On 14/09/11 17:09, Ian Grody wrote: > On Wednesday 14 September 2011 15:09:57 Ian Park wrote: >> I've been running firewall distributions for a good few years now on an >> old Compaq low profile box (Pentium III, 500 MHz) which I bought from >> Jamie's. I started with Smoothwall v2.0, and added extra RAM when I >> upgraded to Smoothwall v3.0; it now has 512MB RAM and a 6.3GB HDD. >> >> About a year ago, an article in Linux Format caught my eye, and I >> decided to give IPCop a go - we have a fair few visitors over the year, >> and it's handy to be able to give them internet access via a wireless >> access point without having to let them loose to roam on my home >> network. IPCop's blue interface looked like the answer, but I've had no >> end of grief trying to get the WLANAP add-on for IPCop to work. I've >> tried a total of five different wireless LAN cards; IPCop v1.9.20 >> recognises only one of them (it uses the RaLink 2561 chipset), and even >> with that one, when I installed the appropriate version of the add-on it >> threw a wobbly at the end of the installation. >> >> To add to the fun, the WLANAP add-on doesn't work any more since the >> upgrade from 1.9.19 to 1.9.20 - the upgrade included a new kernel >> version, 2.6.32-4, and the latest version of wlanap-ipcop (3.0.0-c6) >> matches kernel version 2.6.32-3... >> >> Can anyone suggest an alternative route to where I want to be (i.e. the >> equivalent of IPCop with red, green and blue interfaces), please? I >> suppose in the end I could just stick a wired network card in the IPCop >> box and hook up to an external wireless access point, but that would >> mean using another power socket, and I already use about 18 in this room... >> >> Thanks in advance for any help >> >> Ian > > > You could always chuck out that horrid Ralink chip, chuck in an Atheros. > Atheros and intel along w/ Zydas tend to have some of the best support for > using them as wifi softAP's. > > I'd suggest using an Atheros (5000 series chips are most supported impo) > wifi, > then use pfSense as your firewall/router. 2.0 is still in RC state, but gets > regular updates and can do everything you are wanting and a tonne more. I > have > this running on a P3 533MHz box w/ 512MB and it does the job for what it's > intended. Which handles Wifi (via atheros wifi), another wifi through AP > hardwired, two LANs, a few VLANs & VPN. > > Zeroshell was gearing towards support for wifi config via web-gui, but not > sure > how they progressed as I stopped using this for pfSense 2 years ago. It > looked > promising though (and this one is linux based). It did work however if you > enabled it under the hood. > > You could always use RouterOS for x86 - You would need to check what wifi > cards > this supports, atheros I know are one lot. This OS is intended for > RouterBoard > family of routers - But Mikrotik have nicely made a download available to > install on PC. It is a trial, however, but getting a license to use it isn't > too expensive. > > DistroWatch have a list of firewalls for PC etc to use. However, I do not how > new or updated this list is.. > > http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=Firewall&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&status=Active > > > Good luck > > -- > Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk > Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire > LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk > -------------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks to everyone for their input.
First, on the logistics: She Who Must Be Obeyed was out this morning, so I was able to set up a spare box with a couple of wired NICs and configure that to keep up our access to the network and the intercommunication between the various PCs on our home LAN, thereby freeing the little Compaq for me to mess about with. First hurdle was that the CD drive in the Compaq seems to have died - it's one of the type they put in laptops. Fortunately I was able to hook up a standard DVD-ROM drive and install IPFire 2.9, which went uneventfully. Next hurdle was that the Compaq wouldn't recognise the WLAN card (a TP-Link TL-WN551G, with an Atheros AR5212 chipset) which I wanted to use, although it was recognised in the other box (before you suggest that I stick to the "other box", it's a lot bigger than the Compaq, and won't fit in the space I've got for the firewall). I *was* able to set up the Blue interface on the Compaq with a Tenda W54P (RaLink RT2561), so I think I'll try moving on with that. Another of the reasons I'd prefer to stick with the Compaq is that it accepts standard height cards (only two, but that's enough), whereas a lot (if not all) of SFF cases nowadays require low profile cards (e.g. the Deskpro 7100 SFF which I use as my Win XP machine)... Cheers Ian -- Ian Park 17 Pyle Hill Newbury Berkshire RG14 7JJ Tel: +44 (0)1635 821420 email: i.d.c.p...@ntlworld.com -- -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------
