Ok, I am reading the release material.  It looks like the connection to the node are now "5 direct" and that forwarding rules as are required with the NAT approach is not required.

I believe there is a theoretical risk of a name or IP address collision once you connect two previously independent mesh networks.  The wish list on the change log mentions "duplicate address/name detection." 

We use the 10.x.x.x address range, so there are 16 million IP addresses.  I believe the code allocates the IP addresses based on the MAC address of the router, so that makes collision less likely.

To avoid name collisions,  you should be sure that node names are unique.  For instance, name one node "AB1PH-1" and another one "AB1PH-2".   Bad things might happen if you have two with the same name.   

I suspect that you need to be careful about the name of your laptop as well.   For instance, if I give my laptop a hostname of "lap," and someone else names their laptop "lap" as well, there might be a name collision as well if we both connect.  They might both try to become "lap.local.mesh".  

If you have a laptop or other computer  you're going to connect to a mesh node from time to time, you should probably give the computer a host name of "AB1PH-lap1" or something similar.

First, in our initial configuration, we are not attaching to the internet.  Therefore there is no DNS structure in place.  So it is unclear how we must get "DNS working".  Thoughts?

5 host direct mode means that the LAN subnet on the node has enough space for 5 addresses and they are directly accessible from the rest of the mesh.

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, and direct mode should actually remove complexity from the mesh.  Simply setting up two or three mesh nodes with other computers or devices connected to each node LAN should help you see how it works.

Thanks for the response, I believe this clarifies my concern.

If I may summarize what I think I hear:

1) while I am not directly configuring a DNS server, DNS services are being created by default in the mesh.  I need to make sure my clients attached to the mesh are properly configured to support the mesh's default DNS behavior

2) The address space is 10.0.0.0/8 providing room for the 5 local nodes to be directly attached to the mesh without address transaltion

3) HSSM mesh is using a hashing algorithm in the 10.0.0.0 space which minimizes the probability of collisions when two previously existing meshes are bridged.  

Also, I do need to be careful of the local names assigned to edge devices such as laptops.

That clarifies my concerns.

Thanks for the help.

I will reimage my systems tonight and see if anything smokes! :-)

73,

AB1PH

Don Rolph

Connecting to a mesh node is almost exactly the same as connecting to a stock WRT54G router or normal wired ethernet network. 

The magic of the mesh is mostly hidden behind the DHCP server, the DNS server, and the routing function programmed into the mesh node.   That's also true for a "normal" home router connection if you think about it.

The problem with Windows is that when you reconfigure the router, Windows tends to be slow about redoing the network configuration in terms of DNS, IP addresses, DHCP, ethernet up/down status, etc.  Even Linux PCs may end up confused.

This can happen even with a normal home router if you change something in the router configuration or swap routers.

Most of the time, the PC/Windows/Linux PC will eventually figure it out eventually.  If it doesn't, you have to tinker.  There are various shortcuts, but the safest bet is to reboot the PC after you change any configuration on the router is to reboot the PC.  If your PC won't connect to a mesh node after reconfiguring something, try a reboot of the PC before spending too much time on the shortcuts.