[Cialug] Wi-fi recommendations

[David Champion]

The network and disk i/o on a RPi is painfully slow. Pretty much all of the
i/o goes through the USB 2.0 controller.

A cheap router like the one Scott recommended is designed for network
throughput in mind.

-dc


On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 3:16 PM, Nathan C. Smith <NSmith at hhlawpc.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Cialug mailing list
> > Cialug at cialug.org
> > http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>
> ________________________________
>
> [http://owa.hhlawpc.com/graphics/HHLogo.jpg]<http://www.hhlawpc.com>
> This E-mail (including any attachments) is covered by the Electronic
> Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2521, is confidential and may
> contain attorney-client materials and/or attorney work product, legally
> privileged and protected from disclosure.  If you are not the intended
> recipient, you are hereby notified that any retention, dissemination,
> distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.
>  Please respond to the sender that you have received the message in error,
> then delete it and destroy any and all copies of it.  If you are a client
> of our firm, this e-mail confirms that communication to you by e-mail is an
> acceptable way to transmit attorney-client information.  Thank you.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>