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Old 25th June 2008
Seb74 Seb74 is offline
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Default Does this wireless NIC support hostap-mode?

To use a wireless NIC as a accesspoint in M0n0wall (FreeBSD 6.3-based) it need to support something called hostap-mode.
I dont know if this is some official feature of the cards, like ad-hoc or infrastructure, but I haven't seen any card listing it is hostap-compatible so I think its something else.

Anyway, there are supposed to be cards that handle it and cards that dont handle it.....does anyone know how to know this?
Does for example this cheap, in swedish stores available, gigabyte-card support it?

Gigabyte Wireless 54Mbps Mini-PCI (GN-WI01GS)
http://www.webhallen.com/prod.php?id=63614

Its supported in FreeBSD 6.3, but the BSD-hardware lists sadly dont say anything about hostap-capabilities, and the M0n0wall listed cards are very few and old.

Thanks for ANY clarification on these things
Maybe its the same for FreeBSD....if you have a BSD-machine you want to act as an AP it needs that hostap-mode from the NIC...

EDIT: Changed link to a store since gigabyte messed up the link a bit after I posted.

Last edited by Seb74; 26th June 2008 at 10:59 AM.
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Old 25th June 2008
richardpl richardpl is offline
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Looks like that minipc card is based on ralink chipset.

Under FreeBSD it works with ral(4) driver.

hostap-mode is supported with this /driver/card/.
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Old 25th June 2008
Seb74 Seb74 is offline
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Wow, thanks, didn't even think it was possible to get an answer to this....googling stuff like this is like totally pointless.

May I ask how you were able to tell this?
Might be useful for others too.

Do you maybe also know if this antenna will work?
I dont know anything about contacs/standards for antennas, or wireless cards.

http://www.dlink.co.uk/?go=jN7uAYLx/...7k1KLgJksUuO7d

It says
"RP-SMA plug connector
RP-SMA to RP-TNC adapter provided"

Many thanks
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Old 26th June 2008
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I can't look at the card you posted; site seems down. You first have to verify what type connection your card has: if it's RP-SMA or RP-TNC. The hi-gain antenna you purchase must be able to mate with your card via a correct connector.

In any case, even if they're not compatible, there are lots of adaptors available that will facilitate mating a card with an antenna.

As a sidenote: after you've determined what type chipset your card uses and then checked the BSD HCLs, your next step should be to check the BSD manual for the particular driver to determine it's supported capabilities. For example, after determining that your card uses a ralink chipset and then confirming that this card is supported by the ral(4) driver in FreeBSD, you should have checked the ral manual page. There you'll find that indeed, that card's hostap capabilities work under Free.
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Old 26th June 2008
Seb74 Seb74 is offline
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Ah, thats how to search for stuff like this...find what driver supports it, and then read up on that particular drivers capabilities....thanks a lot, I'll try to remember that one

About the antenna, thanks, but this damn card, not even on gigabytes own site, says nothing about the connectors
I think I'll take the chanse though, the card (Gigabyte Wireless 54Mbps Mini-PCI GN-WI01GS) is very cheap and supports WPA2, and available in a store nearby.
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Old 26th June 2008
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Not sure about this particular wireless card, but most of the pci, usb card I know only support WEP, not WPA when operating in AP mode.

If you really need an wireless AP, consider setting up RADIUS or VPN server in your BSD machine, since WEP is a joke, close to useless
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Old 26th June 2008
Seb74 Seb74 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 18Googol2 View Post
Not sure about this particular wireless card, but most of the pci, usb card I know only support WEP, not WPA when operating in AP mode.

If you really need an wireless AP, consider setting up RADIUS or VPN server in your BSD machine, since WEP is a joke, close to useless
Ouch, you mean the NIC itself can brag about handling WPA and WPA2, but when used as an AP that feature is no longer possible in the hardware???

How to know stuff like that then?

The easiest thing then, if this is really true, is probably to just buy an AP and plug in to one of the routerports....I'll see how I'll do.
Setting up some strange server on OpenBSD probably ain't the easiest....dont have any wireless in that machine eitehr and dont even know if one would fit (its a small VIA Mini-ITX 800MHz). EDIT: Its got USB's anyway.

Strange anyway M0n0wall has settings for WPA2 and stuff if it cant be used, or maybe its just for the few occations when you'd like your router to be a wireless client also.

