I'm far from a wireless expert but I have a couple of things to add: On September 1, 2003 10:21 pm, Dave Lee wrote: > Richi Plana wrote: > > I am thinking of starting a wireless network at home and am wondering if > > I need to get an access point (or will Linux with a WiFi card connected > > the the Internet work?). > > I don't think a wireless card has the hardware resources required to act > as an AP. It'd be nice if there were PCI cards that had the ability to > act as an AP.
Actually, this is exactly what the hostAP project (http://hostap.epitest.fi/) provides. They have a daemon, tools, and a driver that allows Prism based nics to act as an AP. I doubt it would be much cheaper than just buying an AP, but if you set your own up you might avoid the firmware issues some others have already mentioned with other products. > > I'm looking at two Wireless AP options and was wondering if you could > > give me your opinion on which would work best for an all-Linux network. > > The two APs I'm condering are the D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G Wireless > > Router w/ 4-Port Switch (DI-624) and the Linksys Wireless-G Access Point > > (WAP54G). > > Is there already linux driver support for some 802.11g cards? If so, > thats pretty sweet. I haven't looked yet. > According to the wireless howto (http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/) there are a couple of 802.11g chipsets that have open source drivers available, the Prism mentioned before, and the Atheros. Apparently the Atheros driver also supports hostAP for some cards. Avoid Broadcom based cards like the plague. Finding out which cards use which chipset and therefore is supported in Linux seems to be the hardest part. I guess the best thing one can do is to do their research and make sure wherever they buy from has a good return policy. <snip> Later, ~Scott
