[SunRescue] Re: need 802.11b wireless access point recommendations (Bill Bradford)

[Robert Rose]

Mr Bill 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).  
Well I can certainly recommend the Cisco Aironet stuff, damn easy to set
up
and administer, performance seems fine (although I haven't gone more
than 
about 30 feet from the base station).  You can also plug in an external
antenna, depending on which model you get.

Only problem is the cost :(  I missed out on a really good deal on some
340 
series kit, it has no WEP support, but with the details that have come
out 
recently, WEP almost seems relegated to the "security through obscurity"
bucket now.

>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.
Cisco will do a "site survey" for you if you want, they also include
some 
debugging tools with the client software that are supposed to do a
similar
thing.  I haven't tested these yet 'cos I don't have a packet95.dll on
the 
Libretto yet.

>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.  
That's how I've got mine working, straight through cable into a Kalpana
10Mb switch with the rest of my boxen on it.

>Clients are a combination of
>Lucent/Orinoco silver cards and one or two Apple Airport cards.
Should be ok, doco says they support non-cisco clients.

>ANy suggestions?
Well I've made one :)  Sorry I can't say I even considered any
alternatives,
all the 802.11b kit seems to be in a similar price bracket over here, so
I
went with a brand I could trust.  Also helps that FreeBSD should now
have
support for the 340 series cards, all I need is a new laptop or figure
out
how to prise the Libretto from the wife!

Rob.