[arm-allstar] Allstar portable node questionnaire

[John Wagner]

Doug, responses in-line below.

On 05/28/2016 01:00 PM, arm-allstar-request at hamvoip.org wrote:

> Date: Sat, 28 May 2016 00:14:30 -0400
> From: Doug Crompton <doug at crompton.com>
> To: "arm-allstar at hamvoip.org" <arm-allstar at hamvoip.org>
> Subject: [arm-allstar] Allstar portable node questionnaire
> Message-ID: <BLU171-W3042FCAF3E2A9701941C26BA430 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I would like to get input from those who are using mobile nodes that connect to the cell system not home style WIFI. We commonly call anything WIFI "hotspots" but I am primarily interested in those connected via the cell system and portable between cells as in take it in your car and drive across the county. It seems there is a lot of confusion in this area and so many options. I want to try and weed out what works and what does not work and come up with a document to help those wanting to accomplish this. Currently we have 3G, 4G, 4G LTE from many providers including but not limited to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint. There are a myriad of hardware connection options from smart phones to dedicated routers. Cost is always a factor and most people would like to use existing smart-phones with a Pi3 talking to it.
>
> I know many people who have been successful and many who have not. Personally I have been quite successful with a cradlepoint router and a Verizon 3G dongle that I borrow for presentations. It just works, but that is not the norm and not what the average person would use. Also 2G and even 3G is being phased out or not offered in new plans.
>
> If you are currently doing this or trying to do this please give me the following information. I am primarily interesting in Allstar. Please be somewhat precise in your answers. There will be room to comment at the end.
>
> What Allstar are you using and what hardware is it running on? (BBB, Pi2 with adapter, Pi3 direct)
>
-- Pi3, modified USB card, built-in Pi3 WiFi

>
> Are you connecting WIFI or wired to your hotspot?
>
-- Both - I use against my home WiFi and hotspot

>
> What is the type and model of the hotspot device connecting to the cell system (phone, dedicated box, etc.)
>
-- iPhone 6s+

>
> Who is your provider?  Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc.
>
-- Verizon

>
> What technology (3G, 4G, LTE)
>
-- LTE

>
> What data plan do you have and how much does it cost?
> (example - 10G/$50/month)
>
-- 12G/$80/month  (family plan)

>
> If you have done this have you been successful?
>
Yes, works great

>
> If so what problems have you experienced getting it working?
>
-- Setting up wifi profiles in the Pi3 with Arch was a "learning 
experience", but once I had it working it was easy to add new ones. Also 
it works fine on home and hotspot wifi, but the Captive Portal on hotel 
wifi prevents automatic connection if that were to be used.

>
> If you have not been able to get it to work do you have ideas on why it does not?
>
-- NA
>
> While not necessary for Allstar does your service allow port forwarding that works?
>
-- No.  The iPhone NATs tethered clients to a 172.20 address with no 
option to port forward that I can find. And, the phone itself gets a CGN 
NAT address (100.x.x.x) on Verizon, so the Pi behind the phone is 
actually double-NAT'd in my case. This would make it impossible for the 
end user to port forward to the Pi. The phone does get a real, Internet 
routable IPv6 address though, so if Allstar ever goes that way there's a 
glimmer of hope.

I use this particular node as a occasional use mobile hotspot for 
outbound only work anyway, so this isn't a problem.

For a couple permanent Allstar nodes I've recently built that are all 
behind the same cable modem IP, I've used an OpenVPN from the Pi to an 
Amazon EC2 instance with a couple "Elastic IP's". I do port forwarding 
on the EC2 box into the tunnel (mainly to solve annoying Echolink 
limitations), and that works very well. I will likely set something like 
this up on the portable node going forward to allow inbound connections.

>
> If you have established a mobile node would you have interest to do this in the future?
>

>
> Would a document explaining how to do this, what works, what does not, be helpful?
>
>
> Comments -
>
-- First, thanks for your work and anyone else that contributed to it 
already on this! I built my portable node mainly by Googling to put 
together pieces from what the rest of you have already done.

  - I've used this portable node literally mobile on the highway in the 
vehicle on a recent 3 hour drive to the Dayton Hamvention, and it worked 
fantastically well. I also used it in the hotel room on the same trip.

  - One thing I've found useful when tethering to the iPhone is that I 
can use an app called "iSSH" from the phone, and connect into my 
portable node on it's 172.20.0.4 address while it's tethered to the 
phone. This makes it fairly easy (within the limitations of a SSH 
session on a touchscreen) to check status, troubleshoot, shut down, link 
and unlink, etc without making a lot of noise on the node. I would think 
Connectbot on Android would let you do the same thing, although I 
haven't personally tried it.

- I haven't measured the specific amount of data used through the phone 
in this setup, but I can say I didn't even notice it on the usage 
numbers compared to all the other stuff on the phone that uses data. An 
Allstar audio stream isn't even on the graph compared to mail, web, 
Facebook, Twitter, etc.

- Here's a VERY high level article I wrote for our local club site that 
shows what I put together if anyone is interested:
http://w8wky.org/portable-allstar-node-in-dayton/

- I'd be happy to share my configs if they'll help anyone.

   - John, N8CD