All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Wireless Access Points

barbie on 2003-10-07T17:27:54

So I'm looking again at buying a Wireless Access Point. Now armed with some dosh, I want to get a decent one, that will hopefully last a good while and be both Windows and Linux compatible. With the advent of 802.11g access points and cards, it's probably a good time to buy a B+G compatible set. The downfall seems to be finding one that is Linux compatible. All the datasheets I've found don't mention Linux and the Wireless Linux sites all seem to be more concerned with cards rather than access points.

I've spotted a NetGear one, Netgear WG602 54G Access Point, on special offer (with a half price PCMCIA card) at £105.74 (inc VAT), which seems pretty good. All the other makes (Linksys WAP54G, Belkin F5D7130 & D-LINK DWL-2000AP) appear to come close and offer pretty much the same product spec (although without additional cards), but cost quite a bit more when you add the PCMCIA card in too. And seeing as I need one of those it would be pretty daft not to include it. However, all mention a range of Windows OSs, but no Linux OSs.

My current setup has a Windows 98 box accessing the internet through a broadband modem, with a secondary Windows 98 box acting as a backup filestore. I have Linux RH 7.3 box that originally was to be an internal webserver and database server, for when I do personal development work. But now I plan to have it as the internet gateway, firewall and internal mail server, as well as running the webserver and database server. The reason is twofold. I want to learn how to do all this networking stuff, as it'll be useful in the future, plus I also want to move the Windows machines around so that DanDan and Nicole can have their own machines, and provide all security aspects (firewall, email spam/virus filtering and site blocking) via the Linux box.

So anyone know of any sites that discuss/review specific Linux compatibility with various AP hardware? Or recommend themselves suitable AP hardware?

3Com

Beatnik on 2003-10-07T19:09:04

I'm considering getting a 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 802.11g Access Point (3CRWE454G72) and a 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 802.11g PC Card (3CRWE154G72). They're supported on linux and at €127 for the Access Point and €74 for the PC card (VAT included), they're reasonably cheap. I'm getting demo material and will play with it for a few weeks before actually buying the stuff.

Netgear WG602

davorg on 2003-10-07T19:37:53

That's the access point that I have. It's plugged directly into my ADSL router and all of my internet traffic goes thru it. I have a Windows machine, a Linux machine and a Powerbook all talking to it quite happily.

Re:Netgear WG602

barbie on 2003-10-08T07:57:24

Reassuring to know. Thanks Dave. I suspected it would be alright, but seeing as there so much advertising for compatibility with Win32 OSs, it just made me edgy as to whether it was compatible with anything else.

Shouldn't be any problems

jj on 2003-10-07T20:06:35

An access point is a layer 2 device, so in normal use there should be no comaptibility issues with Linux, Windows, Apple, or any other OS. The only problem will be the initial setup. What you need to watch out for are those that use proprietary management software, and do not give any details of the protocol. However as long as you've got at least one Windows box on your network then you can run the management software on that. Alternatively look for one that has web-based configuration - my Linksys WAP11 v2.2 has this, and it works fine using Mozilla on Linux. Some access points do offer SNMP or Telnet access, but these tend to cost more.

Re:Shouldn't be any problems

barbie on 2003-10-08T08:04:44

It was the setup bit and general configuration management that I was concerned with. The Access Point will be plugged initially into the Win98 box, but will ultimately be plugged into the RH7.3 (although I'll probably upgrade that to RH9) box. The software on the CD appears to be for Windows, but I wanted to ensure that Linux could handle it too. A worse case scenario would have me cable the Linux and Win98 boxes together via my hub, but that might involve lifting carpets :(

Re:Shouldn't be any problems

davorg on 2003-10-08T09:32:11

All of the configuration is done thru a web interface.