Slackware Wireless PCI Card Access Point, shared internet via DHCP NIC
 

Hi all,

I've set a little project for myself.
(haven't started yet ... looking for reference material first).

What I would like to do is extend my Slackware file/print/game Server by adding a wireless PCI card and setting it up as a protected wireless Access Point.
Then share the internet to the wireless card through the Servers internet connected eth0 LAN card, so that I can use my Slackware Laptop to connect to the internet wirelessly:

I know about Alien Bob's brilliant Network setup Wiki for (Lan,Wifi) interfaces, which also talks about WPA so (hopefully that part won't be a problem, I'll let you know), but I am wondering if someone could recommend a good Slackware 12.1 readme about sharing the servers ADSL DHCP eth0 internet connection to a protected Wireless card Access Point?
(is this what the term masquerading means, or am I way off track?)

I've done a lot of google'ing and am only able to find reference material that relates to old slackware 9.1 :(

So if anyone knows of any accurate modern Slackware 12.1 readmes or advice on this LAN==>>Wireless card Internet sharing issue and could pass them on, I'll be really appreciative.

Thanks in advance for any help :)

Cheers

Orbit

First of all, not all wireless card drivers allow you to run it in Access Point mode. You will have to look around and find a good card for that (madwifi driver supports AP mode but watch out for cards that are too new, they will not be supported by it).

Then you have two possibilities:
(1) Setup NAT routing on that server, so that every PC connecting to the wireless AP can access the Internet transparently through the NAT gateway (being your server's internet-facing card).

In that case, you will have to run a DHCP server on the server's wireless interface so that your wireless laptop can receive an IP address and routing information (in NAT mode, your wireless PC's will not be able to talk to your DSL router and it's DHCP server).

Check http://www.slackware.com/~alien/efg/ for an easy firewall generator that applies to this specific case.

ALternatively you can bridge the eth0 and the wireless interfaces so that all PC's (server plus wireless clients) appear to be on the same LAN segment. That way you don't have to setup a DHCP server on your serverbox but bridging is not well-documented in the Slackware documentation. Robby Workman has an RC init script to setup a bridge here: http://rlworkman.net/conf/init/rc.bridge

Eric

Hello Alien Bob,

Thank you for your reply, I discovered exactly what you were saying about: , initially I had installed a Linksys 54Mb/s PCI wireless card (using the rt2500 module) and using both the standard kernel modules and/or the compiled sourceforge module, I was unable to get it to go into Master mode (function not implemented). I then removed that card and it's module(s), and after ratting around in my spares cupboard, found and installed a Texas Instruments 54Mb/s PCI card (using a source compiled acx module, and it's relevant firmware).

The new Texas Instruments card will currently go into Master mode, so that is a step forward.

Using 'wlassistant' From my wireless Laptop, I am now able to see my new access point, but am able to only partially connect to it via static I.P. (it will connect, but is currently unable to browse files); DHCP will not connect at all yet.

I am also having issues with setting up WPA, it seems to have an unknown problem on the Server (I am not at home at the moment, so I can't give an example of my rc.inet1.conf file, but I will post it when I get home, if you would care to diagnose it?).
The access point currently shows up as wide open and unencrypted (ouch).

What I will do now is incorporate the Network 'Bridge' from the Robby Workman script you have linked (thank you), to to see if that will work the Server's wireless interface Access Point with DHCP.

I'll also post my Server's and Laptop's rc.inet1 file(s) to see if I have done anything wrong with WPA.

Are there any other files or CLI commands I could post, that may help in diagnosing this setup?

Thanks very much in advance for any help.

Regards :)

Orbit

(off) That's routing ie router. Why not (instead) just use a broadband router? (cable modem router, dsl router, etc.)

SmoothWall (can google for that) is a Linux distro specifcally does router/firewall/NAT/masquerade on *2 NICS* (or 1 NIC and a dial up modem) on a 'puter box.

Forums at the above will lead you on your quest (lots about route/firew/NAT/masquerade)

dslreports.com has lots on broadband router if you interested to check on that venue.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.o...ackware/topics

Some @ there have Slack server that routes (internet to LAN (2 NICS, cabled) and server serve out to internet) might search at there for relevant terms. (if you post there, better to do it via a newsreader onto alt.os.linux.slackware rather than to post using google groups to do so)

--
Alan.

masquerade/NAT, in a nutshell for example a LAN 'puter (non internet, non, not internet routeable) IP address 192.168.1.23 is one of these "LAN only, not internet designated" IP address (a private IP). Whereas "public IP" is an internet IP.

A router "masquerades" that private IP computer, does so "on the internet side of the router."

Why this is so? It's because the **only** thing the internet can see is the public IP (the router's internet IP address).

In the data packets the router swaps 192.168.23 for (for instance) 74.2.xx.xx or whatever the router's internet IP is.

Internet cannot even tell if there is a LAN in behind the router nor if there's 1 or 50 computers on the LAN that access the internet through the router.

One IP gets "masqueraded" into another IP (and back again when what initially was a request then gets returned from the internet).

Routers are rather busy ie lots to constantly track, morph/masq then morph/masq back again (on the return) so as to "return to the proper LAN private IP" (might be called session tracking, not sure -- internet session) all at faster than the speed of lightning.

--
Alan.