Ping is the basic tool for checking connectivity between two hosts with IP addresses. Because RipEX is a native IP device, ping can also be used for radio link testing.

Go to the Ping tab in the Diagnostic menu. You can either set the Ping Type to „ICMP“ (common ping) or to „RSS“. The RSS type is a RipEX proprietary ping with extended reports.

The destination is the remote RipEX’s IP address. For example when you are locally connected to RipEX A (192.168.1.101), fill in 192.168.1.102.

When Ping is started, you will see the following on-line report on your screen.

Fig. 3.12: Ping on-line report

When the specified count of ping packets is transmitted, following detailed summary is displayed. It consists of: throughput usage, PER/BER, RSS, Data Quality (DQ) and Round Trip Time (RTT) histogram. It can be very useful during RipEX unit installation and coverage optimisation.

Please read the detailed Ping report description by clicking on the Help question mark.

Fig. 3.13: Detailed Ping report

Feel free to change the packet length (Ping option) or the Modulation rate (Settings tab) in order to see the impact on the measured RTT. Do not forget to set the same Modulation rate in both units.

3.7.1.1. End-to-End Connectivity

You can also check the end-to-end connectivity by connecting two PCs to RipEX units (see the following diagram).

Fig. 3.14: End-to-End Connectivity test

RipEX units are already configured in the Bridge mode. We need to configure PCs with unique IP addresses within the network subnet (192.168.1.0/24). For example 192.168.1.10 for PC 1 and 192.168.1.254 for PC 2. A description of how to set a static IP address in your Windows PC can be found in Section 3.4, “Programming RipEX via Computer”.

Check the connectivity by executing a ping command.

To run this command in Windows, you need to execute Windows Command Processor (cmd). Click on the Start button and then type Command Prompt or cmd in the Start Search field. Select the Command Prompt icon.

Fig. 3.15: Command Prompt

After the Command Prompt window appears, type “ping 192.168.1.254” if you are executing the ping from the PC with IP 192.168.1.10 and check the results. You can also try the other direction, just switch IP addresses. See the following example:

Fig. 3.16: Detailed Ping report

	Note
	If the ping is not successful, try to turn the Windows firewall off. It can block the ping packets.

Fast Remote Access is a unique RipEX feature used to minimize the data amount transferred when accessing the Remote station over the radio channel. The trick is that we do not transfer static data (e.g. web page graphical objects). All static data are downloaded from the local RipEX and only information specific to the remote RipEX is transferred over the radio channel.

To test this feature, just click on the Fast remote access button at the top of the screen, fill in the remote RipEX IP Ethernet address and click on the Connect button.

In the following example, we are locally (Ethernet) connected to RipEX A and we want to connect remotely to RipEX B.

Fig. 3.17: Connection via Fast Remote Access

Now you are accessing the remote unit over the radio link. The latency is dependent on the radio link Modulation rate. Feel free to change the Modulation rate (Settings tab) in order to see the impact on the remote access response time. Do not forget to set the same Modulation rate in all units you want to access.

Click on the Disconnect button to logout from the remote unit.

Fig. 3.18: Disconnection from the remote RipEX

3.7.2.1. Access Time Comparison

You can also try to access the remote RipEX unit without using Fast Remote Access feature. When locally connected to RipEX A, just type RipEX B’s IP address (192.168.1.102) into the browser and wait for the page to load.

You will see a huge impact on the access time. Again, feel free to change the Modulation rate (Settings tab) or changing the default Bridge mode to the Router mode.

	Note
	You need to configure routing accordingly if the Router mode is active.

The Demo case also contains a red light emitting diode connected to the RipEX A using HW alarm output, see Fig. 3.19, “Red light emitting diode using the Alarm output”. Generally, you can define conditions when RipEX is in the alarm state. E.g. when the temperature is out of its threshold range, HW alarm output lights up the diode.

Fig. 3.19: Red light emitting diode using the Alarm output

	Note
	Connect the diode only as depicted, otherwise, it could be destroyed.

In the following example, the Alarm output will be triggered whenever the temperature is out of its threshold range. In the real environment, any watched value can be used to trigger the Alarm output and control any attached device.

The current temperature can be displayed in the Status menu. Check the value shown in the picture below; the temperature of 36.5 °C is not highlighted and so it’s OK.

Fig. 3.20: RipEX current temperature

You can now test the Alarm output functionality by editing the Alarm management. By default, the temperature threshold range falls into the interval from -25 to +85 °C. You can manually edit these values so that the current temperature would be almost out of its allowed interval.

Go to the Settings menu and click on the Alarm management button.

Fig. 3.21: Alarm management location

RipEX does not control the diode by default. You need to set the following parameters:

Fig. 3.22: Alarm management settings

Whenever the temperature is out of its threshold range, the red diode is turned on until the temperature falls back into the allowed interval.

To increase the temperature, you can for example:

For the testing purposes, we can turn on the detailed graphs functionality. Go to the Settings → Device → Graphs menu and set the “Detail graph start” option to “Continual”. Apply the changes. With this feature on, you can check the temperature graph in one minute intervals.

Check the temperature in the Status menu. The value should be highlighted as in the below picture.

Fig. 3.23: RipEX temperature out of its threshold range

In our example, the upper limit was set to 37 °C. In the detailed graph below, you can see the temperature to be increasing from a value just below 36 °C to a maximum value over 41 °C. The alarm was triggered at the level of 37 °C (see the red line on the bottom) and the red diode was turned on. The second line represents the number of transmitted packets which was the main reason for the temperature increase. Immediatelly after stopping the traffic, the temperature started to decrease again.

The picture also contains a small fragment of the Overview graph.

