wireless access point in FreeBSD 8.2p2

[Warren Block]

On Sun, 28 Aug 2011, Paul Beard wrote:

>
> On Aug 28, 2011, at 3:17 PM, Warren Block wrote:
>
>> In 8.x, a virtual wlan0 device is created to speak to the actual device, ath0 in this case.  It's normal.
>
>
> Maybe I'm just confused by normality. I guess what would help in the 
> Handbook, if nowhere else, is the *full* output of ifconfig(8) for 
> purposes of comparison and elucidation. I see it called with just one 
> interface but unless you're on the console, it's likely you're adding 
> the wlan interface to an existing wired interface. And at the risk of 
> stating the obvious, there has to be a wired interface for it to 
> actually work as an access point, no?

I can only speculate why that's not shown, and I'd guess it's feared 
that it would further confuse the reader.

IMO, the wireless section is already so stuffed full of detail that it 
obscures the basics.  In fairness, it's a complicated topic.  But I'd 
much rather see a simple setup for the 80% use case followed by another 
section with all the grimy details that most people won't need.  That's 
why I did this: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/wireless.html

I haven't really had the hardware (PCI to mini-PCIe adapter, or PCI 
802.11g card) to try a FreeBSD hostap.  Now that I think about it, I 
guess it could be done on a notebook.  I'll add that to my list of 
"things that I should do unless someone else does it first."

Seeing what the pfsense.org guys do for AP setup might be helpful.