing sales commissions on products, and we are not in the business of stocking product.

Having said this, we now have a reseller relationship with flexoptic.net.  They have optics you can code for a huge variety of manufacturers.  WISP clients will be intersted to know they support the following vendors:
-Brocade
-Cisco
-Ceragon
-Mikrotik
-Netgear
-Netonix
-Ubiquiti
and a whole bunch more. There are over 150 vendors supported.

The optics are coded with a product called Flexbox. The flexbox has several features to it such as coding, wavelength tuning of DWDM, distance analyzer, power measurement, and diagnostics.

FLEXBOX series - Configure Universal Transceivers | CSFP, SFP, SFP+, XFP, QSFP+, QSFP28, SFP28, CFP, CFP2, CFP4

We are working on some reviews, how-tos and other tutorials for these products. At the very least we are recommending everyone have a few optics of the form factors you use for compatibility troubleshooting.  If you have a device that you wonder if it is recognizing your optics correctly you can pull out this kit, code an optic for your device, and go on with troubleshooting.   Very handy for vendor optic issues.

If this is something you are interested in send us an e-mail for a quote on a starter kit and look for more information coming soon.

Categories
xISP

Client subnet in DNS requests

Some Light Reading:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-vandergaast-edns-client-subnet-00

Many Authoritative nameservers today return different replies based
   on the perceived topological location of the user.  These servers use
   the IP address of the incoming query to identify that location.
   Since most queries come from intermediate recursive resolvers, the
   source address is that of the recursive rather than of the query
   originator.

   Traditionally and probably still in the majority of instances,
   recursive resolvers are reasonably close in the topological sense to
   the stub resolvers or forwarders that are the source of queries.  For
   these resolvers, using their own IP address is sufficient for
   authority servers that tailor responses based upon location of the
   querier.

   Increasingly though a class of remote recursive servers has arisen
   that serves query sources without regard to topology.  The motivation
   for a query source to use a remote recursive server varies but is
   usually because of some enhanced experience, such as greater cache
   security or applying policies regarding where users may connect.
   (Although political censorship usually comes to mind here, the same
   actions may be used by a parent when setting controls on where a
   minor may connect.)  When using a remote recursive server, there can
   no longer be any assumption of close proximity between the originator
   and the recursive, leading to less than optimal replies from the
   authority servers.

   A similar situation exists within some ISPs where the recursive
   servers are topologically distant from some edges of the ISP network,
   resulting in less than optimal replies from the authority servers.

   This draft defines an EDNS0 option to convey network information that
   is relevant to the message but not otherwise included in the
   datagram.  This will provide the mechanism to carry sufficient
   network information about the originator for the authority server to
   tailor responses.  It also provides for the authority server to
   indicate the scope of network addresses that the tailored answer is
   intended.  This EDNS0 option is intended for those recursive and
   authority servers that would benefit from the extension and not for
   general purpose deployment.  It is completely optional and can safely
   be ignored by servers that choose not to implement it or enable it.

   This draft also includes guidelines on how to best cache those
   results and provides recommendations on when this protocol extension
   should be used.

For those of you running BIND here is some practical information
https://ftp.isc.org/isc/dnssec-guide/html/dnssec-guide.html#whats-edns0-all-about

Categories
UBNT

UBNT Air Cube first impressions

I have been meaning to start this review for several weeks.  Due to the holidays and sickness that has not happened until now.  Recently Ubiquiti Networks released the airCubeAC. I won’t bore you with all the stats, just some of the highlights.  For the complete list go here…

-AC radio containing 5ghz and 2.4 Radios (AC Model)
-4 Gigabit ethernet ports
-Supports POE in and Out

One of the first things you notice about the modern UBNT products like this is the nice retail looking package.  This could be on the shelf of Best Buy, or on the shelf of any computer shop. The packaging is modern and eye-catching.

After unboxing we find a very minimal packaging.

All that is contained in the packaging is the airCube itself, quick start guide, and the power cord. One of the first things I noticed as I went to plug this in was the length of the power cord.  Too many companies give you a short power cord you are always fighting against.  This cord has to be 7-8 feet long. In addition, the power plug is a compact size to fit into most surge protectors with ease.  It’s the little design features like this which can really make a product shine.

While waiting for it to boot a quick tour around the outside reveals the four gigabit ethernet ports, one of them being the WAN port.

The quickstart guide was very helpful, except for the terminology used for the UMOBILE app. On the IOS store, I finally figured out the UNMS app was the correct one to use. This might be confusing for some folks. Maybe newer documentation reflects the change in the naming.

I connected the Cube to my home network and fired up the app, the wizard was very helpful in getting me connected to the Cube.

The use of the QR code to customize the instructions is a very nice time saver.  I was up and connected within 40 seconds.  Most of that time was switching over to my settings to connect to the wifi and switching back to the app. A nice feature would be launching the settings app for you.  Not sure if such system calls are allowed on iOS but something to consider.  On a side note, there is Puerto Rico listed as a country yet again. Not sure why this is a recurring theme with UBNT.

Anytime I get a new device like this one of the first things I do is upgrade the firmware to the latest. This was a very easy process. The app even had a little orange information thing directing me to go check it. The addition of the changelog within the app is a very nice touch. The total firmware upgrade took about 2 minutes.

I made the mistake of switching out of the app before the upgrade was done. The unit was not reporting the firmware was upgraded, and when I tried to upgrade again it gave me an error. Hitting logout on the app and logging back in refreshed the app and confirmed I was indeed at the latest firmware.

It’s getting late, but I wanted to get this out there and get the ball rolling.  Look for part 2 coming shortly when I go over the interface in detail. For now, I will leave you with my first impression summary.

The airCube has many nice physical features.  The long power cable makes the flexibility of installation easy.  No longer do you have to set it in an awkward place just because the power cable did not reach.  It does POE in and out, so you could power the unit with a wireless CPE POE if you were a WISP running UBNT gear. This would save on a power plug because you would only need one for your outdoor radio and the airCube. However, if you are deploying these with non-UBNT gear, or simply in a home with fiber or cable the small power plug makes for a neat and compact installation.

Setup was easy, minus the documentation issue on the app to get.  This is probably simply the app being updated for whatever reason and the documentation that came with my Cube being behind.

Look for part two coming soon.