Last edited by Seb74; 26th June 2008 at 11:33 AM.
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Old 26th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mish View Post
As a sidenote: after you've determined what type chipset your card uses and then checked the BSD HCLs, your next step should be to check the BSD manual for the particular driver to determine it's supported capabilities. For example, after determining that your card uses a ralink chipset and then confirming that this card is supported by the ral(4) driver in FreeBSD, you should have checked the ral manual page. There you'll find that indeed, that card's hostap capabilities work under Free.
What about this then? VT6105M
Its not listed at all under either 6.3 or 7.0, yet it works in M0n0wall (based on 6.3).

How to find what driver THAT NIC uses....have three of them on my very very tiny ALIX machine (AMD Geode). Would like to check if it can handle VLAN's...so I can play router on a stick if I feel to.

Thanks
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Old 26th June 2008
richardpl richardpl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seb74 View Post
May I ask how you were able to tell this?
Card is listed here ral(4)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seb74
Do you maybe also know if this antenna will work?
Yes it will work in most situations ... , just dont break it if it comes in one piece

Quote:
Originally Posted by Seb74
http://www.dlink.co.uk/?go=jN7uAYLx/...7k1KLgJksUuO7d

It says
"RP-SMA plug connector
RP-SMA to RP-TNC adapter provided"
That is not currently important for you.
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Old 26th June 2008
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Ok, thanks, but if what is said above is correct (that is, no or almost no wireless cards can handle WPA2 when acting as an AP, even if WPA2 is stated in specifications), then I wont bother with any wireless. Intead buy a external AP and plug in.

Thanks for all help
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Old 26th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seb74 View Post
... what is said above is correct (that is, no or almost no wireless cards can handle WPA2 when acting as an AP, even if WPA2 is stated in specifications)
That is incorrect. WPA2 and other autentificators for AP are handled via hostapd(8)
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Old 26th June 2008
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So this is incorrect?
This is kind of important as you can see....who'd like an AP that doesn't do WPA2

Quote:
Not sure about this particular wireless card, but most of the pci, usb card I know only support WEP, not WPA when operating in AP mode.
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Old 26th June 2008
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Tehnicaly speaking some drivers may not work in hostap mode very very well, but if that is really issue it would be documented in man page.

I dont see any WPA2/hostap possible problems with ral(4) based cards.

Google if you dont belive.
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Old 26th June 2008
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I've googled for all these questions and dont found anything really useful.

But thanks for your help then, probably the above poster misunderstood something.....or maybe he was totally correct

Thanks again
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Old 26th June 2008
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If you found that hostapd+WPA2+GN-WI01GS(ral) doesnt work (but it should work without problems on FreeBSD *-STABLE) report bug via send-pr(1) or via web interface: http://www.freebsd.org/support/bugreports.html
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Old 26th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seb74 View Post
who'd like an AP that doesn't do WPA2
There are better alternatives like ipsec(4) and authpf(8).

Last edited by richardpl; 26th June 2008 at 02:39 PM.
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Old 26th June 2008
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Can you require IPSec on a wireless AP?
Thats cool....but as an AP for visitors, it might be cumbersome for them to set up IPSec policys in windows (or probably even worse on other OS's) just to access my powerful 2Mb line for a few minutes or so
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Old 26th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seb74 View Post
I've googled for all these questions and dont found anything really useful.

But thanks for your help then, probably the above poster misunderstood something.....or maybe he was totally correct

Thanks again
Quote:
This device can run as wifi card or a wifi station, but in station mode you only can encryp your data with WEP.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5858

Also, it doesnt come without reason when the wireless card operates in ad hoc mode, the only security mode it supports is WEP, though in infratructure mode, it can connect to WPA/WPA2 AP without any problem. Have a look at the page 39:

ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/wg...ser_manual.pdf

I can confirm this too as I did run wireless in ad hoc mode for long time in the past
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Old 26th June 2008
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Ok, but that is some totally different card/chips?
Might not be so on all wireless NIC's, or on the particular gigabyte I'm looking at (GN-WI01GS)?
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Old 26th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seb74 View Post
Ok, but that is some totally different card/chips?
Might not be so on all wireless NIC's, or on the particular gigabyte I'm looking at (GN-WI01GS)?
That is not really important. Your card is based on ralink chipset. hostapd(8) links to ral(4) - meaning
someone tested ralink based card and confirmed that hostapd works with it. Authenticator types here are
not really important - wpa2/wep are at higher level of operation and there should not be any problems using
ralink based cards under hostapd with WPA2 configured on curent FreeBSD net80211 code.

If you want 100% correct proof ask freebsd devs on @net mailing list.

On other hand - atheros based cards should work with hostapd+WPA2.
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