[Wylug-help] OT: WLan setup

[lists at mungewell.org]

On Mon, Oct 06, 2003 at 09:46:27AM +0100, Gary Stainburn wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> A while back I asked for comments about using WLan and two Linux firewalls to
> connect two sites together.

I presume that you are wanting a point to point link, rather than a wlan
which clients can connect to.

>
> Well, as with all things Ringways it's taken a while but I'm now getting to
> the point where I need to start playing.
>
> I'm pretty happy about the Linux side of things, but know sod all about WLan,
> so here's a couple of questions.
>
> 1) I asume that two hubs will talk to each other quite happily - yes?
> 2) would I get better performance hub to hub than I would PC card to PC card
> or PC card to hub?
> 3) Can you configure hubs so that they will only talk to another specified
> device - i.e. the other hub?
> 4) Are all of these just hubs, or are any of them routers?
> 5) Are any of these devices secure enough to do without the Linux firewalls?
> 6) Anyone with personal experience want to recomend (not) using any specific
> make/models?

Following on from other comments:
1) Don trust MAC or IP blocking, these can be spoofed very easily.
2) Be aware that anyone can knock out your link by attempting to use the
same channel/freq
3) Directional antenna may help if you need distance, or a limited beam.
4) I would suggest a VPN/SSH tunnel in additiion to any WEP/Wireless
protection.
5) Only some of the newer chipsets (in the cards) are supported by
Linux.
6) Hacker tools are quite usefull for seeing what's happening.

Simon.