I bought a couple open-mesh boxes which essentially does exactly what you mentioned in a nice $50 box (with opensource firmware). I really like how the mesh network works, it is very easy to manage and essentially works like wifi should. My only issue is that with it is a router, so among other things my content filter reporting gets messed up (shows only the mesh ip rather then the students computer). I was really looking for a mesh type solution which uses my ip configuration. Mich Lambert suggested Aerohive which looks promising.
p.s. If I get a student who finds a usable mac address via a capture program then spoofs their laptop to mimic that. I will tell them to quit school and apply to cisco right now. I do it so that our neighbors don't purposely or accidentally log on and use up our resources. My content filter will report any inappropriate use, even with a spoofed MAC. Bjorn Behrendt IT Coordinator Mount St. Joseph [email protected] (802) 775-0151 On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 3:44 PM, Rubin Bennett <[email protected]>wrote: > 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) >
