8 ms·

Internet in a Box

102 points by madaxe_again 7y ago

zamadatix 7y ago
The power injectors seem superfluous, the 330H and 501 both have standard AC adapters available. Also the 303H isn't directional (page 7 https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/ds/DS_AP303H.pdf https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/ds/DS_AP303H.pdf) so having one at each end of the case wouldn't be needed if you rearranged things so both sides of the AP had a clear path. Would be interesting to see the configuration of the FB2900, sounds like there is a lot going on in there!
- walrus01 7y ago
  Having PoE powered devices often lets you place things in more creative locations, than the need to put things near an AC wall outlet. In certain cruise ship cabins I imagine that optimal placement for wifi signal may not be near where the wall outlets are located.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mnemonicsloth 7y ago
I write code on the internet every day, and I understood 0% of that article. Abstraction is a powerful thing.
- pmuk 7y ago
  Adrian is very smart! I did a TCP/IP and Firebrick course with him a few (cough over 10) years ago and I learned more in a few days than I did in a year at college. He set up his own ISP in the UK, and built all the core routers himself, including designing the hardware and writing the router software - see www.firebrick.co.uk
- walrus01 7y ago
  One of the purposes appears to be to connect to the cruise ship's (expensive) wifi as client, as a single fixed MAC address, and rebroadcast a local wifi signal you control to more than 1 device. Because the cruise company wants you to pay per device. Also to have a small router you control to monitor the data usage per device, and cumulative data usage on the wifi-WAN-uplink interface. And to establish a whole-router VPN tunnel if you want.
  - rahimnathwani 7y ago
    That's what I would have assumed, but he was explicit that he already pays per device: "To be clear, this is not stealing internet service - it is expensive and we pay for the premium, unlimited, steaming package for multiple devices."
  - close04 7y ago
    > mostly holiday, but also some work > This is obviously somewhat overkill, so worth some explanation... The author doesn't make it immediately obvious why they chose the particular components and why the overkill, especially for something that is so rarely used and is not aimed at enterprise scenarios. It comes at quite the cost. The FireBrick alone is £500+VAT and as far as I can tell the 3 Aruba boxes together easily cost even more. That's at least $1500 worth of equipment in the Internet Box. Couldn't the same result (within reason) be achieved with something substantially cheaper? Like a travel router, maybe combined with a RPi if needed? Of course you wouldn't really get anything close to "enterprise" but then again the occasional vacation cruise doesn't seem to beg for such features.
    - rjsw 7y ago
      His company makes the FireBrick. Having one along on the cruise allows him to develop for it as well.
      - close04 7y ago
        For him I understand, I read the comment above that made this clear. I was wondering how much sense it makes for the rest of the readers. And it's not just the FireBrick but the entire setup that is vastly overspecced for the purpose, which would be "internet on vacation cruise" rather than "product development".
rcarmo 7y ago
Cute. I’ve resorted to taking a tiny OpenWRT router with me on trips to do pretty much the same (intend to switch to WireGuard on the next trip).
- DividableMiddle 7y ago
  Can you provide more info about your setup?
  - close04 7y ago
    These travel routers [0] [1] support OpenWRT and/or Wireguard, as client and server. They also support connectng to captive portal WiFi networks so they're perfect for travel. [0] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/ https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/ https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-ar750 https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-ar750 [1] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar300m/ https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar300m/ https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl.inet_gl-ar300m https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl.inet_gl-ar300m
  - rcarmo 7y ago
    Sure, it’s a NeXX 3020: https://openwrt.org/toh/nexx/wt3020 https://openwrt.org/toh/nexx/wt3020 I have two of them, and use one as a Wi-Fi client/NAT/VPN gateway/ad blocker when I’m at customers and some hotels. Setup is pretty trivial, you can do a lot with LuCI and the OpenWRT packages.
dorkwood 7y ago
I'm finding it a little hard to discern to purpose of this. Is it to circumvent wifi restrictions on a cruise ship?
- dylz 7y ago
  Flight and plane wifi generally charge per device, block things like UDP and ICMP that break the internet, filter and MITM websites, including MITMing HTTPS, only allowing port 80/443, all sorts of horrendous malicious/hostile things.
speedgoose 7y ago
Can't you preload the content you want to watch on Netflix and similar?
- athriren 7y ago
  If you’re able to perfectly predict your preferences for every given moment of the period you’re on a cruise or in the air in advance, then you could. I find I am unable to do so.
- aSplash0fDerp 7y ago
  I agree that we are getting closer to archived data consumption (vs requiring Internet access) and we'll pack a "data suitcase" prior to extended trips or errands. I guess it could be considered brown-bagging your Internet diet when you're on the go.
telesilla 7y ago
A cell signal booster is also another useful travel companion. Further, if you have the budget, consider a network bonding device such as https://teradek.com/collections/link-pro-family https://teradek.com/collections/link-pro-family. I use these at trade shows (not this device but something similar) and it's really quite incredible how good service you can get and not have to pay through the nose to the trade show service provider for an ethernet connection.
- rjvs 7y ago
  Any particular reason you linked to Teradek instead of the one that you use? I'm very interested in something like this for trade shows and on-site demos.
  - telesilla 7y ago
    We made our own, it's not something we have public but it's similar in concept to the Teradek or Viprinet.
FatDrunknStupid 7y ago
Sorry, couldn't resist posting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg
ThinkingGuy 7y ago
I thought this was going to be an article about the Internet-in-a-Box project (which downloads resources such as OSM, wikis, media for free, private, offline use) http://internet-in-a-box.org/ http://internet-in-a-box.org/ Still a nice build, though.
- emmelaich 7y ago
  The first image is of the "Internet in a Box" from the IT Crowd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg
kyuudou 7y ago
Kept thinking about that old software bundle by Spry, "Internet in a Box" (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/opening-an-internet-time-capsule-internet-in-a-box-for-win95/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/openi...)
pupdogg 7y ago
For those that don’t know, Royal Caribbean charges approx. $20/device/day for their all-out streaming package. They claim it’s faster than normal land based Ethernet but I’d say that’s a BIG LIE. It’s more like having an ISDN...aka 4x faster than a standard dialup modem. Such a sham!
kohtatsu 7y ago
Off-topic, but I can't stand cookie banners that link to Google policy documents. Ironically it's the only way I end up leaking info to Google
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

