[wplug] Wi-Fi

[Michael H. Semcheski]

dk at curlynoodle.com wrote:
> I appreciate and respect all of your political and social incite, 
> however I amazes me how quickly everyone gravitates toward such a 
> debate.  Life in Pittsburgh for many has become rather disappointing,
> no doubt.  But, if you see greener pastures elsewhere, please go.  If
> not, let's talk Linux.

Here here.  I don't know when the idea of muni-wifi came up, but I
didn't think it was part of the original thread.  Lets let that die,
because there are arguements on both sides.


> My ideal, however, is to provide a service which is "altruistic" in
> the sense that the product is not intended to make an individual or
> company a great deal of money.  Its intent is to provide a valuable
> service to the community, while providing intellectual wealth, and of
> course, bragging rights to those involved.

Altruism is always easier in theory than in practice.  But that doesn't
make it impossible.


> On the technical side, has anyone hacked a Linksys WRT54G with third 
> party firmware.  A group in the UK, 
> http://www.kingsbridgelink.co.uk/wrt54g/ has created added meshing to
> the WRT54G, which I feel is necessary for a WMAN.  Being a Linux
> newbie, I have yet to tackle Linux on the embedded platform.

I paid for the latest Sveasoft firmware, and have been so-so happy with
it.  Meaning, it has problems but I am not looking to replace it right now.

It can do some neat things (ssh, l2tp, etc.)  Up until a month ago, I
had SDSL through nidhog, and had a static IP address.  It was real
solid.  Since I went to Verizon and PPPoE, I've had periodic problems.
Fortunately, there's a feature in the Sveasoft firmware called
ApWatchdog, which detects problems and reboots the AP when necessary.
This works out better than it sounds, and I loose my connection for a
minute sometimes, but it always comes back after the reboot.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend Sveasoft firmware for what you are
describing, though it has some good mesh features which I don't need and
haven't tried.

Now, before I purchased my WRT54G, I had a setup involving a Pentium
running OpenBSD with a wireless access point.  OBSD did the DHCP, DNS,
and everything else.  This was rock solid (but I figured I could save
money on my electric bill by going to the WRT54G, which was true, and
has probably made up the cost of the access point in 6 months.)

OpenBSD 3.8 has a cool new wireless feature, featured here:
http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20051008150710&mode=expanded

So, if I were setting up the kind of network you're describing, I'd get
a couple of Soekris boxes, install OpenBSD and a wireless card.

Mike