Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 15:45:23 -0500 From: Mike DeGraw-Bertsch <mbertsch@radioactivedata.org> To: bmah@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Article on wireless networking on FreeBSD Message-ID: <3CAE0CE3.4010407@radioactivedata.org> References: <3CAC17E4.30205@radioactivedata.org> <200204051914.g35JEaif026629@intruder.bmah.org>
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Hi Bruce, Great comments--thanks very much for them! I'll reorganize it to better divide the client and BS setup. I suggested this as being part of the Handbook precisely because it doesn't have coverage of 802.11 networking. It's not entirely intuitive to configure, and as more people setup wireless networks, they'll want good documentation. As the article stands, however, I don't think it's right for the Handbook. Reorganization is definitely needed, and there are parts (like the kernel configuration) that should be outright dropped. I'm happy to have it be used as either as a seperate article or as part of the Handbook. Tell you what: I'll finish marking it up in SGML, reorganize for clarity, and also put together a seperate version that might be more appropriate for the handbook. I have a few comments inline with your responses below. Thanks again for taking the time to write. Bruce A. Mah wrote: > machine to act as a BS, or...???... An introduction might help. It's pretty much just a how-to for 802.11 on FreeBSD. I'll definitely clarify this. Not sure if a "what's 802.11" section would be appropriate or not. > You mentioned that many commercial APs don't do IPsec or IPv6. That's > true, but the Aironet 352 AP I have doesn't need to. It's just a > link-layer bridge...I routinely run IPv6 over it, no problem. I > suspect most of the APs that don't have aspirations of being routers > work the same way. That's a good point. I've been thinking of the BS from the BS/router/firewall standpoint (my current setup.) I'll argue more for the "you already have a FreeBSD router, just drop the card in" standpoint. > I don't necessarily agree with the "stick with 40-bit WEP cards and save > your money" comment. Last time I bought Aironet PCMCIA cards, I thought > that 128-bit was the same price as 40-bit anyways. (Granted, I was *at* > Cisco at the time.) It could also be argued that 128-bit WEP adds more processing time than 40-bit, thus increasing latency. Sure, it's a stretch and not much of an argument (especially since the card itself handles WEP), but between that and the price difference for non-Cisco employees, I don't think 128-bit WEP is worth it. It's just too trivial to crack. > "Cool. How do I set it up?" It isn't obvious here whether this is for > a laptop/workstation or for a BS. It might be better to more > explicitly separate the setup for a typical client machine with the > setup needed for a BS. I'd imagine more people have to do the former > than the latter. I'll rewrite to clearly divide between client and BS setup. Also, I'll start with the client configuration, and mention the extra steps you need to setup a BS, since I agree more people will use clients than BSs. > "Wireless configuration": I thought the frequency setting was ignored > in BSS mode? I might be wrong on this. Also, I put most of the > functionality of your script into /etc/start_if.an0 (for example) so > that I don't need to touch pccard.conf. /etc/rc.network and /etc/ > pccard_ether call the startup script for each interface automatically, > if needed. I had the darnedest feeling that there was a better way than my script. Thanks for writing that code. I'll rewrite to use that instead. > "Hey, is this secure?": Might be nice to say here that there is no > single technique to prevent hijacking of a network or eavesdropping, > but a combination of mechanisms can be effective (e.g. WEP + IPsec). Good point, definitely worth mention. Probably also want to refer to the security section of the Handbook in general. > Nice article...hope these comments are of some help. Thanks for putting > it up! Glad you liked it. Thanks for the comments! -Mike To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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