[Testing] first play with new XO 1.5 machines

[James Cameron]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 09:41:22AM +0200, Martin Langhoff wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 4:03 AM, Daniel Drake <dsd at laptop.org> wrote:
> > 2. This kind of situation will happen frequently:
> >
> > A <-----> B <-----> C
> >
> > B can see both users A and C on his network view. A can only see B,
> > and C can only see B.
> > B shares an activity. Both A and C join. However, anything done by A
> > cannot be seen by C and vice-versa, because they are too far apart.
> 
> Ok, but if they are close enough it will work.

The trouble is that even in the same 10m diameter room, close enough will stop
working under certain conditions, some of the time.  The signal measured
by the radio can vary through:

1.  distance,

2.  angle of antennae relative to the other antennae,

3.  reflections,

4.  refractions,

5.  noise from other radio sources (including laptops in the same room
that may have missed a beacon).

> The question is: if we tell all our nodes to use the same ESSID (or a
> set of 3 ESSIDs, one per freq), will independently created networks
> join and split reasonably well?

I've not tested that scenario.  Interesting possibility.

> > Ad-hoc will work well for the cases where the children get together in
> > a small space and explicitly create a throwaway network.
> 
> The "small space" works with younger kids. The "explicitly create"...
> doesn't.

XO-1 explicitly or spontaneously creates, based on icon trigger in
Neighborhood View.

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/