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But they did fix the problem, that is better than most. Vulnerabilities happen, even for pfSense.

A Netgate SG-1000 if you want a packaged solution;

https://www.netgate.com/soluti...

Else load up PfSense on an old PC or search ebay for pfsense... You'll find also repurposed appliance from other people loaded with PfSense.

I second Soekris. Their net6501 system is really nice, but kind of pricy. I just got one of these recently because it's cheaper and have been very happy with it:

http://store.netgate.com/kit-A...

Full specs:

http://pcengines.ch/apu.htm

• APU 1C
• APU 1C4 (same as above but with 4 GB of ram instead of 2)

Software:

• Voyage Linux This is a Debian-based Linux distribution that's tweaked to run on x86-based embedded systems (like one of the APU systems above). This is a good option if you're a Linux power user and prefer to set things up yourself manually.
• pfSense You can flash this onto an SD or mSATA card and boot straight into it. This is good for those that want a more turn-key solution. pfSense is based on m0n0wall.

• APU 1C
• APU 1C4 (same as above but with 4 GB of ram instead of 2)

Software:

• Voyage Linux This is a Debian-based Linux distribution that's tweaked to run on x86-based embedded systems (like one of the APU systems above). This is a good option if you're a Linux power user and prefer to set things up yourself manually.
• pfSense You can flash this onto an SD or mSATA card and boot straight into it. This is good for those that want a more turn-key solution. pfSense is based on m0n0wall.

I just ordered one of these kits: http://store.netgate.com/kit-A... to use with PFSense. I haven't set it up yet, but many people seem happy with a similar bits. PFSense seems well-respected and relatively easy-to-use. Since it is FreeBSD under the hood, I should also be able to run my AP/Wifi management services on it (outside of the home, I'd probably insist on a separate VM for this).

Not ARM-based, but
http://store.netgate.com/kit-A...
With pfSense installed. Add wireless:
http://store.netgate.com/APU-w...

Yes, it's pricey, but pfSense is very good, and this hardware is compact and lower power-consumption than an "old pc".

Not ARM-based, but
http://store.netgate.com/kit-A...
With pfSense installed. Add wireless:
http://store.netgate.com/APU-w...

Yes, it's pricey, but pfSense is very good, and this hardware is compact and lower power-consumption than an "old pc".

.. but the real question is: Can you use it to learn how to do HTML Markup?

Here is another embedded system vendor with pfsense. Their products have intrigued me but I have never got around to trying one myself, although I have used soekris with monowall.

http://store.netgate.com/Desktop-Kits-C82.aspx

Like an Alix Board and run pfSense on it, with the available packages, there are likely few network related tasks you'll find that pfSense 2.0 on Alix hardware cannot handle. You can also put in whatever wireless card you want, but I prefer to run a dedicated AP. Used Cisco Aironets can be found on Ebay for under $100 and are rock solid.

I second this (or sixth, seeing the comments). You could also use any old PC laying around and it will have orders of magnitude of more power than any consumer router. I personally like old laptops and netbooks because they have built in battery backups + screens.

Like an Alix Board and run pfSense on it, with the available packages, there are likely few network related tasks you'll find that pfSense 2.0 on Alix hardware cannot handle. You can also put in whatever wireless card you want, but I prefer to run a dedicated AP. Used Cisco Aironets can be found on Ebay for under $100 and are rock solid.

http://store.netgate.com/Firewalls-C2.aspx

Just add the wifi radio to it, and the crypto accelerator if you intend to do a lot with openvpn (which you should, since pfsense has it rolled right in)

Use openvpn, and lock down access to only those on the vpn network. If you don't mind spending $200, you can get a 3 port netgate loaded with pfsense. Put your wireless AP on the third interface.

http://store.netgate.com/Desktop-Systems-C83.aspx

The PC Engines ALIX series are similar to the Soekris boards, are fast and well supported by various open source routers, including hardware based crypto acceleration.
It comes in various versions with different number of lan ports and mini-pci ports to fit most needs.
http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm

Another good and cheaper replacement is the router station pro.
It does have gigE ports, unlike the ALIX and Soekris boards, and is quite affordable.
http://www.ubnt.com/rspro
Version with case here:
http://www.netgate.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_104&products_id=812

I got a kit from Netgate that has the board, case, and choice of wireless card for about $300. It's expensive, but so far it's worth it.

PfSense is where it's at. Affordable support, top notch, their support is really great and you often talk to the developers. Even if you don't pay, they have an excellent community with a forum and mailing list. Use a server, an old PC, or slap it into an embedded system from hacom or netgate. Your customers will never even suspect it is just an x86 computer.

I have never had better support then I got from all of these companies. They work with you to solve all issues and you talk to people who know what they are doing. Hacom even sent an identical hardware platform to pfsense so they could troubleshoot an issue they were having trouble replicating. It turned out to be an issue with large SATA drives, so they replaced the SATA w/ ATA.

They're good in the EU, and if you are in the US, http://www.netgate.com/ also sells systems pre-loaded with pfSense or m0n0wall.

I typically prefer the build-it-myself path for the larger systems, but we've bought several ALIX kits from Netgate. Their ALIX cases are nice (reversible lid that can hide/expose antenna holes for wifi is a nice touch)

I use one of these ALIX board with a 500 MHZ Geode processor: http://www.netgate.com/product_info.php?cPath=60_84&products_id=673 Uses less electricity than a night light!

Soekris has a whole lineup of single-board machines with this processor. The prices are pretty reasonable, and they have cases and a some accessories. Netgate makes wireless hardware kits for Soekris aystems. Soekris made the hardware for the MIT RoofNet project.

