Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 12:38:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Bill Tillman <btillman99@yahoo.com> To: Paul Beard <paulbeard@gmail.com> Cc: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD. ORG" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: wireless access point in FreeBSD 8.2p2 Message-ID: <1314560326.55735.YahooMailNeo@web36504.mail.mud.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <6A3818F5-BF6D-4FEA-9B07-44E9C0F72438@gmail.com> References: <51754C95-3688-4B33-BD98-7DED5F28DC0E@gmail.com> <4E59BA7F.305@cyberleo.net> <A0F8C91A-97A5-45DF-9281-2E92A2718B8E@gmail.com> <4E5A4AEF.7050104@cyberleo.net> <6A3818F5-BF6D-4FEA-9B07-44E9C0F72438@gmail.com>
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=0A=0A=0AFrom: Paul Beard <paulbeard@gmail.com>=0ATo: =0ACc: "freebsd-quest= ions@FreeBSD. ORG" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>=0ASent: Sunday, August 2= 8, 2011 12:22 PM=0ASubject: Re: wireless access point in FreeBSD 8.2p2=0A= =0A=0AOn Aug 28, 2011, at 7:04 AM, CyberLeo Kitsana wrote:=0A=0A> It is esp= ecially useful when you cannot ping, as it can tell you if the=0A> packets = are even arriving.=0A=0AThe "no route to host" result makes me think the pa= ckets aren't going far ;-) The new device and the wired interface are at ad= jacent numeric addresses and all the devices here are in the same subnet be= hind the WRT54G and that is behind the cable co's black box. =0A=0AI think = I may be more confused now than when I started. =0A=0AOne thing that has se= emed opaque to me is that both ath0 and wlan0 display when I run ifconfig a= nd look very similar: makes me think they might be stepping on each other. = Or it's just one more thing I don't understand :-( =0A=0Aath0: flags=3D8843= <UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 2290=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0= =C2=A0 ether 00:0d:88:93:21:3a=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 media: IEEE 802.11 Wire= less Ethernet autoselect mode 11g <hostap>=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 status: run= ning=0A=0Awlan0: flags=3D8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metri= c 0 mtu 1500=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 ether 00:0d:88:93:21:3a=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2= =A0 inet 192.168.0.26 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255=0A=C2=A0= =C2=A0=C2=A0 inet6 fe80::20d:88ff:fe93:213a%wlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8 = =0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 nd6 options=3D3<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV>=0A=C2=A0=C2= =A0=C2=A0 media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g <hostap>= =0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 status: running=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 ssid lower chann= el 8 (2447 MHz 11g) bssid 00:0d:88:93:21:3a=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 regdomain = FCC indoor ecm authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 27=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 sc= anvalid 60 protmode CTS wme burst dtimperiod 1 -dfs=0A=0AI know (or think I= do) that ath0 is the real interface and wlan0 is a virtualized or cloned o= r something handle to it. But the similarities (both are running, both show= the same info for media) trouble me. The only thing that makes me think I'= m doing anything here is that wlan0 is actually assigned to channel 8. =0A= =0AI can sort of see that getting it working as a client would be instructi= ve and I think I did that some time ago (perhaps in 7.x) but since you reus= e almost nothing but the hardware, I don't see a lot of value in that, othe= r than verifying that the hardware works and that you can follow the instru= ctions. The latter can be a challenge, I'll admit. =0A=0ASo to recap: the i= dea of this was to provide a redundant spare for the WRT54G, behind a cable= modem, in a private network, with the only security being at the AP=0A=C2= =A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 =E2=80=A2 No ipfw or any of that, as it wouldn't be visible= on the public internet.=0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 =E2=80=A2 I'll add WPA/2 once= it works (that seems trivial, as I have been able to authenticate to the A= P even though it didn't pass any packets beyond that). =0A=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2= =A0 =E2=80=A2 It would deal with static addresses (I could add dhcp later, = once this was working, as phones and other devices are more easily dealt wi= th that way). So it looks like a bridge, if it joins an Ethernet network an= d an 802.11-based one. Curiously, none of the instructions I have seen ment= ion bridging, even though the explicitly connect Ethernet and wireless. And= all the HOWTOs look simple, the work of a few minutes of copy and paste. = =0A=0AI think I may just shelve this and if needed, turn up my Time Capsule= 's wireless capability (if it would play nicely and extend the WRT54G, I'd = be using it now). And APs that support open source firmware are not that ha= rd to find, though Tomato doesn't support as many as the *-wrt variants. = =0A=0A*grumble*=0A=0A=0A--=0APaul Beard=0A=0AAre you trying to win an argum= ent or solve a problem? =0A=0A_____________________________________________= __=0Afreebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list=0Ahttp://lists.freebsd.org/= mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions=0ATo unsubscribe, send any mail to "free= bsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"=0A=0A=0A=0AIt's been about 18 months= since I went through this exercise with FreeBSD but I found it to be not w= orth the effort. I spent several hours getting all the configs right and th= e docs were as usual out of date but I eventually got it going. The trouble= was it was sporadic at best. Sometimes the laptop clients made the connect= ion and other times they didn't. And when they did the speed of the wireles= s connection was so slow, it just wasn't worth my time.=0A=0AI did this to = have the experience with it and to have a backup to my Netgear wireless rou= ter. The trouble was the Netgear wireless AP device works so well and is pl= enty fast, unlike what I was getting with my FreeBSD server. The Netgear de= vice has been working 24/7 for almost 2 years now so I just gave up on the= =C2=A0 FreeBSD option. I would like to think that things are better now, I = just haven't had the time to take another whack at it.=0A=0AGood luck.
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