[SunRescue] need 802.11b wireless access point recommendations

[bobk]

On Sun, 11 Feb 2001, Bill Bradford wrote:

> I need recommendations on a *good* 802.11b wireless access point,
> to be used between two houses (sitting next to each other, about 15 feet of
> space between houses - all components of the network are within 200 feet of
> each other).  
> 
> I've used the Lucent/Orinoco RG-1000 residential gateway, but I think 
> there are too many walls in the way in this case for it to be effective.
> Plus, I cant put an external "booster" antenna on it.  They've got their
> AP-500 access point, but its $600!
> 
> I'm open to other brands, however.  I just need to be able to plug the 
> access point into the existing network swtich, and have it act as a 
> wireless bridge to the rest of the network.  Clients are a combination of
> Lucent/Orinoco silver cards and one or two Apple Airport cards.

If you are so close and only have two nodes talking, an access point is
superfluous. Use the cards in ad-hoc mode. This works for a large number
of stations, as long as they can mostly hear each other.

I don't know what kind of bandwidth you are expecting. Do not expect what
the manufacturer claims. For most of us, this isn't a problem as our
internet access is far slower than our 802.11 cards. If you want something
you can use external antennas on, I suggest using the zoomair 4002 cards
that show up on ebay. Those have connections for external antennas, but
you need a special cable, which runs about $15. Contact me for more info
about cables & antennas if you want to proceed with the avenue.

I used an old DEC laptop as a NAT gateway between my wired and wireless
networks. It works reasonably well. You can probably dig up an old laptop
with a crapped out screen and battery for next to nothing.

As far as raw performance goes, the Cisco/Aironet 340 has the reputation
of being the best, but only slightly. They are also more expensive. I
don't think its worth the cost. Also, there is no connector for an
external antenna. I actually like the Wavelan/Orinoco
cards, but trying to put an external antenna on them is difficult. FCC
regulations for 802.11 networks require a "non-standard" connector so
consumers won't hook random antennas to the cards. While I have a source
of adapter cables for the zoomair 4002 mentioned above, I do not have one
for the wavelan/orinoco cards, with the exception of the cables & antennas
from Lucent, which are grossly expensive.

Many cards use the Prism chipset from Harris/Intersil. These are well
supported under linux. The PRISM-II chipset runs at 11mbps, and is also
linux supported, but I don't have any direct experience with them. Addtron
makes a cheap card which is linux supported, but I don't know the antenna
connector situation. This is something I will be figuring out shortly.

If you prefer BSD to linux, I found that OpenBSD 2.7 supported orinoco our
of the box (i.e. generic kernel), but with one problem: you must
insert/remove the card while the system is off, otherwise it crashes. I
believe this is fixed in 2.8, but I have not checked.

Whatever you do, do not be fooled by manufacturers' claims that 802.11 is
secure. It is not. Use IPsec, ipv6, etc. if you have something to
hide. Even so, it is possible for someone to surreptitously use your
network.

If anyone wants me to spout further, please indicate so.

-bob, yankee

p.s. I have seen lucent access points that have external antenna
connectors.