- Multiply by the number of cells.
- Multiply that by the number of directaional-antenna sectors in each cell.
- And multiply yet again by the number of antennas in the steerable-null array in each sector.

While it is important to consider how to prevent one customer's traffic from affecting another, I was talking about the amount of bandwidth a single customer could potentially receive. Also, I believe the cellular companies are transmitting on non-overlapping channels with each sector antenna (at UHF and microwave frequencies, they are not directional enough to prevent overloading the other antennas/radios a few feet away), and they separate uplink/downlink frequencies quite a bit to help with this too.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can get a Soekris box, install OpenBSD/FreeBSD and have a completely customizable wireless access point. With PF and ALTQ, you can do bandwidth throttling, can disable certain types of traffic with Snort+PF, or anything else that you feel appropriate. This site www.netgate.com has everything you need, hardware-wise. Google can help you find instructions on getting the OS installed.

Netgate and ThinkWiki are your friends. Yes, being a bitter Linux user isn't easy. I personally have not given up yet, having both a Radeon 9200 SE and a wifi card from Netgate. But it seems like things will never change, and it isn't very encouraging to see even the general slashdot vibe to be "pragmatism is god; clinging to some idealistic impossibility isn't pragmatic". Of course, to be pragmatic one must have a goal, and the goal is rarely stated or assumed to be "getting things done today" when it may very well be "advancing my personal view of what society should be" or "improving things". Will the next Linux be chicken-and-egged to death because no vendors will provide drivers because it isn't popular enough? I don't want to see the hobbyist OS die not from lack of effort but from lack of drivers. Linux is popular enough to get vendor written drivers in some areas where the spec is not available, but is left high and dry in other areas such as many webcams, scanners, and other consumer level devices.

I'm running an Atheros miniPCI card with the MadWifi Driver under Linux and haven't had any problems. I've also used Orinoco and Prism2 cards with Linux out of the box.

go to http://www.netgate.com/ select a miniPCI card (i like the 5004 MP Atheros 4G: 802.11a/b/g miniPCI Card), a PCI Adapter: miniPCI in a PCI Slot and finally the correct antenna and you will have a working solution for Linux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. the solution will cost over $100 but WORK!!!

Actually it is possible, there is a magic bit in the CMOS that tells the BIOS to skip the checks. I'm happily running a Netgate Prism 2 card in my X40, after running this program (also available in OpenBSD ports/misc/tpwireless).

on a soekris net4801 + vpn1401, and an 802.11b mini-pci from netgate

pf does ingress and egress filtering

all wireless is accomplished via ipsec. after packets are decrypted, they too are filtered

I'm anxious to hear what antennas actually matter.

Since the plane is mobile, a fixed directional antenna won't help much (though one that directed most energy upward from the ground station and one that pointed generally down from the plane would be better than an isotropic radiator). A moving antenna that tracks the aircraft's transponder or an APRS device might be reasonable, but difficult to build. What might work better is to use a 200 mw card (like one from zcomax or senao - most cards are about 35mw to allow greater spacial reuse). Or you could use an external 1 watt amplifier.

I'm more interested in the routing protocols for connection handoffs between base stations. AODV and DSR were shown experimentally to handle extremely high mobility of large numbers of nodes.

-jim

Is it possible that the desolder of the tabs may have damaged or dislodged one of the chips on the card.

If you want a miniPCI wifi card - I find that buying them alone instead of on a PCI adapter tends to be cheaper. Check out netgate.com - their cards are even supported by the ar5k or madwifi drivers.

The end result of this is a small integrated PC with no moving parts, and mounts it's file-system read-only so no worries about corruption, with a built-in access point. These work great, and are a bit larger than the size of a VHS casette.

I've deployed a number of these, and they are rock solid. Plus, they have advanced routing capabilities thanks to Linux, and the ability to block infected or abusive users from re-associating with the AP.

As far as going with 802.11 a or g... You must be pulling in some pretty mighty bandwidth to need to use something faster than 802.11g. Pebble includes "MadWiFi", a driver for some a/g cards, but I haven't used it.

Sean

Why spend $500 on a noisy, failure prone PC when you can buy a small embedded computer that acts as an access point and a router? A Soekris net4521 is an excellent choice at $235. You can even get a high power 802.11b PCMCIA card, pigtail, and antenna kit

The OS work is already done for you as well, check out m0n0wall for a complete FreeBSD solution with a fancy GUI config system, or one of the small Linux AP distros, or roll your own. I run OpenBSD on mine.

The net4521 is an amazing product! I built a AP/firewall/etc appliance with one, using the 200mw card from NetGate. They have soekris kits too now. I used OpenBSD not Linux and couldn't be happier with the result.

My wireless network is secured with IPSec, pf makes for an amazing firewall, have a caching DNS server, upstream rate limiting for my cable connection, etc. Not only is my network as secure as can be, but I can upgrade to 802.11a/g with only a new network card (and antennas if a) and new releases of OpenBSD in the rare event a hole is found.

Soekris makes a much better choice for low-power networking hardware. I run an IPSec secured wireless access point/router/firewall/QoS manager/etc on the net4521 and a 200mw 802.11b adapter. This one isn't mine, but pretty, isn't it. As soon as a HostAP driver supports 802.11a/g I'll be set to add another PCMCIA card, what a cheap ugprade.

I may want to mention that I also use higher powered wireless cards with 200mW power output manufactured by senao. They have the second best sensitivity on the market. You can buy them at netgate.com
They cost about 100 a pop. You can get a better card from demarctec, but they are like $160 usd. Too expensive for my taste.