802.11n cards/adapters for use with Host AP mode in Linux
I'm thinking of purchasing either a PCI Express card or a wireless USB adapter that can be used to create an 802.11n access point under Linux using hostapd. Notoriously, products can change quickly and one has to be sure to buy a device with the right chip set. My research so far indicates that an Atheros chip would be best - they seem to be well supported and the manufacturer is (or was) helping with the Linux drivers. A USB device would be slower, of course, but more portable - just connect it to any desktop/laptop with Linux installed. Alternatively, I could install a card in my main desktop machine, which has PCI Express slots available (but no PCI slot due to another card). Can this be made to work reliably? Any product recommendations would be welcome. On the USB side, this Web page mentions some potential devices: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,6300
On 23/07/13 14:30, Jason White wrote:
I'm thinking of purchasing either a PCI Express card or a wireless USB adapter that can be used to create an 802.11n access point under Linux using hostapd.
If you have a gigE port you could also use a router such as the Linksys E3200 (and friends) in AP mode. Dual band concurrent, 3 aerials per band (a big advantage over sticks). Runout price $89 at PCDIY - claimed to be "in stock".
Allan Duncan <amd2345@fastmail.com.au> wrote:
If you have a gigE port you could also use a router such as the Linksys E3200 (and friends) in AP mode. Dual band concurrent, 3 aerials per band (a big advantage over sticks). Runout price $89 at PCDIY - claimed to be "in stock".
Thanks. I'm actually hoping to avoid an extra device/power supply, though that might be inevitable. There isn't much room on the desks here anymore. I'm also looking for something with a command line interface so I don't have to deal with Web interfaces for consumer-grade devices, i.e., bad when you want to administer them remotely, usually not wonderful accessibility and painful to use in general, in my experience. Getting a router and flashing OpenWRT onto it would be another possibility. However, the desktop machine is handling all of my networking - ADSL, DNS, DHCP, mail, SIP, etc. I haven't looked hard yet, but my quick searches didn't identify any device with enough memory and CPU for all of these functions that offered a small form factor and lower power (with a PCI slot for the ADSL card and another slot for wireless). Such a device would be tempting, of course, as I could then move all the networking out of my primary workstation. A friend is in a similar position (though with cable and ADSL), and thinking that a small form-factor system capable of running a typical Linux distribution would be better than OpenWRT on consumer-grade hardware. Apparently, you can't upgrade OpenWRT in place from one release to another - you have to re-install, at least on some routers. That's annoying, to say the least. If anyone reading this has any ideas, suggestions are of course welcome.
Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> writes:
A friend is in a similar position (though with cable and ADSL), and thinking that a small form-factor system capable of running a typical Linux distribution would be better than OpenWRT on consumer-grade hardware. Apparently, you can't upgrade OpenWRT in place from one release to another - you have to re-install, at least on some routers. That's annoying, to say the least.
In theory, sysupgrade works. What that basically does is take a tarball of "interesting" files, put them away somewhere, and then put them back after flashing the new firmware. A \n delimited list of files in /etc/ says what is "interesting". I did this to upgrade from backfire to aa on three APs recently, and it worked perfectly (to my immense surprise), on the second two where I added my one hostapd-patched file from /lib to the "interesting" list. The list of installed packages gets reset -- you'll need to remove luci again and install <whatever> again. But the allowed_keys file, for example, was kept by default. Also worth noting is that since its (usually) deployed as a ROM plus a COW, you can just diff e.g. /rom/etc and /etc to see what config you've changed. Obviously not nearly as pleasant as Debian, but the expectation is that you set these things up, then leave them alone for years. PS: I'm talking above about upgrades between major releases -- you can opkg update within a release fine, although frankly I'm usually too lazy and scared to risk it. (I can't estimate how realistic that risk is.)
