Linux Access Point.

[Ulfwald]

Hello all.

Like many of you, I have many older computers ranging from an HP p166 with 128 mb ram, to home built AMD Athlon 3200 Bartons. I just cannot throw these out, as I keep finding uses for them.

My next project is a Linux Access Point. I plan to use a P III 450 with about 512 MB ram with a 20 gig Hard drive. Yes the hdd is a bit overkill, but it is the smallest I have. Now my question is what is the best PCI wireless card to use and can I actually use 2 wireless card or just get one with 2 antennae connectors? What version of Linux would be best, or should I just stick to a CF card with a cf card adapter for the IDE connector on the motherboard.


OR, here is a stretch,.. Use FREE NAS as not only as a NAS drive array, but also as an access point and print server with a parallel port or USB printer? This will mount in a rack or as stand alone, anything goes.

Oh yeah, Wife has and Ipad 2, and I have an Itouch, so these would also need to be supported.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I never had a desire to build something like that because DD-WRT/Tomato compatible devices can be had for less than $30 if you look around.

I used to maintain 3-4 desktops/servers for multimedia/etc and have since replaced them with a single NAS device that only consumes 13 watts of power while running idle. I shut my desktop down when I'm not using it and rely on a Laptop/Tablet for most web-browsing on the couch. My electric bill has never been so low before.

To answer your questions, linux doesn't play well with all wireless network cards. I learned this when attempting to network various laptops over the years. Some Wireless NIC vendors make a full driver suite while others only support Microsoft or a specific flavor of linux. Once you find your wireless network cards...you'll only be left with a few linux choices...so pick your card first...then your OS.

Read this...it may give you some ideas:
http://www.enterprisenetworkingplan...Build-A-LinuxBased--Wireless-Access-Point.htm

 

[dealcorn]

From a performance perspective, you want a wi-fi card that (i) supports "AP" mode and (ii) works in Linux. Start with the chart of which Linux drivers support AP mode: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers. Pick a driver you like then pick a card that supports it and verify what the manufacturer says about AP mode. The site has other pages that help with card selection but manufacturers may make running changes that break stuff.

For this purpose, the Linux (or other) distribution you know works best if you can find a decent set of instructions and it supports your driver. My recollection is that Ubuntu let you set up Internet connection sharing using a GUI and there are good quality cli guides how to set up a wifi router in Debian. This sort of project is fun, but do consider you local electricity costs as I expect old computers to consume many watts for the work being done.

Your goal is to replicate something previously proven good.

 

[MrColin]

I just rebuilt my home server/NAS/firewall box with a TP-Link TL-WN851N PCI card in it running ubntu 11.10 (server edition). The server install CD picked up the wireless card during install and used it to grab packages from the repos with WPA2. I haven't messed around with setting it up to be an AP but the card and OS seem to be a good combo. Reading the manpages for wireless-utils your idea seems doable.