Re: wireless LAN in place of existing cabled one
----- Original Message -----
From: "BruceG" <bruce-lists@manygriffi.blogdns.net>
To: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: wireless LAN in place of existing cabled one
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Benedict Verheyen" <linux4bene@pandora.be>
> To: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 3:16 PM
> Subject: wireless LAN in place of existing cabled one
>
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > my current LAN looks like this:
> >
> > cable ----- eth0 (public ip) -server
> > modem eth1 (192.168.0.1)
> > |
> > hub
> > |
> > |
> > pc 1
> >
> > My server runs dhcp, apache, exim, fetchmail, webmail and so on.
> > Now the wife is fed up with the cable running through our living room
> > up the stairs to my room where the server, the hub and pc1 are.
> > Now we (she) wants to go wireless. I asked a local dealer and he
> > works with D-Link equipment more specifically the Di-714P+ or
> > the Di-614+. This would be the future setup:
> >
> > cablemodem --- router --wireless-- server -- hub -- pc 1
> > |
> > -----wireless-- clients
> >
> > I have some questions about this:
> >
> >
> > 1. The server acts as a gateway now where eth0 is an ip from my
> > isp and eth1 is a fixed internal ip where a DHCP daemon is listening
> > to distribute ip's to the clients (currently pc1 but 1 other pc will
> > follow
> > and will be placed downstairs). Now i think i can still use the server
> > as gateway with the new setup but i will not be able to secure the
> > LAN with the firewall script that runs on it, correct?
> > I mean any incoming traffic can immediately go to the wireless clients
> > without going through the server first, right?
> > Is there anyway i can solve this? I thought about putting the server
> > between the cablemodem and the router to accomplish this.
> >
> > 2. I saw that there a 2 big differences between the Di-714P+ and the
> > Di-614+: the Di-714P+ has printer server support (i don't care) and
> > the built in firewall stuff has SPI (Stateful packet inspection). Is
> > this
> > the same as what you would get with iptables? The 614 seems to
> > lack this.
> >
> > 3. Is the network traffic encrypted by default?
> >
> > 4. What kernel options do i have to activate to be able to use a
> > wireless usb card (DWL-120+) . Usb is already compiled in. I'm
> > not even sure these will function under Linux. Any place i can
> > find out?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Benedict
> >
>
> Benedict,
>
> Double (and triple) check that your wireless cards are supported under
> Linux. I bought a Linksys 802.11B card only to find out the version I
bought
> (2.6) was not supported, but 2.5 was. My desktop was dual-boot, and it
> worked fine under Windows.
>
> I then bought an 802.11B wireless card that attaches via USB slot. Not
> supported. Didn't work under Linux. Worked fine under Windows. Then I
bought
> a Liinksys 802.11 A/B/G PCI card and built the madwifi drivers. That one
got
> a signal and kinda worked, but was EXTREMELY slow due to poor reception.
>
> To avoid the whole mess, I picked up a wireless media adapter. It has
an
> Ethernet port on it, and just bridges you into a wireless network. It
> worked, but kept dropping signals. So I returned it. (and all the previous
> stuff).
>
> I finally picked up a wireless bridge. A Linksys 802.11B WET11. It has
> great signal reception and works extremely well. No dropped sessions, no
> timeouts. If I use a hub or switch, I can have multiple PCs in the same
room
> and go wireless downstairs.
>
> My setup is different than yours:
> DSL in --> Westell DSL Modem/Router ---> Linksys BFSX41 Router with 4 LAN
> ports.
>
> LAN Side: wired clients downstairs
> Linksys 802.11G WAP for wireless clients
> Linksys 802.11G Cardbus card for laptop
> Linksys 802.11B WET11 Bridge for upstairs clients
>
> I have heard of people that use their PC to serve wireless clients. That's
a
> little beyond what I can do.
>
>
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>
I forgot to mention a few things. I wanted 802.11G for higher speeds, but
that's not going to happen over longer distances (like downstairs to
upstairs). I also found that you don't get 802.11G support without compiling
madwifi drivers and using a card with the Atheros chipset. Mine was pretty
expensive (I think $130 or so if I remember right - I bet I could have got a
LAN drop run for that price!!!).
Since I got an 802.11B bridge, I've read that ALL my 802.11G clients
throttle down to 802.11B. I'm not sure if that is really so. If so, it would
have been a lot less expensive to just buy an 802.11B WAP and cardbus card
for my wife.
If you don't mind using the DLink (or a Linksys) to do your routing and
dhcp, you can often find the wireless routers cheaper than the special
purpose wireless WAP. Especially if you decide to stick with 802.11B until
there is more support for G. Your server would still do mail and web, it
just wouldn't do proxy and dhcp if you go for the wireless router.
My wife loves wireless on her WinXP laptop. To me, it doesn't make a bit of
difference to my desktop. Actually, for LAN stuff it's slower than a LAN
drop.
While pricing wireless, also get the price to have a Cat5E cable run
upstairs. You might be surprised. With the LAN drop upstairs you don't
change anything on your servers, and still use a hub to support more PCs.
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