102 points by madaxe_again 7y ago

The power injectors seem superfluous, the 330H and 501 both have standard AC adapters available. Also the 303H isn't directional (page 7 https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/ds/DS_AP303H.pdf https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/ds/DS_AP303H.pdf) so having one at each end of the case wouldn't be needed if you rearranged things so both sides of the AP had a clear path. Would be interesting to see the configuration of the FB2900, sounds like there is a lot going on in there!

walrus01 7y ago
Having PoE powered devices often lets you place things in more creative locations, than the need to put things near an AC wall outlet. In certain cruise ship cabins I imagine that optimal placement for wifi signal may not be near where the wall outlets are located.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

mnemonicsloth 7y ago

I write code on the internet every day, and I understood 0% of that article. Abstraction is a powerful thing.

pmuk 7y ago
Adrian is very smart! I did a TCP/IP and Firebrick course with him a few (cough over 10) years ago and I learned more in a few days than I did in a year at college. He set up his own ISP in the UK, and built all the core routers himself, including designing the hardware and writing the router software - see www.firebrick.co.uk
walrus01 7y ago
One of the purposes appears to be to connect to the cruise ship's (expensive) wifi as client, as a single fixed MAC address, and rebroadcast a local wifi signal you control to more than 1 device. Because the cruise company wants you to pay per device. Also to have a small router you control to monitor the data usage per device, and cumulative data usage on the wifi-WAN-uplink interface. And to establish a whole-router VPN tunnel if you want.
- rahimnathwani 7y ago
  That's what I would have assumed, but he was explicit that he already pays per device: "To be clear, this is not stealing internet service - it is expensive and we pay for the premium, unlimited, steaming package for multiple devices."
- close04 7y ago
  > mostly holiday, but also some work > This is obviously somewhat overkill, so worth some explanation... The author doesn't make it immediately obvious why they chose the particular components and why the overkill, especially for something that is so rarely used and is not aimed at enterprise scenarios. It comes at quite the cost. The FireBrick alone is £500+VAT and as far as I can tell the 3 Aruba boxes together easily cost even more. That's at least $1500 worth of equipment in the Internet Box. Couldn't the same result (within reason) be achieved with something substantially cheaper? Like a travel router, maybe combined with a RPi if needed? Of course you wouldn't really get anything close to "enterprise" but then again the occasional vacation cruise doesn't seem to beg for such features.
  - rjsw 7y ago
    His company makes the FireBrick. Having one along on the cruise allows him to develop for it as well.
    - close04 7y ago
      For him I understand, I read the comment above that made this clear. I was wondering how much sense it makes for the rest of the readers. And it's not just the FireBrick but the entire setup that is vastly overspecced for the purpose, which would be "internet on vacation cruise" rather than "product development".

