Hi,

I am looking for a card that supports master mode so I can make my linux firewall/router into a wireless access point as well. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I know that sometimes cards can be re-released with different chipsets, but I have had no luck finding any cards that support it.

If anyone has one, what is it? and what dribers are being used to run it?

Cheers.

Off the top of my head, I can think of the RTL8180, HostAP, and MadWifi drivers. The rt2x00 Project will eventually support it in most (perhaps all) of the devices the driver supports, but it has not been completed yet.

As for specific hardware, I have had good luck with my RTL8180 card. I got it from eBay for $4 awhile back, a lot of cheaper hardware uses the chipset. If you want something a little more serious, you might want to look into some of the ORiNOCO cards.

If the router has wireless to connect to in the first place surely it can function as an access point itself. What model?

No man, he's looking to make a linux machine into the firewall/router. If you have a router in front of the linux machine, then clients connecting to that wirelessly wouldn't gain the firewall or DHCP that the linux box does. He also may have his internet connection piped directly into the linux box, in which case there is no router in front of it.

Peace,
JimBass

Thanks for the input guys.

I decided to buy a wireless router that has a 4 port switch which covers my networking needs, it makes my life a whole lot easier and I can still use the linux box for a firewall/internet gateway.

Thanks again.

What firewall are you using & where are you going to put the wireless router?

Sounds like ("covers my networking needs") you might be planning to use it as your LAN's switch as well. In that case, what is going to protect your wired LAN ("GREEN" network in SmoothWall terms), from your wireless network ("BLUE" in SmoothWall terms)? Your original idea of having a, presumably, 3rd or 4th NIC for "BLUE" sounds more secure.

Hey,

My current aim is to merge the wireless and wired networks into a single GREEN network, provided that I can keep unwanted users of my airwaves (using WPA) all other users can be considered completely safe. Besides that, the wireless router does have a built in firewall that I can utilize if I need further security.

At the moment my biggest problem is trying to decide if I should use Smoothwall or IPCop on the linux box. I need to be able to add content filtering so that I can filter what is downloaded to my kids box. I also have a USB ADSL modem at the moment so I need to be able to install the ECIADSL drivers for it to work.

Cheers.

I believe "provided that I can keep unwanted users of my airwaves" == "wireless GREEN is an oxymoron". Why do you think that merging them is desirable? I thought the idea of inventing the concept/color of BLUE was to properly secure wireless access to the (wired) LAN. I may be wrong about this, I don't do wireless -- yet.

Although I am currently using SmoothWall Express 2, I am considering going to IPCop; if for no other reason than they are using the latest (2.38) ver. of dnsmasq. This is important to me because I use the domain & host filtering capabilities of dnsmasq.conf & they are much improved over the 1.12 ver. in SWE 2. Specifically, for me, mid-line comments & and the ability to include other dnsmasq.conf format files.

I think you will be interested in the ability to not only block hosts but whole domains w/ just 1 config line. In addition, IPCop v1.4 Documentation has a "Howto install DansGuardian"; as well as "Enable Website Filtering with Squid ACLs (Access Control Lists)". Both are probably of interest to you in filtering "what is downloaded to my kids box".

The entries at http://www.google.com/search?q=site%...p.org/+ECIADSL
indicate that your ECIADSL/USB ADSL modem is no problem.

Hey,

I think that merging them is desirable because it simplifies my network and saves me some money. In my opinion separating the wireless from the wired is silly (in some setups), what purpose does it serve? If there were untrusted users on any client computer then that computer should be isolated, why is wireless more dangerous than wired when the wireless is sufficiently secured?

To assume that wireless should not be part of the so called GREEN network is a bit presumptuous since network configurations and purposes are a dime a dozen. Having the wireless as part of the GREEN network suits my network perfectly and is therefore desirable.

I gave IPCop a trial run last night and it was very easy to setup, I was a little put off by the fact that there was no way to configure custom firewall rules in the web ui but it can be done using boot scripts so no problem.

I will have check the other stuff you mentioned.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.