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* Re: [gentoo-user] Creating a wireless router
  @ 2008-07-18 19:48 99% ` Stroller
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 1+ results
From: Stroller @ 2008-07-18 19:48 UTC (permalink / raw
  To: gentoo-user; +Cc: Jason Carson


On 18 Jul 2008, at 15:30, Jason Carson wrote:
> ...
> I want to setup a wireless router for the first time using WPA.  
> Here is
> the setup I want...
>
> Internet---Gentoo Wireless Router---My Computer
>
> I have configured my kernel properly from what I can tell and emerged
> madwifi. However when I modprobe ath_pci nothing shows up. When I do
> ifconfig -a I get...
> ....

Hi there,

I assume you've read
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Building_a_Wireless_Access_Point ?

When I wrote this I was using a Prism54 card, not an Atheros-based  
one. I have used Atheros since (and would as a matter of choice), but  
it appears I never got around to updating the wiki (and I won't  
update it in the future because, basically, maintaining wikis is a  
lot of work). Further reading reveals inaccuracies in the current  
article.

Madwifi requires an extra step when creating the interface:

   wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap

   http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/SimpleAccessPoint

IIRC you can do this in your modprobe or udev rules (preferable), or  
as a preup stage in /etc/conf.d/net
IIRC a udev (??) rule is created automagically when you first create  
the interface and it's this you can edit to make it so that it  
automatically comes up as an AP, rather than in client mode.

You state that "However when I modprobe ath_pci nothing shows up",  
but the interface HAS come up - it's shown as wifi0 in the ifconfig  
output you post. I don't use WPA but when using WEP (which I would  
advise you to get working first) you then have to:

   ifconfig wifi0 up
   iwconfig wifi0 mode Master essid foobert channel 11
   iwconfig wifi0 essid foobert channel 11 key aabbccdd

(or, obviously, the equivalent in /etc/conf.d/net - this is well  
documented in /etc/conf.d/net.example)

Anyway, Google "madwifi master mode" should give you plenty of fodder  
to get things up on a one-off basis using manual commands so that you  
can see it's working. You then just have to figure out how to  
integrate what you've learned into the Gentoo bootscripts - hopefully  
Google "gentoo madwifi master mode" will help.

> However my computer doesn't show a wireless network to connect too.

I assume you mean your OTHER, client, computer by this. When posting  
problems it helps to be as explicit as possible - for example when  
posting the ifconfig output it would've been beneficial to post  
EVERYTHING you did in order to get there.

Oh! Also, the great thing about the madwifi drivers is that you can  
great virtual APs - as long as they all have the same channel then  
you can have wifi0, wifi1 and wifi2 on the same card (just  
`wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi1 wlanmode ap && wlanconfig ath0  
create wlandev wifi2 wlanmode ap`). You can run one of these open,  
one as WEP and (presumably) one as WPA, bridging the secure networks  
with your wired LAN (for best integration) and NATting the open  
network using iptables (so you can give clients free or filtered  
internet access without having to worry about them accessing LAN  
services. This is useful if you have a Nintendo DS, which doesn't  
support WPA).

Please post back any problems.

Stroller.


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2008-07-18 14:30     [gentoo-user] Creating a wireless router Jason Carson
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