Networking
This is the networking page for Ujima House the 2018-era location for London Hackspace.
LHS Infrastructure Mega-Sheet infrastructure planning document is an active WIP document.
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
The landlord-provided IP connectivity provider is a Gigabit fibre line from Onega -> Exponential-E -> OpenReach Exponential-E . For support and queries we need to go through Onega / Landlord. See below for IP address information. Currently the line is set to provide 500Mbps of symmetrical bandwidth upstream and downstream via IPV4 and IPV6. Others in the building share the line but are not heavy users.
- What is the broadband availability at the place? Is there fibre already for our own dedicated connection?
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 Wembley ground floor LHS space and is about 350 feet from the LWWEM Wembley Exchange but seems to actually get service from LWNWEM instead.
IP's
We have opted for a more flexible and expansive 10.W.X.Y IP range rather than the old ChaosVPN-compatible range we had before. We released our reserved block on the ChaosVPN wiki on 24 September 2018.
DNS and DHCP
Currently running pfSense's DNS and DHCP implementation on Norton
IP and VLAN documentation
IP and VLAN documentation can be found on VLANs.
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 Aironet 3502i access points, being provisioned for Ujima House:
- 1f-ap1 - near the kitchen area and Tesla
- 1f-ap2 - in the desks area
- 1f-ap3 - in the classroom ceiling
The IOS is moderately up to date as of August 2018.
We have 3 SSID's:
- LHS Guest - network for visitors and anyone without an LDAP account
- spacenet - part of the SpaceFED Federated inter-hackerspace wifi network
- Please setup your LDAP account to use this - this is the recommended way for members to get online, spacefed config details here: LDAP#Any_spacenet_config_hints.3F
- LondonHackspace-IOT - for future plans involving sensors
All networks are 2.4 and 5GHz with the access points configured to push you towards 5ghz where you will probably get a better experience due to more bandwidth being available
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 500 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.
The connectivity is set to allow everyone in the building full access to the Internet at full speed (ie if you are the only user online then you should get close to 500Mbps up and down on a speedtest site). The line is subject to fair and legal use but as long as no one abuses the connection or monopolises it then you can basically fill your boots (or SSDs). A 3.5 Gbyte Debian ISO DVD will download in approx 3 minutes. Please note that you should not download copyright materials from the web / torrent sites (movies etc.) as these are traceable by IP and it's also not a nice thing to do (unless you've paid for them legally)... more seriously that could lead to being cut off on a three strikes basis which we don't want to risk. There is no external rate shaping or packet inspection done on traffic at the ISP level unless there is any odd activity / complaints. Ben from Onega also happens to be a London Hackspace member so we should get helpful service to any reasonable requests. If / when needed the line could also be upgraded to the full Gigabit, or indeed to 10Gbps connectivity but right now the marginal cost would not be worth it given historic and current observed bandwidth levels.
Our core router connecting this connection is Boole.
| Setting | IP Address Value | IPv6 |
|---|---|---|
| IP Address | 167.98.98.227 | 2a00:1d40:1843:100::1 |
| Subnet | 255.255.255.248 | 2a00:1d40:1843:100::/64 externally, 2a00:1d40:1843:180::/57 internally |
| Gateway | 2a00:1d40:1843:100:: | |
| DNS1 | 62.244.176.176 | 2a00:1d40:ee:176::176 |
| DNS2 | 62.244.177.177 | 2a00:1d40:ee: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.
Very much 'still a work in progress:
- GF Metal Workshop POE / 10.0.10.17
- Core Switch
- 1st Floor, PoE
- 1st Floor, Floor Port Switches
ToDo
See Networking Todo.
Layer 1 (Physical Wiring)
Please note that we adhere to the TIA-568B standard of wiring in the London Hackspace connectivity. This is consistent with the existing wiring as well as historic best practices of London Hackspace. Go with (568)B, because Bees are Better.
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
- The rack is a Dataracks 303 series variable depth cabinet. Accessories are available from Dataracks though this model is discontinued.
- 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.
- 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, All 1st floor wallports have been re-termianted. Currently up to port 122 on wallports terminated and tested. Some cables are missing, some are damaged, these are labelled on the patch panels.
- Ceiling runs for WiFi access points and cameras on 1st floor are numbered 1/123 onwards. These will probably all require connecting to a PoE switch.
- 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.
