WRAP Wireless Bridge/Router

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The WRAP is the device used to connect the onboard computer(s) of a Seekur or Seekur Jr. (or any other robot with multiple onboard computers) to a wireless network. The WRAP enclosure contains a small embedded computer (called ALIX; "WRAP" and "ALIX" are terms often used interchangeably) running an embedded Linux-based software router called "m0n0wall". (Note the use of numeral 0 in spelling m0n0wall).

m0n0wall is configured via a web page. Use login name admin to log in. The default password is mono.

To access this configuration interface, connect a keyboard, mouse and monitor to the onboard computer. If you boot the onboard computer in graphical mode, launch the web browser and connect to https://10.0.125.1. If you boot the onboard computer in text-only mode, run lynx https://admin:mono@10.0.125.1. The web interface uses its own self-signed SSL certificate for HTTPS mode, you usually must accept this manually. You can disable HTTPS mode if you wish to use only HTTP.

The WRAP and m0n0wall can operate in two modes: as a "host" wireless access point (default mode, the ESSID is SeekurJr or Seekur), which you can connect laptop computers to in order to access the internal LAN of the robot.; or as a bridge to an existing wireless network, in which all connections to the external WAN interface of the WRAP are forwarded via network address translation (NAT) to one of the internal onboard computers on the LAN

Contents

Host Wireless Access Point (hostap)

In access point mode, the WRAP serves as the access point (base station) for a wireless network. You can join this network with a laptop or other wireless device, and access the computer(s) on the internal network.

This is the default mode.

The ESSID of the wireless network is "SeekurJr" or "Seekur". It is configured with no password, key or security of any kind. To change this, use the m0n0wall configuration interface (see above). It is an 802.11g network.

The WRAP will use DHCP to dynamically assign an address to your laptop in the 10.0.126.0 subnetwork.

The WRAP uses 10.0.125.1 as its address on the internal Seekur LAN. You can connect to this address to configure m0n0wall (log in as "admin" with password "mono".)

To access the Seekur's onboard computers in this mode, simply join the wireless network with a laptop, then connect directly to the onboard computer using its IP address (see below for list).

This configuration is set up in the following m0n0wall configuration file (load from "restore" option in the "Diagnostics" submenu):

NAT Bridge (station)

The NAT firewall is configured to forward all traffic from an existing wireless network to one of the computers in the internal LAN. In this mode, configure the WRAP's WAN to have an appropriate address for your existing wireless network, or use DHCP to acquire one dynamically. Set up a firewall rule to forward all connections from the WAN to the first onboard computer (10.0.125.32). Then, to connect to the first onboard computer on the internal Seekur LAN from the wireless network, connect to the WRAP from the wireless network using its address on that netwok. The WRAP will then forward this connection to the computer. You can then connect to other computers in the Seekur directly from that computer using their own IP addresses. Or, you can edit the firewall configuration to, for example, forward certain ports to certain computers.

In NAT/bridge mode, the computers and devices on the internal LAN are generally assigned static IP addresses. It is also possible to enable a DHCP server on the WRAP to provide addresses to computers. Reserve a range of addresses (e.g. 10.0.125.2 through 10.0.125.100) for static addresses, and configure the DHCP to assign higher addresses. This would allow you to use static addresses for the onboard computers, but also simply plug a laptop into the LAN via an external ethernet port [but NOT the powered WRAP port] and have it automatically join the internal network.

Seekur onboard computers LAN

The onboard computers of the Seekur or Seekur Jr. are setup with the following addresses. The gateway is set as 10.0.125.1.

First PC

10.0.125.32

Second PC

10.0.125.33

Third PC

10.0.125.34

Fourth PC

10.0.125.35

Fifth PC

10.0.125.36


See Also

More information about m0n0wall, and WRAP/ALIX are at the following websites:

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