Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:12:53 +0100 From: Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl> To: Nerius Landys <nlandys@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Wireless router? Message-ID: <20081222231253.GA38631@slackbox.xs4all.nl> In-Reply-To: <560f92640812221349y683a7cbhce8ae0f22a8bedf0@mail.gmail.com> References: <560f92640812221349y683a7cbhce8ae0f22a8bedf0@mail.gmail.com>
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--RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 01:49:44PM -0800, Nerius Landys wrote: > I have a PC with FreeBSD set up as a router (NAT). The PC has several > network cards and I'm grouping the internal-facing network cards as a > bridge (promiscuous mode for the interfaces). Everything works well. >=20 > Now I'd like to extend my wired network to include wireless. I really > have no experience with wireless networks. I have a couple of > computers that are wireless-ready (a laptop and a Playstation 3 that I > won in a raffle). Is it possible to somehow add some hardware to my > FreeBSD router PC to make it into a wireless router?=20 Yes. > What kind of hardware would I install? What is it called?=20 Wireless card. > The PC only has PCI slots, can you recommend a brand and model of > "wireless server equiptment" if such a thing exists? Would a normal > wireless card suffice? Yes > What model should I get?=20 Now that's the tricky bit. If you look at the wlan(4) manual page, you will see the supported wireless chipset in the SEE ALSO section. The trick is knowing which chipset a certain card has. It is usually _not_ listed on the box or on the manufacturer's website, because it comes with windoze drivers so most of the users don't give a damn about the chipset. And some manufacturers put different chipsets in different batches of the same card depending on what they can get their hands on. If you see a card that you like and you cannot get the name and type of chipset used, download the windows driver. It will come with an in information file (.inf) that usually contains the name and type of the chipset. > I would prefer to set up static internal IPs for my wireless network > at home, would this be possible? Or is DHCP the way to go (I hesitate > at the thought of configuring a DHCP server). You could use the wlan_acl module to grant access based on the MAC address. But it might be better to do it somewhat more sophisticated and run hostapd(8). > Another way to go is to hook up a standalone wireless router appliance > to my FreeBSD machine's network interface (one of the interfaces). I > already have such a device, I think it's made by Linksys. But then, I > would be NAT'ing both through the FreeBSD machine and through the > wireless router. So it would be a double-NAT so to speak. Is there > anything wrong with that approach? It's probably easier. But you'll have to be on the lookout for vulnerabilities in the router software.=20 When I got a wireless card for my desktop, the idea was to make a wireless conncetion to my laptop. But you have to set up hostapd on the access point, and wpa_supplicant on the laptop. And the manual pages in question don't give an overview of the process, and neither does the handbook. The section of the handbook dealing with wireless networks is outdated and in need of expert attention. Unfortunately I didn't get far enough to be that expert. In the end it was much easier and faster for me to just plug a cross-cable into the laptop from the desktop. (fast=3Dnice when you're running rsync(1) or if you're transferring dumps via nc(1)) Roland --=20 R.F.Smith http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/ [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) --RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAklQHvUACgkQEnfvsMMhpyXsNwCbBL6fnfc0lIHIUeV8NTvsGnqI kD8AniAxltVcRR068n1J9eMS8ApuoN2i =9+A4 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1--
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