On August 4, 2014, Michael Torrie wrote: > I'm unclear as to why you do not want to use a conventional AP.
Honestly the problem is power and money. I'm designing this for someone who is currently in the USA, but I know that they are eventually moving to another country. They already have to get a different power supply when they leave. They're currently planning on heading to Brazil next. Brazil power is quite different from other locations. It's not just different prongs on the plug or power at 2x the voltage and 1/2 the Hz rating. The power there (from what I understand) is 220v and 50Hz vs. the USA 110v and 60Hz. While I'm sure there are ways to convert from one power type to another (APC stands for American Power _Converters_, right? they'd probably have something that would work), it's still a huge hassle and would be less of a hassle if the AP wasn't present in the equation at all. Then there's the fact that a good AP can cost upwards of $200 (the new Linksys WRT1900AC is $280!). That's money that could be used to place a quality Wi-Fi NIC in the server that works correctly and handles AP mode well. I know that Wi-Fi APs can be configured in bridge mode. That is not the issue. It's the other issues as mentioned above. If absolutely necessary I'll go ahead and tell him to get an AP, and that he needs to bite the bullet and get some power converters. However, it would seem to me to be a lot easier (and probably cheaper) to simply take the computer(s) down to Brazil (or wherever), and while there buy some new Power Supply units that are compatible with local power. Then there's no need to do the task of power conversion from one nationality to another. Especially if the PSUs are modular. Then it's just a matter of disconnecting the cables, swapping the PSU out, and reconnecting the cables. Thanks for the info, everyone! Besides looking for a card with an Atheros chipset, any other recommendations on what brand of card I aught to look for? --- Dan On Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 8:32 AM, Michael Torrie <[email protected]> wrote: > On 08/04/2014 02:59 AM, Dan Egli wrote: > > Next, the physical segment is both wired (eth1) AND Wireless > > (wlan0/ath0/whatever). I don't want to plug in a physical Wi-Fi router, > for > > various reasons. I just want the server to offer DHCP addresses to anyone > > who connects to eth1, or to anyone who connects to wlan0 IF they also > have > > the correct wpa2_personal key configured. These machines would connect > via > > simple IP masquerading since there will be no connections originating > > outside the network that need to be responded to. Not that dissimilar to > a > > Wi-Fi router. However, like I said above, I have various reasons for > > preferring to not use a separate Wi-Fi router/AP. > > I'm unclear as to why you do not want to use a conventional AP. When > configured to act as a bridge, with dhcp disabled (no routing), it would > act exactly the same as an internal wifi card in host mode, but without > having to mess with drivers, many of which are not available on server > distros. Just a normal ethernet port would be required. Functionally, > and security-wise, the external AP is equivalent to the internal card. > And more future proof, and less prone to breakage. Rather than having > to mess with restarting things on the server, you can just restart the > external AP. Just a suggestion. > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
