Most of D-Link 802.11g product line has open source drivers, etc (haven't checked completeness myself). Much of linksys does too, but I have been unable to locate the source for the firmware of the BEFW11S4 WAP/Routers. Linksys PCMCIA cards have poor receiver sensitivity compared to others. Some site has a table of receiver/transmitter specs. I may have that reference here somewhere if it's not obvious from Google. I'd look for a WAP/Switch that has: 1) open source for drivers and firmware, and 2) standard connectors so you could use a different antenna if you have that interest later. I think the Dell g hardware has decent specs, but may have compatibility problems and no antenna connectors. The "Orinoco Gold" name was bought by Proxim from Lucent(?) a while back and newer stuff is not as open and compatible as the stuff that was raved about on TCWUG 2 years ago. Price differences between g and b series gear seem very small now, so I don't think buying a new b will make sense. I think D-Link is OK, and Linksys-minus-their-PCMCIA-and-their-PCI-adapter is OK. There may be expensive choices as well (Cisco?). Chuck > -----Original Message----- > From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org > [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org]On Behalf Of Scott Raun > Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 4:34 PM > To: TCLUG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Semi-OT: Wireless Access Point? > > > On Mon, Apr 19, 2004 at 01:17:28PM -0500, Chad Walstrom wrote: > > Take this into consideration. You do not want access to your local > > machines to be limited by your upstream connection. I am running into > > this at home because I currently do not have a firewall/private lan set > > up. Each of my machines is grabbing an IP address from the ISP, and all > > traffic is being routed by the ISP's router. This is partially because > > I have a really stupid HUB, and not a smart switch. > > > > The simplest thing you can do to leverage what you currently have is > > to use your Cisco 675 to do NAT and Firewall. Buy a switch and > > Wireless AP and attach your AP in bridging mode, which should let > > your Cisco assign DHCP addresses to any device on the network. > > Already doing that - internally I'm running a 10.x.x.x, the Cisco > provides DHCP, and as long as I use the actual machine name, instead > of my domain name, I never go out over the internet. Learned that > trick for my wife for her webmail a couple of years ago. > > > Make sure you set up WEP and Mac filtering in the very least (though > > neither are very secure). > > I know that I need to turn on the not terribly good security on my WAP > - I'll be looking into exact options after I get one. > > > If you want a Linux firewall, you can do more fancy security measures by > > having a capture-portal based authentication. WEP and Mac filtering are > > pretty useless for authorizing individuals to your network, and you > > can't do such advanced routing with the Cisco 675. The cool thing about > > capture-portals is that you can apply it to the full subnet if you want. > > It doesn't matter if the user is on wireless or wired connections. > > I'm middling likely to end up with a 'no unencrypted traffic accepted' > setup by the time I'm done. I'm going to have to tighten up some > Windows security anyway - I may just turn it off completely, and teach > my wife some new tricks. > > But none of this address my 'anyone have any local vendor or hardware > recommendations?' question. > > -- > Scott Raun > sraun at fireopal.org _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list