I run an Alfa AWUS036NH when requiring a high powered wireless card, works well under debian. Realtek driver iirc. I haven't run it as an ap but assume it would work. http://www.alfa.com.tw/products_show.php?pc=34&ps=21 D Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> wrote:
Allan Duncan <amd2345@fastmail.com.au> wrote:
If you have a gigE port you could also use a router such as the Linksys E3200 (and friends) in AP mode. Dual band concurrent, 3 aerials per band (a big advantage over sticks). Runout price $89 at PCDIY - claimed to be "in stock".
Thanks. I'm actually hoping to avoid an extra device/power supply, though that might be inevitable. There isn't much room on the desks here anymore. I'm also looking for something with a command line interface so I don't have to deal with Web interfaces for consumer-grade devices, i.e., bad when you want to administer them remotely, usually not wonderful accessibility and painful to use in general, in my experience.
Getting a router and flashing OpenWRT onto it would be another possibility. However, the desktop machine is handling all of my networking - ADSL, DNS, DHCP, mail, SIP, etc. I haven't looked hard yet, but my quick searches didn't identify any device with enough memory and CPU for all of these functions that offered a small form factor and lower power (with a PCI slot for the ADSL card and another slot for wireless). Such a device would be tempting, of course, as I could then move all the networking out of my primary workstation.
A friend is in a similar position (though with cable and ADSL), and thinking that a small form-factor system capable of running a typical Linux distribution would be better than OpenWRT on consumer-grade hardware. Apparently, you can't upgrade OpenWRT in place from one release to another - you have to re-install, at least on some routers. That's annoying, to say the least.
If anyone reading this has any ideas, suggestions are of course welcome.
_______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
-- Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
Daniel Cross <daniel@ritualmedia.co.nz> wrote:
I run an Alfa AWUS036NH when requiring a high powered wireless card, works well under debian. Realtek driver iirc. I haven't run it as an ap but assume it would work.
Thanks. It's on my list now.
Daniel Cross <daniel@ritualmedia.co.nz> writes:
I run an Alfa AWUS036NH when requiring a high powered wireless card, works well under debian. Realtek driver iirc. I haven't run it as an ap but assume it would work.
I vaguely remember old advice about some wifi chipsets not supporting AP mode.
Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
I vaguely remember old advice about some wifi chipsets not supporting AP mode.
E.g., Intel chips. http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi Features [...] AP mode (experimental; only on some devices/firmware versions)
Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
I vaguely remember old advice about some wifi chipsets not supporting AP mode.
E.g., Intel chips. http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi
Features [...] AP mode (experimental; only on some devices/firmware versions)
And regrettably those device/firmware versions do not include the Iwl5300 controller in my laptop.
On 29/07/13 14:33, Daniel Cross wrote:
I run an Alfa AWUS036NH when requiring a high powered wireless card, works well under debian. Realtek driver iirc. I haven't run it as an ap but assume it would work.
Specs say "Support S/W AP" as well as mentioning Linux support, so sounds promising, *but* the page for the Linux driver says: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/rtl8187 working * Station/Managed mode * Monitor mode * Injection * Ad-Hoc since Linux 3.4 not working yet * AP/Master mode So you may be out of luck (for the moment). I don't see anything related in git for that driver. :-( cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC
Thanks for the update on that. Assuming is not always a great idea :) On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 11:34 AM, Chris Samuel <chris@csamuel.org> wrote:
On 29/07/13 14:33, Daniel Cross wrote:
I run an Alfa AWUS036NH when requiring a high powered wireless card, works well under debian. Realtek driver iirc. I haven't run it as an ap but assume it would work.
Specs say "Support S/W AP" as well as mentioning Linux support, so sounds promising, *but* the page for the Linux driver says:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/rtl8187
working * Station/Managed mode * Monitor mode * Injection * Ad-Hoc since Linux 3.4
not working yet * AP/Master mode
So you may be out of luck (for the moment). I don't see anything related in git for that driver. :-(
cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
participants (6)
-
Allan Duncan -
Chris Samuel -
Daniel Cross -
Jason White -
Rick Moen -
trentbuck＠gmail.com