Linux Networking Cookbook

4.1. Building a Linux Wireless Access Point

Problem

You don't want to dink around with prefab commercial wireless access points. They're either too simple and too inflexible for your needs, or too expensive and inflexible. So, like a good Linux geek, you want to build your own. You want a nice quiet little compact customizable box, and you want to be able to add or remove features as you need, just like on any Linux computer. For starters, you want everything on a single box: authenticated wireless access point, broadband Internet connection sharing, iptables firewall, and name services.

Solution

• Install Pyramid Linux on a Soekris or PC Engines WRAP single-board computer.

• Install an Atheros-based wireless mini-PCI card and connect an external antenna.

• Configure and test LAN connectivity, and DHCP and DNS.

• Keep your router off the Internet until it's properly hardened, firewalled, and tested.

• Add Internet connectivity, and voilà! It is done.

Continue on to the next recipes to learn how to do all of these things.

Discussion

If you prefer separating out your services on different physical boxes, such as wireless access point, firewall, and nameserver, the recipes in this chapter are easy to adapt to do this.

Soekris has two series of routerboards: 45xx and 48xx. Choose whatever model meets your needs. At a minimum, you need 64 MB RAM, a Compact Flash slot, a mini-PCI slot, and two Ethernet ports. More powerful CPUs and more RAM are always nice to have. A second mini-PCI slot lets you add a second ...