[plug] Wireless Access Point Options

[William Kenworthy]

I have one machine with an N Tpilink  pci wireless card - works well as
a client running windoze - mostly online game playing by my son.  The
windoze driver has infrastuture (client) mode and ad-hoc modes - doesnt
seem to have the ability to run as an AP.  I know that the linux
software for the intel wireless in my laptop doesnt supprt AP mode, but
thats because the software isnt available - but in other cases, the
hardware (rather firmware) itself doesnt support being an AP (e.g., the
atheros chipset in my freerunner phone).

I'd therefore check carefully before trying as an AP under linux
(chipset support).

For an AP, I use a linksys WRT150N running dd-wrt - excellent :) -
bridged to a linux gateway via a cisco 2900 switch using VLANS (using
the gateway as the router for the VLANS - adsl, wireless, LAN,
test , ...) to isolate the different networks.  Complex, but allows me
to keep WLAN traffic (mostly windows laptops/ipods and the like, plus
guests, game playing etc) separate from my LANS :)

My suggestion would be to use a lynksys AP with dd-wrt (I know this
works well) or openwrt bridged to your LAN if you are the only user, or
go for isolation by using separate networks if needed.

If performance doesnt need to be high (range, throughput) a USB AP may
be a another solution to consider.

BillK



On Fri, 2009-07-17 at 10:00 +0800, Trevor Phillips wrote:
> My all-in-one Billion ADSL/Router/Firewall/Wireless has been flaky for
> a while, so I've pulled my finger out and configured my Linux server
> as the router (using Shorewall) with the Billion bridged to it. This
> is working spiffingly for Internet<->Ethernet stuff, but I can't
> convince the router to keep supporting Wireless, while in bridged
> mode.
> 
> So I'm looking for alternative inexpensive wireless solutions to build
> off the Linux-as-router/firewall concept.
> 
> Now, given that I'd rather the server handle NAT, DHCP, Firewalling,
> etc, I really don't need (m)any bells & whistles for the wireless.
> Ideally, I'd like to shove a PCI wireless card in the server, but I
> don't know enough about the technologies to know if any old PCI
> Wireless card can become a WAP with the right Linux software, or if
> you need specific hardware capabilities.
> 
> The other alternative is to get an external Eth (or USB?) WAP and plug
> it in, either to the Eth LAN, or maybe to a separate Eth card on the
> server.
> 
> Is it as simple as getting any PCI Wireless card, or is the external
> WAP the better solution? Any other ideas/suggestions?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
-- 
William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au>
Home in Perth!