On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 12:00:38PM +1000, Jason White wrote:
I've discussed my wireless needs on the list before - I'm thinking that the best solution would just be to buy a device that will take OpenWRT and serve as an 802.11n access point.
here are two more alternative methods to consider, both involving use of the hostapd[1] package. 1. buy a USB/PCI/PCI-e wireless NIC and install it in your current gateway box. you already have dhcp, dns, iptables, and everything else configured and running, so you only need to configure hostapd. be careful when selecting a NIC, not all will work in Master aka AP or Access Point mode - although it's not uncommon for 802.11a/b/g. unfortunately, very few 802.11n NIC drivers support master mode in linux. NICs based on the ath9k[2] chip seem to be the best bet for 802.11n. The brcmsmac[3] driver also got AP mode support in March this year. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/MasterMode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_wireless_drivers#Driv... 2. get a cheap old laptop with built-in wireless NIC. Again, make sure that the NIC supports Master mode under linux. Configure hostapd. if you use a separate IP subnet for the wireless LAN, you may also need to run a dhcp relay so that bootp packets get forwarded between the wlan and your dhcp server (alternatively, just run another dhcp server on the laptop, listening only on the wlan interface so it doesn't conflict with your main dhcp server) I use an old eeepc 701 for this job at home. the wifi chip in it only supports 802.11b and 802.11g, but it's adequate for my needs. if/when i need better/faster than that, i'll probably get a wifi nic for my gateway machine and retire the eeepc. there's an iphone, an android phone, two android tablets, a linux laptop that connect regularly to this, and occasionally other machines (including mac and windows laptops). I have it configured so that each machine that connects has a separate login and password, and dhcpd assigns each one a static IP addresses. [1] http://hostap.epitest.fi/hostapd/ debian package details: Package: hostapd Source: wpa (1.0-3) Version: 1:1.0-3+b2 Description-en: user space IEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticator Originally, hostapd was an optional user space component for Host AP driver. It adds more features to the basic IEEE 802.11 management included in the kernel driver: using external RADIUS authentication server for MAC address based access control, IEEE 802.1X Authenticator and dynamic WEP keying, RADIUS accounting, WPA/WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i/RSN) Authenticator and dynamic TKIP/CCMP keying. . The current version includes support for other drivers, an integrated EAP authenticator (i.e., allow full authentication without requiring an external RADIUS authentication server), and RADIUS authentication server for EAP authentication. . hostapd works with the following drivers: . * mac80211 based drivers with support for master mode [linux] * Host AP driver for Prism2/2.5/3 [linux] * Driver interface for FreeBSD net80211 layer [kfreebsd] * Any wired Ethernet driver for wired IEEE 802.1X authentication. Homepage: http://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/ [2] http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k/products [3] http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211 craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>