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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."
It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase.
Toshiba Magnia SG20
Certainly, rolling your own is a learning experience but this is hard to beat. Where to you get a switch to put in a roll-your-own box?
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
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
!Sig
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.
I'm working on something similar, with the soekris net4521 board, (same as the one this guy used) but with a demarctech 200mw high output wireless card, for much greater range.
I'm doign most of the work with an old P200 right now.. got that out of a dumpster at a local school. My box does the AP, routing, dhcp, dns, and eventualy i'm goign to try and set it up as a wirewall. the ability to SSH into the AP is very handy.. none of the AP's out there (besides super expensive Cisco IOS based AP's) do that.
how long before the Heath Company sues about using the name Cantenna , which goes back at least to the 1960s?
The comments have so far been dumb. Let me point out that the real strength in this tutorial is the idea that you can construct a sort of mini-appliance with ease using Linux. Before you downplay this man's efforts, consider that what he is doing is demonstrating one of the key strong points of Linux that will keep Linux around for a long time: Its use in appliances and specialized embedded devices. In fact, this is such a critical area that Microsoft has become more lenient and more "open" (I use the term loosely) with their competing WinCE product.
It's not hard to take some of the author's ideas and twist them around for other custom networking applications, or even make cheap wireless appliances based on the concepts he's presented. Hats off to the man for providing us with a bit of education.
In much the same way reading the article is better than trolling.
1) you can get more out of the box. (near-endless possibilities for customization) - similarly, the article probably contains more than your average slashbot response (like this one, for instance:))
2) it's fun and rewarding to do things for yourself. much like actually reading the article and drawing your own conclusions is fulfilling, while buying off-the-shelf solutions leaves you feeling empty and purposeless - the same way you should feel after posting trollish first posts.
Linux as a platform for network appliance sounds like a marraige made in hell. It's a great desktop operating system, but it doesnt scale well into small places, has a lot of bloat, and tends to consume resources.
Of course, security should always be of great concern, and this is why WinCE has made such headway with internet devices as of late - it was created delibirately to be small, robust, secure and stable - everything youd want from your network.
Of course, it must be noted, that linux was written in C which makes it very good, since C is object oriented.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
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.
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
If it took you this far to realize it was a joke, you are: a genius
It's a great desktop operating system
If it took you this far to realize it was a joke, you are: pretty enlightened
but it doesnt scale well into small places
If it took you this far to realize it was a joke, you are: about average
Of course, security should always be of great concern, and this is why WinCE
If it took you this far to realize it was a joke, you are: fading fast
that linux was written in C which makes it very good, since C is object oriented
If it took you this far to realize it was a joke, you are: breathing my air. Please stop
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Didn't you read the summary?
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
Actually most build your own stuff is like this. The prototype or early phase is wicked cheap (Pringles can, for example) so you start jacking around with it ... then you just keep on adding stuff that you need until BAM! $300 access point built from scratch.
... hey, free second machine.
Pretty much the way most of my computers were built. 'Oh neat, I can buy that computer for $300 - a complete working system."
Hmmm - needs a sound card. (cha-ching!)
Hmmm - needs a better video card. (cha-ching!)
Hmmm - needs more memory. (cha-ching!)
Hmmm - needs a bigger hard drive. (cha-ching!)
Hmmm - needs a quieter CPU / case fan. (cha-ching!)
Hmmm - needs faster CPU. (cha-ching!)
Hmmm - needs a CD burner. (cha-ching!)
At the end, only the case, power supply and mobo are original on your uber "$300" machine. And then only maybe.
God help the guy that keeps all the spare parts, then goes out and buys a case, power supply and mobo to install them all into because
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
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.