Fig. 3.24: Detailed graph (temperature, transmitted packets) with a small Overview graph

This example just shows the basic usage of the alarm output. You can attach whatever device you need and control the alarm via any watched values.

These Watched values are displayed in the Diagnostic → Neighbours menu. See the following example with two neighbouring units.

Fig. 3.25: Neighbours menu

The Diagnostic → Statistic menu provides you with information about data volume on all interfaces: Radio, Ethernet, COM1 and COM2. The menu displays the number of received and transmitted packets, their sizes and current throughput. Moreover, a detailed division into user and service packets is available for the radio channel.

The quick value descriptions are displayed in the balloon tips (place the cursor on any column header). The detailed description can be read in the respective Help.

Fig. 3.26: Statistic menu

Neighbours and Statistic values can also be displayed as graphs in the Diagnostic → Graphs menu. Each graph is available in a summary or detailed version and can display two different elements at once. Detailed graphs can be created continuously or can be triggered whenever monitored values are out of their threshold ranges. Each graph can be created based on the values of the unit itself or any other neighbouring unit.

The detailed graphs description can be read in the respective Help.

Fig. 3.27: Graph menu

Monitoring is an advanced on-line diagnostic tool, which enables detailed communication analysis over any RipEX interface. In addition to all physical interfaces (Radio, Ethernet, COM1 and COM2), several internal interfaces between software modules can be monitored.

Go to the Diagnostic → Monitoring menu and just click on the Start button. In the default settings, it will display packet timing and payload on the Radio channel. For example, you can test Monitoring while performing the Ping test (Chapter Section 3.7.1, “RipEX-to-RipEX Ping”).

	Note
	In order to see both on-line reports (Ping as well as Monitoring), start Ping in a new independent window or tab in your browser.

Fig. 3.28: Monitoring the ping packets in two separate windows

Insert a SIM card into the SIM socket. Make sure the SIM is suitable for data transmission.

There are two reasons for installing the SIM card as the first task:

Connect one M!DGE Ethernet port to your computer using an ETH cat.5 cable.

If not yet enabled, please enable the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) so that your computer can lease an IP address from M!DGE. Wait a moment until your PC has received the parameters (IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server). E.g. using Windows XP:

Start > Connect To > Show all connections > Local Area Connection > Right Click > Properties > Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) > Properties > Obtain an IP address automatically.

Alternative: Instead of using the DHCP, configure a static IP address on your PC (e.g. 192.168.1.10, mask 255.255.255.0) so that it is operating in the same subnet as the M!DGE.

The PC settings are very similar to the description in Chapter Section 3.4, “Programming RipEX via Computer”.

The factory defaults (with DHCP enabled):

Start a Web Browser on your PC. Type the IP address into the address line: http://192.168.1.1.

Please set a password for the admin user account. Choose something that is both easy to remember and a strong password (such as one that contains numbers, letters and punctuation). The password must have a minimum length of 6 characters. It must contain a minimum of 2 numbers and 2 letters.

Fig. 3.30: M!DGE Login screen

The Web Manager can always be reached via the Ethernet interface. After the successful setup, Web Manager can also be accessed via the mobile interface.

If you have a SIM card inserted and you are logged into the M!DGE unit, we can proceed with a basic Mobile configuration steps.

3.12.1.1. SIM Configuration

Go to the INTERFACES → Mobile → SIMs menu and click on the Edit button.

Fig. 3.31: Edit the SIM configuration

In the following screen, fill in the correct PIN code, other parameters can be left at their defaults. After applying the changes, you should see a similar screen with SIM state set to ready.

Fig. 3.32: SIM state ready

The next step is to click on the Network submenu to check whether we are successfully registered into the mobile network.

Fig. 3.33: SIM card registered in the network

3.12.1.2. Mobile Interface Configuration

Now go to the Interfaces menu in the left section (Mobile menu) and click on the Add button.

Fig. 3.34: Add the Mobile interface

Fill in all appropriate values. You should get these values from your mobile operator.

Fig. 3.35: Specify the APN and access credentials

3.12.1.3. Check the Connection Status

The router should be connecting to the network now. Check whether the mobile connection is enabled in the INTERFACES → WAN → Link Management menu. You should have a WWAN1 interface selected as permanently connected.

Fig. 3.36: WWAN1 Establishment Mode

In the HOME menu, you should now see that the Operational Status is up and so the router is connected to the Mobile network. Click on the WWAN1 submenu to see the details like IP address, Signal strength, Service type and other parameters.

Fig. 3.37: WWAN1 Summary

M!DGE offers you several ways to debug and troubleshoot configuration issues.

3.13.2.1. Network Debugging

The Network Debugging menu consists of well known tools: ping, traceroute and tcpdump. We have already described ping. Traceroute can provide you with a packet route to the destination and with tcpdump you can capture the incoming and outgoing traffic on any interface. When the capturing is done, you can open the saved PCAP file in Wireshark or a similar program.

Fig. 3.42: M!DGE tcpdump feature

Another tool is darkstat, which creates graphs based on the traffic volume on any interface.

To run the darkstat tool, just click on the darkstat submenu, choose the interface and click on the Start button.

Fig. 3.43: M!DGE darkstat tool

We can see for how long the tool is running, how many packets/bytes have been stored and four graphs with different intervals. See the following example.

Fig. 3.44: M!DGE darkstat tool

3.13.2.2. System Debugging and Tech Support

The log files can be viewed, downloaded and reset in this menu. Please study them carefully in case of any issues.

In the Tech Support menu, you can generate and download a tech support file, which you should send to our support team to speed up resolving the issue.

Fig. 3.45: M!DGE Log Viewer