Fedora as WAP?

dodbdts · #1 14th July 2008, 03:11 AM

I've been searching the forums for a while now and haven't been able to find any posts on setting up fedora (8) as a wireless access point using NAT..

This is obviously possible, but after installing a new wireless PCI card in my fedora 8 box I can't seem to figure out how to broadcast the card as a WAP so that it's visible from other wireless devices.

Does anyone know how this is done?

stevea · #2 14th July 2008, 03:32 AM

The key feature is switching the interface to "Managed" mode, but then a lot of details apply.
You may find this link educational,
http://www.linux.com/articles/55617
but also look into what the Linux based router software (dd-wrt, open-wrt) do as an example.

dodbdts · #3 17th July 2008, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevea

The key feature is switching the interface to "Managed" mode, but then a lot of details apply.
You may find this link educational,
http://www.linux.com/articles/55617
but also look into what the Linux based router software (dd-wrt, open-wrt) do as an example.

Thanks for the reply.

I tried following the tutorial on this page and tried modifying it for fedora/red hat (since it was written for debian) and I still haven't been able to get it working. And...by that I mean that the SSID isn't broadcasting at all.

This also may be due to the fact that hostapd doesn't seem to be running (even after I call the file /usr/sbin/hostapd) Any ideas?

walshy007 · #4 21st July 2008, 04:33 PM

what brand wireless card you have, if it's atheros and supported via madwifi (all of them are basicly) I can paste a small script I made for myself that will give you a wap instantly

dodbdts · #5 21st July 2008, 10:08 PM

well..i've got a linksys wmp54g with a RaLink chipset ..can't seem to find much linux support for it, in this manner

matth45 · #6 21st July 2008, 10:28 PM

You could see if this helps:

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_p...ndname=Linksys

If you can figure out which version of the hardware you have you can see if any of the supporting drivers allow managed mode.

dodbdts · #7 22nd July 2008, 04:17 AM

well, i tried the one for my card...the driver didn't seem to really take, and I was unable to set the card to Master mode...maybe I'll return the card and see if I can't find one with the prism chipset for madwifi and hostapd

matth45 · #8 22nd July 2008, 04:50 AM

You don't want prism. Get a card with an atheros chip, which uses the madwifi driver. I have had a prism based adapter, ralink, and atheros, and the atheros driver is by far the best. In fact, I'm using a linux box with an atheros based card as a WAP to get wireless in order to type this

dodbdts · #9 22nd July 2008, 05:02 AM

lol. thanks for the heads up matt i'll have to check it out and see if i can get something locally now

dodbdts · #10 22nd July 2008, 05:40 AM

btw, what card are you running in that linux WAP?

walshy007 · #11 22nd July 2008, 08:42 AM

" In fact, I'm using a linux box with an atheros based card as a WAP to get wireless in order to type this"

he's using an atheros card, same as I am, for an access point.

dodbdts · #12 23rd July 2008, 03:55 AM

So I think I'm gunna go with a Netgear WPN311. According to Madwifi's site it's compatible, and by all information I can find it's got an Atheros chipset...plus it's got a removeable antenna with what looks like a reverse SMA connector.

Any thoughts?

matth45 · #13 23rd July 2008, 06:22 AM

I'm using this card:

http://www.tp-link.com/products/product_des.asp?id=13

TP-Link TL-WN650G

For no other reason that it was super cheap and available. The signal strength leaves a little to be desired, but it works everywhere I need it to.

It looks like the WPN311 will do you just fine:

http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility/Netgear#WPN311

Definitely the removable antenna is a nice touch.

madwifi.org is a great resource for understanding how to use the driver. The project actually provides two, ath5k is newer, and madwifi is a bit more mature. Fedora kernels have the ath5k driver built in because it doesn't require any closed source software. But I still prefer the madwifi driver, which is available as a pair of kernel modules (madwifi-kmdl-`uname -r` and madwifi-hal-kmdl-`uname -r`) from atrpms (and probably livna). The hal part is closed source, provided by Atheros while the ath5k driver in the kernel is reverse engineered. In order to use madwifi you'll have to stop the kernel driver (ath5k) from loading.

dodbdts · #14 23rd July 2008, 08:12 PM

sweet. once again thanks for the heads up matt. as far as stopping the ath5k driver..that shouldn't be too difficult. I imagine something along the lines of a rmmod and adding to the blacklist file...but I'll cross that river when it comes. thanks again.

dodbdts · #15 8th August 2008, 03:00 AM

Well hey all, just thought I'd update on how this is going. I finally received the Netgear WPN311(NAR)..and setup the AP to run WPA and forward through eth0...in the NAT fashion of course ;-)

Anywho, I've run into a few small problems. The first issue is of course the defect in the madwifi 0.9.3.3 and 0.9.4 drivers..which cause a system freeze when setting the card on any channel higher than 1. I know there are a few current open tickets on this..and haven't seen if anyone has come up with a fix..? sooo any insight on that would be great.

The second issue currently, is in having hostapd start on boot. after installation there doesn't seem to be a script in /etc/init.d to start it as a server..I can however just run /usr/sbin/hostapd <config file> to get it going that way.. However, in order to call the program on boot I've tried putting an entry in the /etc/rc.local file (which causes the system to not fully boot run level 5..I assume this is because the startup waits for all commands to finish loading..and since hostapd constantly runs, the next command in line can't be called)

I've also tried putting an entry in the $HOME/.bashrc file...which seems to call the program on startup fine...unless you're not root (also, everytime you su, that command wants to execute..which gets very annoying). Does anyone have a possible solution for either of these problems (maybe putting a call to run a separate xterm session to run the hostapd file could work?)