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Date:      Tue, 13 Feb 2001 10:18:52 +1030
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        nathan@vidican.com
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: OT: Wireless 802.11 hardware
Message-ID:  <20010213101852.F2178@wantadilla.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <3A883DD4.1DA7A89B@wmptl.com>; from webmaster@wmptl.com on Mon, Feb 12, 2001 at 02:47:32PM -0500
References:  <3A883DD4.1DA7A89B@wmptl.com>

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On Monday, 12 February 2001 at 14:47:32 -0500, Nathan Vidican wrote:
> Any reccomendations for a <cheap> access point solution? A company I
> used to work for had gotten theses 802.11 compliant access points,
> which were essentially an ethernet bridge, (10BaseT ethernet RJ45
> port, and wireless connection to antenae). I'm looking for something
> similar, to transmit wireless internet access two our FreeBSD
> machines, over a distance of approximately 1000feet. If anyone has
> any reccomendations please reply.

Only two machines?  Or even three?  I don't think you need the
additional expense of an access point for that size network: just run
them in ad hoc mode.

Which cards?  Currently 802.11b cards such as the Lucent Orinoco seem
to be the way to go.  They do a nominal 11 Mb/s.  Unless you are
located away from anywhere, you should ensure that they have WEP
encryption.  The "silver" cards have 40 bit encryption (sometimes
called 56 bit encryption), and the "gold" cards have 104 bit
encryption (almost always called 120 bit encryption), and cost about
$15 more.  In fact, the encryption algorithm is pretty flawed, so
there's some doubt as to whether the additional features of 104 bit
encryption are worth it.  The card prices appear to be in the
$150-$170 range.

If that's too expensive, you may find older 802.11 cards, which do 2
Mb/s.  Before buying any, check with this list or with
FreeBSD-mobile@FreeBSD.org: not all of them are supported.  I have
four cards which I bought for $100 a pair, including one ISA adapter
(which looks like something that your would need).

Greg
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