Hi

a while a go I started looking for a Linux based router distro that supports setting up two Atheros based wifi cards as access point, plus it has to work in ESXi.

So far I haven't even found one distro that can set up more than one access point....

Do my Google skills need some improvement or isn't there a distro out there that is able to do that?

Right now I'm using IPFire, but no support for multiple access points in the webinterface and no info about the possibility of setting up a second access point using the terminal, if that's even possible.

So.... does anyone have any idea's and/or suggestions?

I realize this is not directly answering the question, but since nobody has offered any suggestions: the DD-WRT wiki page has detailed instructions on how to set up numerous wireless routers using their linux firmware. The wiki is found here:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...router_network

I tried this firmware on my router, and it is not very user friendly and takes a lot of time to figure out. But you never know - maybe in the longrun it would be a less frustrating solution. Even if you don't wish to flash Linux firmware on your routers, it might be useful to see how they have approached the problem.

This is just from memory, but I have used the following on occasion:

Endian
ClarkConnect/ClearOS
IPCop
Moonwall
Openwall
Smoothwall
pfSense
Untangle
Vyatta

I don't know if these will allow the use of two cards, but maybe? I was using them for other purposes. I seem to remember liking Endian, ClearOS, and Untangle the best, but this was a long time ago...

It may be possible to do it, but it may be one of those "hack the config files until it works" things.

Good luck!

I read about DD-(and open)WRT, ran into a howto about how to set up two access points but that was with one wifi card, not two.

Well, I've been Googling for a while now and can't find anything. So unless it's undocumented.... The distro's you mentioned, I've already run into those but can't find anything about if they can do what I want.

In addition to that, I've used pfSense for years. Let's start with that, unless something has changed, there is no properly working Atheros driver for *BSD based OS'ses and still no support for 802.11n. Plus pfSense made my ISP cut off the internet connection by sending 10k DHCP requests in half an hour. Couldn't fix it, reinstall didn't help, different version didn't do anything either. Then I switched to IPFire, which works perfect, except the lack of support for multiple access points.

bartgrfete wrote:

I read about DD-(and open)WRT, ran into a howto about how to set up two access points but that was with one wifi card, not two.
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There's no question it is hard to navigate the DD_WRT site, but quoting from their wiki page, it seem like they do have the capability to support "multiple wireless client devices", and that such devices "connect with a true transparent bridge that is compatible with all protocols". As well, there is a section devoted to wireless "mesh networking with OLSR", which "connects nodes, which exchange information about their connection-status with each other (routing updates), so that every node knows, which path he has to take to reach any other node in the mesh." Reminds me of karate at the black belt level, but it looks like the capability is there if you have the patience to figure it out.