Wireless router?

[Mario Lobo]

On Monday 22 December 2008 19:05:32 Mario Lobo wrote:
> On Monday 22 December 2008 18:49:44 Nerius Landys wrote:
> > I have a PC with FreeBSD set up as a router (NAT). The PC has several
> > network cards and I'm grouping the internal-facing network cards as a
> > bridge (promiscuous mode for the interfaces).  Everything works well.
> >
> > Now I'd like to extend my wired network to include wireless.  I really
> > have no experience with wireless networks.  I have a couple of
> > computers that are wireless-ready (a laptop and a Playstation 3 that I
> > won in a raffle).  Is it possible to somehow add some hardware to my
> > FreeBSD router PC to make it into a wireless router?  What kind of
> > hardware would I install?  What is it called?  The PC only has PCI
> > slots, can you recommend a brand and model of "wireless server
> > equiptment" if such a thing exists?  Would a normal wireless card
> > suffice?  What model should I get?  I would prefer to set up static
> > internal IPs for my wireless network at home, would this be possible?
> > Or is DHCP the way to go (I hesitate at the thought of configuring a
> > DHCP server).
> >
> > Another way to go is to hook up a standalone wireless router appliance
> > to my FreeBSD machine's network interface (one of the interfaces).  I
> > already have such a device, I think it's made by Linksys.  But then, I
> > would be NAT'ing both through the FreeBSD machine and through the
> > wireless router.  So it would be a double-NAT so to speak.  Is there
> > anything wrong with that approach?
> >
> > So in a nutshell, I have a wired FreeBSD router with multiple ethernet
> > jacks at home, and I want to extend it to include wireless network.
> > Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks.
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>
> If you already have a wireless router, all you have to do is to turn it
> into an access point to your internal lan. Disable its DHCP server, assign
> a free LAN IP to the router LAN ethernet,plug one of its LAN ports into
> your switch and assign free LAN IPs to the wireless cards of your LAN
> machines.
>
> That's what I did here at home and works like a charm.
>
> If you need a DHCP server you have to set it up on the FreeBSD router.

Sorry for replying to myself but it needed a correction. You CAN use the 
wireless router as your DHCP server!. Just assign a range from your LAN's 
IPs.

The WAN port won't matter. It won't be used.

-- 
Mario Lobo
http://www.mallavoodoo.com.br
FreeBSD since version 2.2.8 [not Pro-Audio.... YET!!] (99,7% winedows FREE)