rcarmo 7y ago

Cute. I’ve resorted to taking a tiny OpenWRT router with me on trips to do pretty much the same (intend to switch to WireGuard on the next trip).

DividableMiddle 7y ago
Can you provide more info about your setup?
- close04 7y ago
  These travel routers [0] [1] support OpenWRT and/or Wireguard, as client and server. They also support connectng to captive portal WiFi networks so they're perfect for travel. [0] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/ https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/ https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-ar750 https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-ar750 [1] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar300m/ https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar300m/ https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl.inet_gl-ar300m https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl.inet_gl-ar300m
- rcarmo 7y ago
  Sure, it’s a NeXX 3020: https://openwrt.org/toh/nexx/wt3020 https://openwrt.org/toh/nexx/wt3020 I have two of them, and use one as a Wi-Fi client/NAT/VPN gateway/ad blocker when I’m at customers and some hotels. Setup is pretty trivial, you can do a lot with LuCI and the OpenWRT packages.

dorkwood 7y ago

I'm finding it a little hard to discern to purpose of this. Is it to circumvent wifi restrictions on a cruise ship?

dylz 7y ago
Flight and plane wifi generally charge per device, block things like UDP and ICMP that break the internet, filter and MITM websites, including MITMing HTTPS, only allowing port 80/443, all sorts of horrendous malicious/hostile things.

speedgoose 7y ago

Can't you preload the content you want to watch on Netflix and similar?

athriren 7y ago
If you’re able to perfectly predict your preferences for every given moment of the period you’re on a cruise or in the air in advance, then you could. I find I am unable to do so.
aSplash0fDerp 7y ago
I agree that we are getting closer to archived data consumption (vs requiring Internet access) and we'll pack a "data suitcase" prior to extended trips or errands. I guess it could be considered brown-bagging your Internet diet when you're on the go.

telesilla 7y ago

A cell signal booster is also another useful travel companion. Further, if you have the budget, consider a network bonding device such as https://teradek.com/collections/link-pro-family https://teradek.com/collections/link-pro-family. I use these at trade shows (not this device but something similar) and it's really quite incredible how good service you can get and not have to pay through the nose to the trade show service provider for an ethernet connection.

rjvs 7y ago
Any particular reason you linked to Teradek instead of the one that you use? I'm very interested in something like this for trade shows and on-site demos.
- telesilla 7y ago
  We made our own, it's not something we have public but it's similar in concept to the Teradek or Viprinet.

FatDrunknStupid 7y ago

Sorry, couldn't resist posting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg

ThinkingGuy 7y ago

I thought this was going to be an article about the Internet-in-a-Box project (which downloads resources such as OSM, wikis, media for free, private, offline use) http://internet-in-a-box.org/ http://internet-in-a-box.org/ Still a nice build, though.

emmelaich 7y ago
The first image is of the "Internet in a Box" from the IT Crowd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg

kyuudou 7y ago

Kept thinking about that old software bundle by Spry, "Internet in a Box" (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/opening-an-internet-time-capsule-internet-in-a-box-for-win95/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/openi...)

pupdogg 7y ago

For those that don’t know, Royal Caribbean charges approx. $20/device/day for their all-out streaming package. They claim it’s faster than normal land based Ethernet but I’d say that’s a BIG LIE. It’s more like having an ISDN...aka 4x faster than a standard dialup modem. Such a sham!

kohtatsu 7y ago

Off-topic, but I can't stand cookie banners that link to Google policy documents. Ironically it's the only way I end up leaking info to Google

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]