Testing an Intranet at Buckeye...

FIRST General Forum
#1

Anyone attending Buckeye, please bring a laptop with wireless capabilities. Just finished up some of the major changes to our team’s new internal network, still installing add-ons, editing themes/headers/footers, and making sure any database or integration errors are fixed. Basically I want to test it at the regional to make sure it’s working, plus I think it’d be somewhat useful. For the event, it’ll most likely be served from my old server tower, near the video feed box (laptop’s being used for Gameday webcast), however, if I have to use the laptop for dual-use it might significantly slow it down. I dunno, haven’t tested it yet. Also, I don’t think any part of the network works on iPhones, PSPs, or other mobile browsers yet. Mobile internet tablets should work, don’t know yet.

Do a search for the “bearcatlounge” wireless network and connect. Past that, I’m trying to work on it automatically sending the user to the necessary computer. If I dont, just type http://servercat into your web browser. Go ahead and sign-up for a user account, no email required, though I think it still asks you. Just use a bogus account, it’ll still take. The whole intranet (sans video archive) uses one login, so it should automatically have you logged in for the rest of the sites. There’s only a few user roles/groups: Guests, Registered User, Scouts, Team Members [964], Team Admins [964 also]. Don’t post anything you feel is confidential/personal, in case I get hacked or something stupid like that.
Post pics and participate in threads, even if you only go on once, just do something so I know it’s good. Negative/Positive feedback is also welcome.

It’s not meant to be a huge corporate-type network, just a central place for chatting, sharing documents, archiving photos and videos. I introduced it to the core group and they seemed to love it. The main programmer is learning PHP/MySQL pretty fast so he’ll expand it soon. I really don’t expect it to get too technical since the project started off as a boredom-buster. Only took me two full days to get it to this functional point. The hardest part that took me forever was pulling Drupal’s header to use across the network. I’m sure there was an easier way, as I’ve probably got tons of excess code now, but it works.

Technical question: What equipment, configuration, or software would I need to automatically send somebody to the right address, like an access point which requires you to login.

Software/Add-ons/Features:

-] Drupal CMS
-] phpBB3
-] phpBB3 Portal
-] drupal-phpbb3 integration module (phpbb hosts user info/cookies)
-] Coppermine Photo Gallery, bridged to phpbb3
-] AutoIndex PHP script for video downloads (As used by SOAP 108) [Eventually to be changed to a different interface]

-] [Planned] Group calendar and Project Management system
-] [Planned] physically host it at new primary sponsor’s location for use
-] [Planned] DynDNS account for potential public site (TBD)
-] [Planned] TeamSpeak or Ventrilo server software [VoIP]

Thanks in advance,
David Thomas [Team 964]

#2

Pretty cool, and quite generous of you.

Team 1676 has run a wireless LAN for the past two or 3 years at every regional we attend.

The main feature and purpose is our scouting database. We have a dedicated team of seven (six observers - one for each robot - and one ‘supervisor’) entering scouting data for every match. Every team is invited to use the data in any way they like. There’s also some additional functionality - a live video feed from the field, a forum, and some other stuff.

Several teams came up to us in NJ and thanked us, so I guess it’s helpful.

We were ranked 44th in our win/loss record, but through scouting we showed that we were 9th in scoring - and so were picked for an alliance over several higher-ranked teams. Scouting has its value, that is why we work hard at it.

We handed out slips of paper explaining to teams how they could connect in and use it. Several teams had wireless with them.

Don

#3

Yeah, I remember your database now. Hope this isn’t too “intrusive” of me. My network is simply for test purposes, with scouting an after-thought. . Live video is still being debated right now, since I might be using the laptop to also stream the webcast to Gameday, just don’t want to think about the coding needed to implement that. I’m also thinking of adding simple Flash games or something, just as a time-killer.

#4
#5

If im not mistaken at nationals 1676 and 375 are joining forces to put together an intranet that will give all the scouting database features of 1676 and the communications powerhouse of our system together. You will have the magic of 1676 and a com. link between the stands and the pits :smiley:

#6

No 1676? That’s too bad, I was looking forward to seeing you guys play in-person this year.

The other reason I haven’t include scouting is because of the fact that I can’t seem to find any good systems to use for basic AMPP (Apache/MySQL/PHP/Perl) setups, everything seems to be either created specifically for a device or so complicated that it wouldn’t be worth the time to use it.

Speaking of which, would it be possible for us to use the scouting part of your system? I’m not sure of who else will be attending that’s using public scouting, and I think it’d only be fair to have the resource there.

#7

That we are! Should be fun- but we still need to get two other teams to do the two other fields that we’re not on- provided we’re on different fields.

Nope, we’re not at Buckeye. We generally go to NJ, one other regional that changes every year, and Championships every two years. Buckeye was our other regional last year, and this year it’s GTR.

Check your PM box for info on our database.

#8