Local Access

This article refers to Platform v3.4.0. The current Platform version is v3.4.0.

Overview

A node that has not been activated in Barbara Panel yet needs working network settings before it can enroll, and at an installation site those settings are not always the ones the node arrived with. Local Access covers that gap: when an unactivated node cannot reach the Barbara platform, it opens its own configuration channels and serves the local configuration interface on them, so you can set up the network from a laptop or a phone standing next to the node.

Local Access has two channels, and the node brings up the ones its hardware allows:

• WiFi access point — the node publishes a WiFi network named after its Barbara ID. Use it when the node has a WLAN interface. It is the quickest path, because your laptop receives an address automatically.
• Ethernet — the node takes a fixed address on its first Ethernet port. Use it when the node has no WiFi, or when you only have a cable at hand.

You do not enable Local Access from Barbara Panel. The node decides on its own, and it withdraws the channels as soon as it can reach the platform again. For a node that is already activated, the equivalent tool is Standalone Mode, which you switch on from Panel.

info

Local Access requires Barbara Core 1.10.4 or later. Earlier versions publish the WiFi access point only, and they do not show the on-screen instructions described below.

How the node decides to open Local Access

Every 15 seconds, the node checks two things: that it reaches the Barbara platform over HTTPS, and that it completes a TCP and TLS connection to its MQTT broker with its own certificates. Both have to succeed for the node to consider itself connected.

When either check fails for 60 consecutive seconds and the node has not been activated yet, Local Access opens. The node retries on every cycle while a channel is still down, so a board that starts without WiFi hardware or without a cable still opens the other channel later.

If you're curious…

The broker check measures reachability, not credentials. A node that reaches its broker but is rejected at login counts as connected and does not open Local Access.

Read the connection details on the node

A node with a display shows a LOCAL ACCESS AVAILABLE screen, which alternates every 10 seconds with the screen that carries the Barbara ID. The screen lists the WiFi network name and password, the address of the configuration interface, the credentials, and a QR code that opens the interface directly, so you can scan it from a phone.

The same information is printed on the serial console, and the screen also reminds you that the network can be configured from a template file on a USB drive. See USB Assistant Tool for that path.

Connect over WiFi

The access point uses these values:

Parameter	Value
Network name (SSID)	The node's Barbara ID
Password	BarbaraHotspot
Node address	10.43.0.1
Configuration interface	http://10.43.0.1:4010

1. Join the WiFi network named after the node's Barbara ID, which is printed on the node's label and shown on its screen.
2. Open http://10.43.0.1:4010 in your browser.
3. Log in with admin / admin.

The access point assigns your laptop an address, so no manual configuration is needed on your side.

Connect over Ethernet

The Ethernet channel is the fallback, and it activates only when the node's own configuration has already had its chance. When you plug a cable in, the node grants a 90 second window during which its configured profile can take the interface and establish connectivity. If it does, the node reaches the platform and Local Access closes on its own, with nothing left for you to do. If it does not, the node takes the interface with a fixed address.

Parameter	Value
Node address	10.43.1.1/24
Configuration interface	http://10.43.1.1:4010

1. Connect your laptop to the node with an Ethernet cable.
2. Wait about 90 seconds.
3. Configure your laptop's Ethernet adapter with a static address in the 10.43.1.x range and netmask 255.255.255.0.
4. Open http://10.43.1.1:4010 in your browser and log in with admin / admin.

warning

The node uses its first Ethernet port for this channel. On a node with several ports, connect your cable to that one.

While the Ethernet channel is up, the port serves the fixed address and no longer requests one over DHCP, so connectivity cannot return by itself on that port. Configure the network from the local interface, or reboot the node, to give it back.

Configure the node from the local interface

The interface is the same Barbara Standalone interface an activated node serves in Standalone Mode, and it reaches the node's real configuration. From it you can:

• Configure the Ethernet, WiFi, and Mobile interfaces, with DHCP or with static IP address, Netmask, Gateway, DNS, and Metric.
• Create, edit, and delete VLANs on an Ethernet interface.
• Set the node hostname, the outbound proxy, and the firewall rules, from the Advanced Config section.
• Add and remove NTP servers.
• Reboot the node.

Check Enable Rollback when you send a change you are not certain about. The node applies the new configuration, waits 40 seconds, and then checks whether its MQTT broker is reachable, retrying up to three times at five second intervals. If it is, the change stays. If it is not, the node restores the previous configuration of that interface.

warning

Rollback checks the MQTT broker, not general internet access. A configuration that reaches the internet but blocks the broker's port, behind a corporate firewall or a proxy, is rolled back as well.

If you reconfigure the interface that is carrying Local Access, your session drops while the new configuration takes the interface. That is expected: either the new configuration works and the node enrolls, or Local Access returns a couple of minutes later.

How Local Access closes

Local Access is temporary, and the node removes it in every case that makes it unnecessary:

• Connectivity returns. Within one 15 second cycle, the node stops the configuration interface, deletes the WiFi and Ethernet profiles it created, restores the configuration that was on the Ethernet port before, closes the ports it opened in the firewall, and removes the on-screen instructions.
• The node is activated. Local Access belongs to unactivated nodes, so once the node enrolls in Panel, it never opens again. Use Standalone Mode from then on.
• Standalone Mode is enabled from Panel. Local Access steps aside so both do not compete for the same interface.

Local Access and Standalone Mode

Both serve the same interface on the same ports, and they differ in who starts them and when:

	Local Access	Standalone Mode
Who starts it	The node itself	You, from Barbara Panel
Node state	Not activated yet	Activated
Trigger	60 seconds without reaching the platform	An explicit action in Panel
Credentials	admin / admin	The credentials Panel generated for the node
Address	10.43.0.1:4010 over WiFi, 10.43.1.1:4010 over Ethernet	The address of the interface you selected
How it ends	On its own, when connectivity returns	When you disable it, or through rollback

Summary

Local Access gives you a way into a node that has not been activated yet and cannot reach the platform, using only a laptop or a phone on site. Join the WiFi network named after the Barbara ID and open http://10.43.0.1:4010, or connect a cable, wait for the courtesy window, and open http://10.43.1.1:4010. Both take admin / admin and lead to the same configuration interface, where you set the interfaces, VLANs, proxy, firewall, hostname, and NTP servers the site requires.

Once the node reaches the platform, it withdraws Local Access by itself and enrolls in Barbara Panel, where the whole fleet is managed from a single console. To reconfigure the node locally after that, enable Standalone Mode.