> sounds like I was being ignorant, but that wasn't my intent. :-) OK!
> question was genuine - why would you (or anyone) prefer to > run Linux / Squid rather than S-Server / Squid? Well, it boils down to "what are your objectives" - if you are running a business and the APs and traffic shaping are critical to it, then the equation changes. In particular, if you are in that scenario and you have limited technical expertise on staff then going off-the-shelf is a *good thing*. If you need to be able to scale to a large number of units and want to simplify your admin of them all, then going off-the-shelf is a *good thing*. Then again, if you do have the expertise, then assembling your own units, based on your own linux 'distribution' that's just a collection of files you flash onto an compact flash card or Disk-on-Chip and a standard set of hardware... well, once the effort to organize, configure and standardize is done you eseentially have your own product customized to your own scenario. Of course, if Station-Server is *already* that then by all means, save the cost of developing your own and buy theirs. But, on the other end of the spectrum, if you are building out a community wireless net, or just one with your neighbors, or even a small company net, and you are linux-inclined, and willing to hack a bit to get it to work, then why pay someone for software that is already available for free? If you are willing to trade some of your time for money not spent, then you can do everythign they can do... probably better. Certainly with more control. Certainly in a way that if you find out in 6 months that you really want to filter some kind of traffic or otherwise need to muck with the setup, you do it yourself and don't wait for a vendor 'upgrade' that may cost you another $30 per sation anyway. > >From my point of view, something like Station-Server is better suited > for the job. It seems less confusing and more dedicated to the task. That's possibly the case. And if it break you can call them - that's a valuable thing too. > However, we'd be pleased to figure out how to do the same things > in a Linux box as well. We have about a dozen MaxTech 2MB ISA > cards (http://www.zcomax.com/htm/xwl420.htm) that MicroTik and > Station Server don't support, but there are Linux drivers for them. > If we could do the same things with Linux that we're doing with SS, > then we could put these cards to good use, but I don't see an AP > driver for Linux to get one card to act as an Access Point like SS > can do. :-( Well, that card may not support a level of operation that allows a linux box to be an AP... that's probably why MicroTik and Station Server don't support them. Greg -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
