Networking
This is the networking page for Ujima House the 2018-era planned location for London Hackspace. An active IT infrastructure planning document is being worked on in Google Sheets.
We want your help! Please reach out on the LHS Infrastructure IRC channel or post on the London Hackspace Infrastructure Google Group if you'd like to get involved.
For historical comparison, please refer to 447 Networking.
Our ISP
- What is the broadband availability at the place? Is there fibre already?
According to the SamKnows broadband checker, we can get BT Openreach FTTC and FTTP service but not cable-based broadband.
An example check with BT using the address for "Honeypot Nursery, Ujima House, 388 High Road, Wembley, HA9 6AR" we see BT Infinity 2 (76Mbit/19Mbit up) is available. Honeypot Nursery formerly occupied the proposed LHS location and is about 350 feet from the LWWEM Wembley Exchange but seems to actually get service from LWNWEM instead.
- Where do the Ethernet cables pictured in photos 21 and 'ground floor cabinet' go?
Unknown at this time - we'll need to trace where they go in our next visit.
IP's
Currently looking at getting rid of the 172.16.X.Y network and replacing it with a more flexible and expansive 10.20X.X.X IP range.
DNS
TBD -
DHCP
TBD -
IP Allocations
TBD -
TLS
Ideally we've migrated everything to LetsEncrypt unless we're doing internal network / infrastructure SSL trust/validation, but all TBD.
There is a list of our legacy certificates here Networking/TLSCerts
WiFi
We have 6 Cisco 3502 access points, awaiting better locations for Ujima House:
- AP1 -
- AP2 -
- AP3 -
- AP4 -
- AP5 -
- AP6 -
Due to a new version of Cisco IOS the 3502 access points won't let you log in if you present them with loads of ssh pubkeys. To force ssh to use a password use:
ssh -o "PreferredAuthentications password" root@ap1
We have 3 SSID's:
- LondonHackspace - Standard WPA2 auth, the password can be found on notices stuck on the walls of most rooms
- LondonHackspace-5ghz - As above but 5ghz only
- spacenet - part of the SpaceFED Federated inter-hackerspace wifi network, You'll need to setup your LDAP account to use it.
Layer 2
Managed Building Fibre Connection
There is a fibre provided internet connection managed by the landlord and included in our rent. The building is being serviced by a shared 300 megabit via Onega portioned out to various tenants in the building. The actual IP connectivity provider looks to be Exponential-E but we need to go through Onega / Landlord if there are any issues/questions.
Our core router connecting this connection is Boole.
| Setting | IP Address Value |
|---|---|
| IP Address | 167.98.98.227 |
| Subnet | 255.255.255.248 |
| Gateway | 167.98.98.226 |
| DNS1 | 62.244.176.176 |
| DNS2 | 62.244.177.177 |
VDSL2 Provider
There is potential to use the wiring in the 3rd floor server room for VDSL circuits. Details TBD.
Local Network
Hopefully we'll have a consistent infrastructure - similar switches for both normal and PoE ethernet, etc.
ToDo
See Networking Todo.
Layer 1 (Physical Wiring)
Ground Floor
In the woodworking room, there's a comms cabinet with patch panels for several wallports. The CNC room - former nursery - had almost no networking, and very few power outlets. A wallport has been installed on the ceiling, having re-routed two network sockets from the kitchen area above. The remainder of the sockets in the patch panels are fair game. We will need a network switch in that cabinet, because the existing one there is probably unsuitable due to it's use by Brent Council.
Two ports have been rerouted from the 1st floor kitchen where they're unlikely to be needed, to the ceiling in the corner of the ground floor CNC room - where we require some networking.
Patch Panel
The Ground floor patch panel in the woodworking room is shared responsibility. Due to one room on the ground floor being used by Brent Council - they have their own networking equipment and run from the 3rd floor comms room. Two new purple jacketed cat6 cables to 1st floor comms room.
First Floor
- Two new purple jacketed cat6 cables from the ground floor cabinet to the 1st floor server room, run in on 2018-07-10. They go up a riser in the north east corner and then run above the ceiling tiles into the server room, in cable tray for some of the way. See image.
- Two new purple jacketed cat6 cables from the 1st floor server room to the third floor server room, run in on 2018-07-14, to replace poorly installed series of cables by building ISP.
- There are a large number of network sockets spread around the 1st floor, many (all?) of which seem to be run back via bundles of grey cat5e (?) cable to the server room, also partially in cable trays above the false ceilings. Current status: Ports 1/001 to 1/048 have been terminated and tested on a patch panel in the comms room. Two ports tested faulty. More patching to do.
- A single grey jacketed Cat5e (?) uplink cable from the first to third floor server room. Deemed to be poor quality.
Server Room
A small room with some (?) ventilation. Area K on the floor plan.
Patch Panel
- Previous tenants had removed their patch panel from the 1st floor comms room, work in progress to re-terminate all the wallports. Currently up to port 120 terminated and tested. 121 and 122 still to do. Some cables are missing, some are damaged, these are labelled on the patch panels.
- Inter-floor links are terminated on a 1U patch panel at the top of the cabinet.
Third Floor
The third floor is not ours and we (London Hackspace) do not have easy access to it for many changes. The server room on the third floor is the external demarcation point for the building - the building's existing internet connection is available here along with BT NTE (s?) and krone frames. The uplink cable from the 1st floor appears here.
