Choose a WAP

[ewx]

Can anyone recommend an 802.11g capable wireless access point? (I'm currently using a PCI card for this purpose but am getting tired of driver doom.) The only wireless device it'd routinely serve is my iBook but visitors might be expected to bring their laptops occasioanlly.

Relatedly, can someone explain what level these devices operate on? I get the impression from manuals and googling that they are layer 2 devices and act like a repeater or bridge between a wired ethernet LAN and a wireless LAN, but could do with confirmation from someone more knowledgeable.

Comments

[totkat.livejournal.com]

I can suggest this little 3Com jobbie:- OfficeConnect Wireless 54Mb 11G Travel Router (http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=features&pathtype=purchase&sku=3CRTRV10075)

It has 3 modes:- access point, router and client; is portable, tiny and cheap (around £40+VAT)

[3c66b.livejournal.com]

I've just bought one of these (http://www.dabs.com/uk/shopbybrand/3com/ProductView.htm?quicklinx=2PTK) (replacing a D-Link 802.11b AP that seemed to be dying) and am entirely happy with it. Haven't had it long enough to say much about reliability, but it plugged straight in to my network, was easily configurable, and does WPA as well as WEP, which a lot of the APs in the price range don't seem to.

Yes, they're just repeaters. The ones I've seen will act as DHCP servers etc if you want them to, but out of the box they just forward stuff. (That means, for the paranoid, there are security implications if you just put one on your internal network.)

paranoid

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I was expecting to require another NIC and a crossover cable. I don't currently encrypt the wireless LAN anyway, but rather do almost everything via SSH (or VPN, except the darwin tunnel driver I was using was unstable, so I gave up on that).

[imc.livejournal.com]

We have that (the 3Com one) and it seems fine apart from the occasional problem of PCMCIA cards apparently losing the signal even though the access point is about two metres away in direct line of sight.

The setup documentation rather assumes Windows, but if you have a DHCP server on your network then it will take an address from that, and hence you'll know what IP to connect to in order to get the web management interface (which for some reason requires JavaScript).

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I use a Netgear WGT624 802.11g 108 Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Firewall Router, with my single laptop and a desktop talking to each other and an NTL cable modem.
It seems to work fine and supports WPA-PSK (which I use). It has a nice web UI with options for logging and dyndns and so on that I don't use at the moment.

[emperor]

we have an old Apple airport basestation, which just acts as a repeater (so its wired bit plugs into a network port on ming, which does all the hard work). You can make it do DHCP all on its own, though, if you want.

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

Depends. Some bridge, some route, some are configurable.

I have a Linksys WRT54g which I'm very pleased with; I have customised extensively (http://www.livejournal.com/users/crazyscot/103319.html), to the point where it has replaced the PC that was serving as router/NATting firewall/DNS[0][1]/DHCP[2]/secnet endpoint[3]; it's plugged directly into my DSL modem. Even if you didn't want to go that far, it'd serve as a capable bridge.

[0] resolver, and authoritative for internal/VPN domains
[1] OK, so I'm running djbdns because bind9 wouldn't fit and bind8 wouldn't cross-compile...
[2] full ISC dhcpd, not the small crap one supplied by default which doesn't support fixed config based on MAC addresses
[3] iwj has already stated he thinks I'm mad to do this :-), but it works without trouble.


root@OpenWrt:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
system type : Broadcom BCM947XX
processor : 0
cpu model : BCM3302 V0.7
BogoMIPS : 199.47
[...]

[(Anonymous)]

I'd recommend the LinkSys WAP54G or the Asus with the USB port. The former has 4 MB, the latter 8 MB on-board flash, both can be reflashed, there's linux for both of them. See here: http://openwrt.org . In case of reflashing, the USB port of the Asus gives a distinct advantage, as you can connect a USB flash stick, or an external USB hard disc to it. Additionally. either of these would - after reflashing - be ready for meshing: access point to access point networking. Great if you want to build a community-driven network.

[(Anonymous)]

Typo, this should be a WRT54G, the WAP is the smaller brother with only 2 MB flash.