Re: Using Debian as an Access Point?

[Nate Duehr]

Joey Hess wrote:
Nate Duehr wrote:
 

If you get cards (usually Prism chipset) that support HostAP, then yes. 

It's pretty much a roll-your-own kind of thing.  Haven't seen any 
Debian-specific packages for creating an AP or making it "easy" yet, 
really.  Of course, I'm not looking either... AP's are so cheap it's not 
worth the effort unless the application is very specialized.  The 
PCI-based 802.11b Prism chipset cards cost roughly twice what a 
discounted real AP would cost from an online vendor.
   

The nice thing about my linux based AP is that, unlike every proprietary
AP I've used, it doesn't randomly lose settings, crash, require some
crummy web interface, contain stupid backdoor security problems, etc. My
AP also mails me when it sees new clients, has powerful packet filtering
and andwidth throttling capailities, and can be upgraded with apt-get.
 

Hmm, I wonder if you've been using the combined AP/Router things.  My 
three standard AP's (no routing capabilities and NO intelligence 
on-board - Linksys WAP-11's) have worked fine for years... I have a 
version 1, 1.2, and 2.  Agreed that the AP/Router things are a giant 
pain.  The only one I'd consider is the new Linksys one that runs Linux 
under the hood and lots of people have alternate flash images for.  
(That one looks fun.)

Since I have a home server anyway, slapping a pcmcia card in it is well
worth the extra $20. The dedicated APs are somewhat useful if you're
traveling or setting up a temporary network where reliability and
long-tem security and maintainabily is not an issue.
 

The problem I have with doing it in a server (I did this for a while) is 
that a server failure of any kind also kills all the wireless clients.  
I probably need the wireless clients to research what's wrong with the 
server.  It's kinda a "I don't want all the eggs in one basket" kind of 
thing.

Some of your other features could easily be replicated by things like 
arpwatch on the internal network and other similar things.  Do the 
throttling upstream somewhere, that sort of thing.

Nate
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