I would definitely recommend a mesh network with some sort of a wireless access controller (essentially a DHCP server with an access list). That way, you deploy your access points, only need to configure static items like channel and ESSID locally on each one, and have centrally managed access control using a captive portal system of some sort.
And, while we surely recognize that MAC addresses can be spoofed with relative ease by a marginally knowledgeable user, a combination of MAC address and SSL protected login is much harder to clone or defeat. As I understand it, NoCat, WiFiDog and pfSense are all FOSS projects that also 'do' captive portal in some way. Last, we wrote a system that does captive portal for cable modem subscribers - built on a LAMP stack, it creates DHCP pools based on MAC address and authenticated using an SSL encrypted login page. I suspect it could (fairly) easily be modified to do what you need, if you were interested in being a bit of a guinnea pig :) Rubin On Mon, 2009-10-12 at 15:25 -0400, Bjorn Behrendt wrote: > Basically I will have probably 10 Ap's around the school, and I want > to make them only accessible by the clients MAC addresses. For every > laptop I would prefer not to enter the mac addres individually into 10 > different Ap's. The initial setup wouldn't be so bad, but If we get > guests which need service then It would be nice to just enter them in > once. > > > > Bjorn Behrendt > IT Coordinator > Mount St. Joseph > [email protected] > (802) 775-0151 > > > On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Rubin Bennett > <[email protected]> wrote: > I'll answer your question with a question - what is it you > want/ need to > manage from a central point? Authentication? MAC address > pools? > ESSIDs? > > Rubin > > > On Mon, 2009-10-12 at 11:48 -0400, chris yarger wrote: > > wireless access points? i believe something like ddwrt and > open wrt > > has the capabilities even if its just writing a script to > update > > config files through the network > > warmest regards, > > > > Chris Yarger > > > > web: http://YargerDesigns.org > > skype: cpyarger > > msn: [email protected] > > aim: patyarg > > yahoo: christoyarg > > > > > > ( ) ASCII ribbon campaign > > X against HTML e-mail > > / \ > > > > > > > > On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Bjorn Behrendt > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Besides Cisco. Does anybody know how to manage multiple > access points from > > > a single management console. > > > > > > > > > Bjorn Behrendt > > > IT Coordinator > > > Mount St. Joseph > > > [email protected] > > > (802) 775-0151 > > > > > -- > Rubin Bennett > rbTechnologies, LLC > 80 Carleton Boulevard > East Montpelier, VT 05651 > > (802)223-4448 > http://thatitguy.com > > "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do > so too." > Voltaire, Essay on Tolerance > French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - > 1778) > > -- Rubin Bennett rbTechnologies, LLC 80 Carleton Boulevard East Montpelier, VT 05651 (802)223-4448 http://thatitguy.com "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." Voltaire, Essay on Tolerance French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)
