[Wylug-discuss] Adding a wireless router to an existing network

[gARetH baBB]

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004, Mischa Oliver Altmann wrote:

> The USR 9106 is only a router and WiFi access point (AP) so you'll need
> to buy one (or more) compatible wireless cards (unless you buy it as a
> bundle). Also, the USR 9106 sports compatability with both the b and g
> standard (operating at 2.4GHz and 5GHz respectively) which *might* be an
> overkill as 'b' is enough for home networking in my opinion.

a is 5G, and would be difficult to use licence-exempt in an ETSI country -
though not impossible, as some of the bands are usuable, as long as the
card supports various mandated standards (low tx power, and special
frequency skipping functions and you're only allowed to use it indoors).

Both b and g work at 2.4G.

Linux wise, there can only really be one g chipset with even half decent
support and that is Atheros based cards - other chipsets (except Broadcom
which has none-ish) don't have even half as stable support IMHO.

At the moment there are a pile of cheap refurbished DLink DI-624
routers/APs on Ebay going for about 44 quid which use the Atheros chipset,
and can operate using Atheros' "108M" SuperG mode - and also supports
Atheros' XR (Extended Range) mode.

They are shipped from the US, so you have to source your own 5V 2.5A UK
PSU - loads of cheap throwaway USB hubs use the same sort of PSU.

And as these things use an OEM board (Globalsuntech), the possibility of
re-flashing the firmware is there (you have to change the embedded HW-ID
and redo the checksum) - other "manufacturers" using the board have
support for syslog and SNMP.

There's also someone shipping Atheros based cards from Hong Kong for about
27 quid.

Alternatively the Atheros HAL does support Master mode, so using madwifi
you could use just a card and an old machine/laptop to be your AP.

[I say Broadcom has no support (baring ndiswrapper/driverloader) but
ironically the most hacked Linux based AP/router out there (WRT54G) uses a
Broadcom chipset - such a shame/waste]