I just assembled my ALIX 2d13, and had a similar discussion (check the archives). But I had to make some compromises.
802.11n isn't supported by OpenBSD yet. Period. Simple consultation of the driver man pages would have noted that. I also believe that all drivers that support hostap also have difficulties with power-saving functionality (please correct me if I'm wrong!). So unless you know that all of your wifi clients can disable this, you theoretically may have packet loss issues. Read your chipset's man pages closely. To work around this issue, I picked up a cheap-o consumer wifi router to hang off one of the ethernet interfaces. --david On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 3:38 PM, Lists Account <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > First post to misc. I'd like to create an OpenBSD based router + wifi > access point. I thought I might buy myself one of these for Christmas: > > PC Engines ALIX 2D13: http://www.pcengines.ch/alix2d13.htm > > That's a AMD Geode LX800 with on-board serial, Ethernet (3), USB and > miniPCI. > > The same vendor also sells several compatible wireless cards e.g. > > Wistron DNMA92 Atheros 802.11a/b/g/n - Chipset: Atheros AR9220 > > Compex WLM54SAG23 200mW Atheros 802.11a/b/g - Chipset: Atheros AR5414 > > I checked the 4.8 man pages and the faq (openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html) to > try to determine my best choice ... > > Naturally I'd like to run 11n for the high speed and the 4.8 man page > for the athn driver says the newer 9220 chip _is_ supported. However the > list archives contain some remarks about it being supported only in > client "BBS" mode, not in AP (Access Point) mode. > > The athn man page is not so clear on this, it mentions the existence of > BSS and AP modes, but is not explicit about exactly what modes are > supported by which chipsets. > > The FAQ page indicates that the ath driver (i.e. the non - "n" driver) > does support AP mode. > > But neither the ath or athn man pages mention the "older" AR5414 chip at > all :-( > > Any suggestions on how to go forward here? Is the project feasible and > which of these components would be best? > > From my perspective it would be useful if the information on the support > modes (BBS/AP) were to be added into the tables in those man pages that > already enumerate the supported chipsets/bus-interfaces/bands/channels. > > Cheers, > Robb. > > -- > > +-----------------------------------------------------------+ > | "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. | > | Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched | > | C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All | > | those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. | > | Time to die." -- Roy Batty, Nexus6, N6MAA10816, Combat | > +-----------------------------------------------------------+
