Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Hotspots
darthcamaro writes "Not that long ago it was a serious pain to get an 802.11b card to work on a Linux machine. [ed note: We love you Jean Tourrilhes!] Wi-Fi Planet has a story where they do an overview of a wad of open source Wi-Fi projects. Did you realize that you don't even need to spend the dough for an Access Point? - standard Linux routing is enough to create your own access point, with a few other tools like Public IP's Zone CD or the Less Networks Hotspot server, you can freely create a hotspot and manage it all in minutes. I guess all this means that both Wi-Fi and open source are literally 'everywhere'."
Did you know that you can find the locations of some of these projects, by searching for SSIDs? Also, if you know part of the MAC address (for the vendor), and the location, you can pair it down, and see maps of their coverage. Of course, this is all from wardriving data, uploaded by our users -- go out and wardrive!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
So what is the difference between an Access Point and an access point? This says I don't need one, all I need is Public IP's Zone CD. But one of the requirements of that is an access point.
I guess in short - huh?
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I've had an iPaq 3650 in a dual-pcmcia sleeve, running handhelds.org Linux as my wireless router for several years. I've never had to reboot it, either. It's silent, fits on my windowsill, and has a built-in UPS. :)
What you don't realize, ye of little clue, is that you can use existing boxen to do this task. Instead of spending $300 for a brand-new Wal-Mart computer, I can use an existing Pentium II system to make a lightweight access point.
The total cost is less than that of a so-called "commercial" access point, and is infinitely more flexible. Can you run open-source software on that crappy Microsoft router? I knew you couldn't.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Box-Maker
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
Please explain how Linux software and transmit data via a wireless network without any hardware. While that sure would be a neat trick, I'm going to have to file this under the "you dont need to spend 90$ on a wireless acess point! Just spend 300$ on a computer, 50$ on a WAN card and install Linux for FREE!!!" brand of zealotry.
:)
I'd file it under 'get an old pc from work/take one you allready have, slap in a wifi card and voila, you have something you can play with', unlike the stupid prefab access points that just sit there...
I'm sure you could make custom stuff that would extend it's functionality beyond the prefab stuff...
Not that long ago it was a serious pain to get an 802.11b card to work on a Linux machine.
Don't worry. If you miss the pain of the good ol' days, try getting monitor mode working properly with an Orinoco card on a 2.6.x kernel. Fun times. For some reason the owners of the orinoco driver will not include monitor mode by default, and you have to patch it in. Super annoying.
It's nice to see that Linux is helping some folks out with their connectivity issues. However, the article doesn't address the number one problem I've seen on most Linux user forums - which is how to get the dang card recognized and configured in the first place.
.02 worth...
Myself, I have a Linksys WUSB11 v 2.8 wireless device. Linksys, the consumer arm of Cisco, is not exactly a small player. But to get my card to work I have to go to the Berlios.de site, do a CVS checkout (if I want 2.6 kernel support), and make sure I have kernel source around to build the driver.
Someone who can simplify THAT is going to make a lot more headway with the average user.
My
Hi,
I'll probably get modded to oblivion for this, but the support of wifi for linux is dismal. Many cards don't work, and those that work, many features don't work (like WEP!!). This is obviously no fault of the community, since they're doing their best to reverse engineer hardware, but asking people to create AP's using Linux when most cards don't even FUNCTION is a little weird.
(I know what I'm talking about. I've bought 2 wifi cards for my Mythtv box, and both only work partially, even though they're reported as "working" by the HW compatibility list).
My question is, what mode are these networks running in? Last I checked, you couldn't put just any network card into infrastructure mode. I haven't seen anything says it's possible with 802.11g cards at all. You can create a router using a wireless card in ad-hoc mode, but the performance is going to be very suboptimal. If your router can't manage infrastructure mode, it just isn't as good as a commercial access point.
However, if you're looking for something custom, there's just no better way than building it yourself. I recommend picking up a nice VIA EPIA 800 from CWLinux preloaded with their LinuxBIOS and toss in one or two WiFi cards (one A, one G).
Some examples of the kind of flexibility this gives you is offering IPv6 support, packet tunneling to hide your upstream, or setting up a custom website which all new users of the hotspot will be given when they try to access any website until they've activated their service (EULA, payment, whatever).
The minimum the hardware for this is going to run around $350. With only a few extra features, it can easily run over $500. That $40 802.11a AP from Pricewatch sure looks like a good deal now, doesn't it?
But do you realize you can do the same thing with Windows! Wowee. Turn on routing and remote access, or click on "share this connection". Install WinRoute, etc..
um no.. as windows drivers do not allow turning on the AP mode in the wireless adapters.
if the card is not in AP mode, it dont work bucko.
The total cost is less than that of a so-called "commercial" access point, and is infinitely more flexible. Can you run open-source software on that crappy Microsoft router? I knew you couldn't.
Did you count _electricity_ of having a fully blown pc with a pentium cpu and spinning disks into the TCO compared to the electricity taken by a MIPS cpu booted from flash?
Linkys And almost everyone else in the market uses Linux in their access points. If that isn't enough flexibility I do not know what is.
signatures pending - ansa@kos.to - (dont mail there)
the sites linked do not create an AP from your PC. They merely handle authentication for an access point. The requirements list two ethernet cards, one to connect to your AP, one to connect to your lan/internet connection. This has nothing to do with setting up wireless on Linux.
I Don't Work Here
It seems a lot of people are overlooking the fact that not all cards can be a true access point. I have an Admtek 8211 based card that will only work in Ad-Hoc or managed mode, and I'm sure there are others.
If I set my laptop to the same channel as the card in my router it will work, I can run a DHCP server on the router to automate the network layer, but there is no way to set the PCI card in the router so that the laptop automagically picks up the channel and establishes a link.
Yeah, don't buy a $900 Cisco AP. Just use an old Linux system with some WIFI cards in it. Then watch it as it crashes and burns when some Windows XP user put their wifi card into Power Save Mode.
I even switched to FreeBSD, and it also has the bug. I have read that FreeBSD 5.x has a fix for it. But still, I would have saved a bunch of head aches if I just spend $300/ea more and bought Cisco equipment, but I wanted to save $900 total and went with Linux/FBSD on Soekris boxes.
(HostAP mode only. PTP works fine because it does not use the Power Save Mode stuff)
The above is not worth reading.
They have Open Source hardware now?
Yes...
And they have the internet on computers, too...