On Thu, 2004-03-11 at 17:22, Manuel Kasper wrote:
> On 11.03.2004 08:32 +1000, Hilton Travis wrote:
> 
> > That aside, I agree that there needs to be more hardware support in
> > m0n0wall on the Wireless side.  There are no 802.11g chipsets
> 
> And how are we supposed to do that? m0n0wall is based on FreeBSD (if
> I had a dime for everytime I had to mention that...), so basically we
> can't use anything that FreeBSD doesn't support. Atheros 802.11g
> cards are supported in FreeBSD 5.2, but after another very unpleasant
> recent experience on a standard Intel-based PC, I don't think I'm
> going to use it anytime soon. I believe it's just not good and fast
> enough for something like m0n0wall yet.

Aahhh, I'm aware FreeBSD is the m0n0wall abse OS.  As are most of us.  I
still don't see that this stops us wishing for support for current
hardware.  We can also wish for m0n0t0aster to be released - not that it
is likely.  Doesn't stop us wishing for it.  :)

All I was saying is that m0n0wall's lack of 802.11g support (because of
the FreeBSD 4.9 base OS) is limiting its uptake in the WiFi marketplace,
and that's a growing marketplace.

I also happen to agree that a m0n0wall firewall and a separate WiFi AP
is probably the way to go for now, and possibly forever.  However, I'd
still like a single m0n0wall box that can act as a firewall and 802.11g
AP at the same time, Soekris or other.  It may not happen in the near
future, but I'm still wishing for it.

> > I have a net4521 here waiting for 802.11g WIC support - I'm not
> > going to be running out any buying any 802.11b PC Cards nor cPCI
> > cards for this box.  Especially considering all of my clients are
> > looking at 802.11g implementations.
> 
> I wouldn't waste money on an 802.11g card for a net4521 anyway. The
> little 486/133 in it will not be able to take the card anywhere near
> its effective maximum throughput (in fact the net45xxs can almost be
> maxed out with 802.11b cards). Buy a real, dedicated 802.11g access
> point and hook it up to an optional (Ethernet) interface, and you'll
> also get features like disabling SSID broadcasting, WPA, probably
> better stability than with hostap, and so on.

I hear ya.  That is the other thing I've been thinking about - the
Soekris motherboards - even their "fast" ones - are not really fast
enough to handle the HUGE overhead that 802.11g would place on the host
PC.  I'm more likely to use something like a 600 MHz EPIA board for my
802.11g boxes - still running m0n0wall (if and when we get 802.11
support).  Or standalone APs.  :)

Disabling SSID is a security fallacy.  It is a complete waste of time
configuring this, and not worth wasting your time looking at
implementing this in m0n0wall.  Luckily FreeBSD 4.9 doesn't support this
"feature".

Stability is another good thing.  If hostap isn't that stable, then I'll
likely stick with decent 802.11g APs when I find some with all the
features I like.

-- 

Regards,

Hilton Travis                   Phone: +61-(0)7-3343-3889
Manager, Quark AudioVisual      Phone: +61-(0)419-792-394
         Quark Computers         http://www.QuarkAV.com/
(Brisbane, Australia)            http://www.QuarkAV.net/

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