Slashdot Mirror
Your Own Linux Wireless Access Point
prostoalex writes "Peter Seebach decided to build his own Linux-based 802.11b wireless access point. The article on IBM DeveloperWorks talks about the hardware and software requirements, implementing the operating system on the CompactFlash card, loading Apache and Perl onto the server. The build-it-yourself wireless point is not going to be cheaper than commercially available products, but its educational value is immense." And HaeMaker writes "We have all seen the 802.11b/g booster made from a Pringles can. Well, these guys have taken the idea, put some math behind it to find the optimal can size and have turned it in to a cool product."
Props to Seebs, but exactly HOW is this better than dropping $30 on a Linksys access point?
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
Did anyone else notice they mentioned the wi-fi sniffers?
:(
little keychain devices that tell you when your in a hotspot.. thats great!
http://store.yahoo.com/directron/etector.html
found a place that has them too since the link on the webpage is already broken
I wish I had read this article before going out and purchasing my Linksys BEFW (sorry, can't remember the rest of the model number) wireless access point. It seems to drop connections at random, requiring a reboot of the router by pulling out and reinserting the power cord. The logs it gives are nowhere near as comprehensive as the ones that snort would send me every morning, and while I can configure port forwarding and IPSEC passthrough, etc., I miss the fine-grained control I had over all the options when I had a Linux router.
A mini-ITX case and some assorted hardware and I could have made a much more configurable, sturdy access point for only a little more money. Sigh.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
Building your own access point with hostap on any given linux box is pretty trivial, and cheap too if you consider you've probably already got the box laying around. All you need is a Prism2 chipset card, and there's a ton of them around.
My company is doing a similar thing, only using mini-PCI cards to keep the box's footprint as small as possible.
It works like a charm, and you can even build security on top of it. hostap supports WEP out of the box (although that's not really security) and MAC address authentication, even via radius!
I've worked extensively with this sort of thing, very useful and if you already have a linux box, much cheaper than an off the shelf access point.
how long before the Heath Company sues about using the name Cantenna , which goes back at least to the 1960s?
A similar project can be found here
:
This post on their forums caught my eye
I have been sucessful in using the ROM image in a CompUSA branded 4 port switch/router for US$39.95. www.compusa.com has computer strores throught the USA. The router, from what I understand, is made by FMI. It uses a Samsung 4510B CPU, ADMtek ADM6996 5 port ethernet switch device, 512kB flash and 4MB SDRAM. The part appears to be able to take up to a 4MB flash. I'm using a 2MB part in a TSOP socket. uClinux boots up to prompt and the ethernet port works.
If you build a WAP with Linux, Build 5, alter the
code and build a network of wireless access points.
Each access point should have 2 cards, possibly 802.11a for the uplink and 802.11b as the downlink.
This can be accomplished. Say for instance you
build a star shaped network and "home" is in the
center and the host you need to reach is 5 miles
to the east, your routing table would have rules
on each WAP that will relay your IP traffic the the proper destination.
I've thought about this before, and it could be interesting for metropolitan areas:
a mini-distro for AP's that:
- shields the internal (personal) net, from a public, wireless net.
- routes between the private net, the public net, and the internet.
- do proper routing between AP's: it would be nice if there was a way to use your neighbours excess bandwidth to the internet, or use them as a failover when there's an outage just for you.
- provide proper limits: stop providing to the public if you reach 80% of your monthly bandwith limit, prioritize a bit of the bandwith for your personal net (so that other people can't use up all the available bandwith so there's none left for you), maybe only provide your connection to "members" of the network, etc.
- make it available in an easy updatable flash image for homemade and commercial AP's.
- make it configurable for people who have even more interfaces: multihoming with adsl and cable for instance, IR/visible light links/...
The idea would be that while not everyone has the expertise to configure their routers for all these features, everyone who wants to can just reflash their AP with an image, and be able to provide/get wireless services, and be a part of a real emergent wireless network. It'd be interesting for other reasons too: where I live for instance, all upload speed for residential cable/adsl connections is capped at 128kbit. If I want to send files fast to a friend a couple of blocks away, they could be just routed over the wireless network, via a couple of hops: no need to go over the internet - chances are the speed will be a lot better than 128kbit that way. Also by cooperating in a network like this, you'd have increased speed and reliability for all - not everyone uses up their bandwith / monthly volume limit all the time.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but using CompactFlash as a storage device on an embedded appliance/application whatever is a bad idea because of the half-life of CF.
I wanted to do something similar a while back, and I wanted small. I figured using a VIA EPIA-M and a CF with CF to IDE I could create a pretty small server. Perfect for Kiosks, but I ended up finding a page all about CF to IDE and why it shouldnt be used as a boot device (yeah like I bookmarked it) and was discouraged.
Anyone have any experience with that?
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
I've tested it myself-
h owto.ht ml
My homemade one made out of a large Pedigree dogfood can works better than the Cantenna.
~50ft more range with a much broader spread.
The building instructions I used are here:
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantenna
I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
More like "friendly".
Every hacker I know would be happy to walk a friend through this for "come over, help me with this, I'll buy pizza". Not because it's anything like our real rates, but just because open source hackers are such cool guys.
Note the word "friend". For J. Random, I'd want my normal $100/hour plus expenses. (In fact, it was doing something very similar to this project under precisely those terms that got me interested in the topic.)
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
I love soekris gear. Soren is working on a less full featured unit just for people who want to build a vanilla wAP.
However, if you have a soekris, and you want to DIY a wAP - you should really insert a brain to look at the potential advantages instead of just pulling a linux + hostAP mode whoopdedo.
#1. Flexibility. Since this is standard x86 gear, you get to easily make this an 802.11b AP; but now w/ FreeBSD's ath driver (appropriated for l00n1x by madwifi) you can upgrade it to an a/b/g AP. Leet, suddenly the price is a little more justifiable (considering that Enterasys & Cisco gear that was proportedly going to be upgradeable in such a way is conveniently not now that the newer standards are out).
#2. Try doing something security related; Soekris also offering 3des crypto accellerators that are supported by OpenBSD & more. WEP blows, WPA is a proprietary nightmare; IPSec on the other hand... well that is interesting, and doable - especially with for instance, OpenBSD (FreeSwan for linux, but that's not quite up to the same standards).
#3. Maybe you want to make an access point for a commercial purpose, but don't want to spend an arm and a leg getting a proprietary product to do so, or you find that most of the free offerings kind of blow. Safe yourself grief and frustration with something like wicap (http://www.geekspeed.net/wicap/) Then you still get to potentially draw from the security benefits mentioned in #2 by using OpenBSD; plus you have something that is quick & easy to setup and get working.
Don't just do this to put a prism card into hostAP mode, that is incredibly dull. A waste of time & money. Not to mention, about as useful to write about as another wardriving article.