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Cheap Wireless 802.11b Bridging
eggboard writes "You can bridge two wired networks using two cheap Linksys 802.11b access points. This isn't exactly new, but the article I wrote, which just went up on Friday, describes in excruciating detail how to configure the units. The big news is really price: the WAP11 described is about $185 with a manfacturer's rebate. Using higher-gain antennas than the ones shipped with the WAP11 and/or tuning line-of-sight access, you've either figured out how to hook up a neighborhood of separate wired networks, or how to link multiple offices cheaply."
if you are lucky enough to have an antenna within your computer you could very well set it up as a wireless hub.
;).
I set up a wireless network consisting of 1 Win2k Athlon, a Dual g4 X tower, and an X TiBook for arround $350.
It's been working fine (as long as the 'puter with the software router doesn't go down). I saved about 300 bucks
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Why must people keep coming out with things that make me feel like I wasted the ~$600 I spent building a wireless to wired router/bridge out of one of these (the 1030N if you are wondering). Granted I could have saved some money if I had be brave enough to try to use a DiskOnChip instead of buying a 2.5" HDD...
Oh well, when I built it I still think it was cheaper than any of the other available solutions. Except of course for the P-133 box it replaced...but I wanted something that would sit on a shelf in the garage very unobtrusively.
BTW: here is the box sans hard drive.
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Where are the slash-groupies? I distinctly remember being promised slash-groupies!
Careful though.
a) By modifying equipment you may be breaking FCC rules (USA) or your local rules.
Additionally, in the UK, 802.11b is NOT apprived for commercial use. I spoke at length with the UK government Radio Agency last week to establish this (my company use 802.11b to connect remote advertising screens, but not in the UK where this is forbidden.)
Michael
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BDOS ERR ON A:>
I can't wait to see this done using 802.11a devices (when they arrive). :)
:)
Last mile problem? No problem at all!
[For those who don't know, 802.11a is just like 802.11b, except at over 50 megabits per second.]
Unfortunately, like other 802.11b solutions, these use WEP, which is inherently broken... if I were linking my business' two campuses, I wouldn't really want Joe, Bob and Mary (who all happen to have line of sight) sniffing all of my network traffic with their perfectly simple store-bought solutions. :-)
meisenst
Green's Law of Debate: Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about.
Is it just me or is this article completely lacking in any technical details at all. Basically there's nothing noted there that isn't in the users manual. It's even lacking much of what's in the manual. And it mentions a better antenna you can connect to the WAP11, but does it mention any details about the antenna? No. I've been looking at the antenna's on the market and I've found the HyperGain HG2410U 10dB Omnidirectional Antenna, however I still cant figure out which of the like 10 different connectors will go into the back of the WAP11.
Go search the cisco web site for aironet and antenna, they have a few other antenna types, including a nice +21dB parabola not available in Europe.
/. listing, but in these last few hot summer days, the news is pretty thin.
Because 802.11b devices are being sold to consumers, they are required to have "non-standard" connectors not readily available on the market so people can NOT modify the antennas to boost range. That is a requirement in the U.S. and Europe, so all 802.11b manufacturers use Reverse-TNC or Reverse-SMA connectors.
The article had it wrong when it said the units had standard connectors. Clearly the author just bought two boxes and hooked them up and they worked, just like the TFM says. This article didn't deserve a
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Yes, indeed, this would be excellent to have, however it requires the use of a routing algorithm to determine where to send packets. I'm sure the Linksys folks are working on this right now.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
The only real solution for the problem WEP tries to solve is to use end-to-end encryption, e.g. ssh or ssl.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
SeattleWireless and PersonalTelco are already doing it. Go read. :)
Why not turn bridging on in the kernel and bridge to an internally connected 802.11b card.
I used to work for (company unnamed, but you have heard of them) a place that developed a stand-alone product where the "bridged mode" is done exactly this way. (It was still in development when I left, and I don't believe it is yet on the market.) Bridging performance was about the same as other 802.11b access point devices.
While the platform was a bit differant (StongARM and mini-PCI cards) there is no reason you couldn't do the same with a P166 sitting in the closet, a card bus controller and a cheap 802.11 card.
There are people, in Europe (and no doubt, elsewhere) building their own high-gain antennas quite successfully. Work out dirt cheap, too.
Adapters are available to go from non-standard connectors to something a bit more garden variety, BTW.
...j
You're right - and it exists. Routing protocols that would make such things work exists for so-called MANETS (Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks), being developed by the IETF.
Working in this area myself, I'd like to point to
http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/manet-charter
Now, for the shameless plug: A link to the OLSR routing protocol for MANET's, which is showing promising results. Implementations (downloadable, with sourcecode etc. of the routing deamon) are available (drop voop@cs.auc.dk an email if interrested in the code - the www-server is currently not responding).
-- "Life is a bitch - and she hates me..."
There's a story (very light on details) with some pictures of my node sitting 450 meters away from it's wireless uplink.
You'll notice the use of an empty cider can to mount the Lucent Range Extender on. This was actually vitally important. Between the two sites was a kebab shop (seriously) that was just breaking line of site, and with the various combinations of wireless kit, we were right at the end limits of getting a signal. We messed around for a few days trying various things, and, eventually, over a can of Strongbow I realised raising the antenna those 5 or 6 inches higher might work. And the rest is history.
That site has moved now, and is much closer to the primary site,so the feat is not nearly as impressive. But you geeks can, uh, geek out at knowing that the website below comes to you [spooky voice]through the air[/spooky voice].
...j
I've just used the Linksys firmware to upgrade
my netgear me102 access point and used the Linksys
SMNP utility to configure it.
In fact I think it should work on any PRISIM chip
based 802.11b access point.
One thing I noticed though. After upgrading the firmware I had to unplug the ME102 and plug it back in brfore I could access it again.
Why not turn bridging on in the kernel and bridge to an internally connected 802.11b card.
Because I bought Orinoco Wavelan cards and the bridging firmware is sent to the card by the access point at every boot up. :-(
Mind you, I've got a logic analyzer with enough lines to handle a 16-bit PCMCIA bus, I just have to beg/borrow/steal an access point and spend the next few weeks untangling the init code to see what they send so I can tell Linux to do the same. :-)
Are all cards that use the same chipset as the WaveLan cards (Hermes 2 I think?) incapable of bridging without the firmware? If not, I'll just buy a cheap one and use it instead, or see if I can't do a dump of the firmware and muck with sending it to the Wavelan. :-)
No Text.
Yes, you can connect two WAP11's back to back, with one bridging from another network, and the other serving access to client machines. Best to use different channels for each of them.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
The WAP11 can also be configured via its Ethernet port with SNMP. See ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pdf/wap11ug.pdf :
Actually, you need better than optical line of sight. The radio waves need to have a clear space the shape of a lens. Otherwise you get multipath distortion. So yes, count on needing line of sight.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
This isn't exactly new, but the article I wrote, which just went up on Friday...
and it went down at:
Posted by Hemos on Monday August 27, @03:38AM
Sure fancy boy you can do all that reading and writing but can you do mirroring?
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -THHGTTG
Where exactly in Minnesota? Do you have any details?
I live in Minnesota and don't see any wireless, though I did develop a brain tumor and have a lower sperm count than rest of America (average for MN).
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -THHGTTG
Never, I will remember this till the death.
I have now declared you my mortal enemy
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -THHGTTG