[Cialug] Wi-fi recommendations

[Nathan C. Smith]

Are all radios supported in DD-WRT?  I would normally recommend pfSense with a wifi card running on something like an Alix box, but FreeBSD support for 'n' took a while and may still not be in the pfSense distro.  I don't know the specifics of DD-WRT, do they just extract the radio firmware blobs and re-use them?

I have used (and really liked) Engenius access points - I have had one in my attic (crazy temperature extremes) for several years now and it is still going strong.  Recent Engenius models actually came with a card explaining how to flash them with DD-WRT -  I thought that was impressive.

What about using embedded-ish hardware these days, like Beagleboard and Raspberry pi?

-Nate

-----Original Message-----
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf Of David Champion
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2014 11:15 AM
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Wi-fi recommendations

Not all WAP's are created equal. I work with a lot of them - built in to modems, routers, and stand-alone, I can tell you that some just can't handle being in a target rich environment as well as others. I'm fairly certain it's firmware and not hardware related, as 90% of all DSL modems run the same family of chipset, but not all of them behave the same in regards to WiFi.

My condo is a pretty good example, I'm surrounded by multi-tenant buildings and businesses, I can see dozens of my neighbor's SSID's. I've tested various WiFi there, and the DD-WRT / Asus router is about as good as I've seen for performance and stability.

-dc


On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 11:05 AM, Daniel A. Ramaley < daniel.ramaley at drake.edu> wrote:

> Thanks everyone for the ideas! I'll take a look at the different
> suggestions. I guess what i want out of an access point is something
> fairly basic. I already have a DHCP server, so i don't want it to do
> that; it should merely extend my wired network rather than setting up
> its own subnet and everything like most wi-fi access points want to do.
> I just want it to add a layer of WPA2 and support multi-channel
> 802.11n on both 2.4 and 5 GHz. It was fairly easy to configure the
> Airports to work that way. And i honestly don't care what firmware it
> runs. I normally have strong preferences for open source, but for an
> appliance that i configure once and then forget about, i don't care. I
> think of wi-fi access points like i think of my microwave: set a few
> basic settings (on the microwave, the clock, on an access point, turn
> on WPA2 and set a strong password), and then ignore it.
>
> On 2014-03-10 at 09:47:33 Daniel A. Ramaley wrote:
> > My home wireless network is based around Apple Airport hardware.
> > Unfortunately, it has recently come to my attention that Airports do
> > not work with all devices. I have had no problem getting laptops
> > made by each of Apple, Dell, and HP to work. My Android phone, a
> > Galaxy S3, also works perfectly. But a Kindle tablet will not
> > connect, nor will a Chromecast. From asking Google i found that it
> > might be possible to connect a Kindle to an Airport, if you
> > downgrade the Airport firmware to a specific version, turn off
> > 802.11n, and sacrifice a chicken on the eve of a blue moon.
> >
> > So... my question is, what would people recommend for a home
> > wireless network that supports all devices?
> __
> Daniel A. Ramaley
> Network Engineer 2
>
> Dial Center 122, Drake University
> 2407 Carpenter Ave / Des Moines IA 50311 USA
> Tel: +1 515 271-4540
> Fax: +1 515 271-1938
> E-mail: daniel.ramaley at drake.edu
>
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