[lug] WAP support in latest kernel

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2005 at 02:03:49PM -0600, Michael J. Hammel wrote:
>upcoming 2.6.14 was supposed to include support for making a Linux box a
>wireless access point.  I might have misunderstood what that meant, but

I don't really know about this move to the kernel, but you've been able to
run some wireless cards in "Infrastructur Master" mode for a long time.  It
must have been around 2002 that I set up my laptop so that when I stuck in
the CDMA cellular wireless card, it would configure the built-in WiFi
Wireless as an access point, fire up a DHCP server and set up masquerading
to allow Evelyn's laptop to connect through the cellular network as well.

I did this with the hostap driver, as mentioned in another reply.  I never
ran hostapd, but I kept the configuration fairly simple.

Of course, you've been able to use a Linux system to have other clients
connect to and sent packets out since the beginning with wireless on Linux.
If you run in AdHoc mode instead of Infrastructure mode, all drivers
support two machines talking to each-other.  Works just fine.  When I first
got my wireless, that was really the only way to do it, the APs at the time
were extremely expensive, and the cards we used at the time came in a pack
of two of them for $200, a special deal.  A lot has changed, mostly for the
better since then.

>hook a wireless client directly into the Linux server without buying a
>Linksys box to go between them?  If so, that offers some cool

The Linksys box *IS* a Linux server.  :-P

>What was missing in the kernel that kept it from acting as a WAP prior
>to 2.6.14?

Please, it's not called "WAP", they're APs, or Infrastructure mode or
something.  WAP is that protocol for letting cell phones "browse" the web.
;-/

I think the issue is that the drivers have to support that.  The normal
driver for my old card didn't support it, but the hostap driver did.  The
card I'm using now, the Intel Pro Wireless 2100, doesn't have any AP
functionality in it either.  The prism chipsets work great for it, but they
seem to have fallen into disfavor for some reason.

Thanks,
Sean
-- 
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Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
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