XS Techniques and Configuration

This page lists various techniques and configuration options available for the XS.

If you are changing this page, mention it on server-devel@lists.laptop.org .

Keeping your XS software up to date

Upgrading a server is done using the yum package interface provided by Fedora.

If you have an Internet connection, you can upgrade from the default servers at OLPC, or your own mirrors of them. This is done using yum:

 yum -y upgrade

Internet Content Filtering

If you are going to encourage children to surf the Internet, you are strongly advised to arrange for some kind of content filtering. All filtering solutions are imperfect, it is important to emphasize user education -- see Online threats and security.

Use OpenDNS

Create your account with OpenDNS, configure it to your liking. Then set their DNS servers in a forwarders line in /etc/named-xs.conf.in , and then

   cd /etc
   make -f xs-config.make named-xs.conf
   /etc/init.d/named restart

OpenDNS is good, and for simple deployments it may be enough. Many schools use it and users can report urls for blocking, so its wide usage makes the filtering better.

When users report domains that are not blocked, report the domains to the OpenDNS and they will be blocked.

Planning for a content filter

For multiple school deployments - run a filter at the ISP, or at the MoE

Avoid running the filter on the XS itself. It is serious burden on the XS memory, CPU and Internet bandwidth. And administration on a per-school basis is awkward and inefficient.

Instead, get a machine co-located at the ISP, run a filtering proxy there (such as DansGuardian). Don't forget to tighten the rules to avoid running an open proxy. And on the XSs at schools, enable Squid and point it to the "upstream" proxy.

This means the filter is in one place, and there is only one blacklist (and whitelist) to maintain.

Running a local filter on the XS

Possible, but not recommended. Filters are not particularly smart, so they have to be complemented with human users reporting filtering errors. The amount and quality of that feedback makes the filtering better -- a local filter never gets enough input to get any good.

Access Points

Zoom Wireless-G 4400

The steps for setting up a wireless router access point vary based on the wireless router being using, but this serves as a rough guide for installation. These steps were run using a Zoom Wireless-G model 4400 router.

• Press the reset button on the wireless router to reset it and connect it to any computer. It's possible to do this setup with an XO or any other machine with linux installed.
• Open terminal and type

ifconfig eth0 IPaddress

Where IPaddress is in the same subnet as the default IP for the access point

• Connect to the access point by typing in the IP address in a web browser.
• Login to the access point using the default password (or skip entering a password if none is provided)
• Set the wireless channel to 1, 6 or 11 to minimize interference
• Set a unique name for the wireless network
• Make sure that the access point is NOT running as a DHCP server and it's not running NAT

DD-WRT

• Turn off DNSmasq.
• Visit Advanced Routing / Operating Mode and change the mode from "Gateway" to "Router"
• Move all the interfaces to the same VLAN (you must change the operating mode first).