Router as an Access Point

I've been struggling to get my basement Linux machine to get along with an

802.11g PCI card. Since a wired card is more stable, I'm thinking of installing one and connecting to either a wireless bridge adapter or a wireless router. I've read that some routers will behave like bridges/APs if DHCP is disabled and they're given a static IP.

I'm considering the DI-524, but D-Link "STRONGLY" recommends not doing this. Has anyone had any problems with this type of setup? I know it's a convoluted fix, but the router is much cheaper and seems to have greater potential use in the future if the project falls through. Any help's appreciated, thanks!

Make and model? Or have you given up? If you had made it work, you would have ended up with a client radio, not an access point. What are you trying to build?

Stable? Will it explode if it becomes unstable?

Close. Lots of options depending upon what you want to accomplish (which you didn't specify).

1. USB client radio. Some have Linux drivers.
2. ethernet to wireless client. No drivers required on the Linux side. This will let you talk to an access point or wireless router. None of the wireless routers have a client mode. However, many of the access points do have a client mode. See WAP54G, DWL900AP+, etc.
3. Access point running as an access point. WAP54G, DWL900AP+, etc. No software required on the Linux box. To talk to your Linux server(?), you'll need another computah with a client radio attached.
4. Router acting as an access point. WRT54G etc. Disable DHCP, ignore the WAN port completely, and make sure you don't duplicate the IP address on the LAN side. I don't know what you mean by static IP as the LAN side IP address of a router is always a static IP address.

Cheap with big rebate this week. No experience with this particular model.

You mean they don't recommend using a wireless router as an access point? Well, such recommendations are common enough by other vendors:

Yes. Buggy firmware caused some entertainment on several routers used as access points. I forgot the exact model numbers. When I enabled MAC address filtering, the wireless part of the puzzle would not pass broadcasts. Therefore, the wireless clients did not get a DHCP address. When gave them static IP address, Windoze browsing would not work. Turn off the MAC address filter and things worked as expected.

There were also some weird issues with gateway IP address of VPN tunnels that are explained in the above Netgear URL.

It will work. However, it would be nice to know what you are trying to accomplish. I can't tell if you're attaching a client radio to the Linux box, or want to attach an access point.

Jeff Liebermann wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

D-Link, DWL-G510. I'm building a MythTV PVR. I have it working with ndiswrapper and the XP drivers but I get a lot of these:

"wlan0 (WE) : Wireless Event too big (373)"

They seem to be mostly harmless, but I've also experienced occasional system hang ups across Fedora 2, KnoppMyth, and (now) Mandrake 10.1. Granted, the wireless card may not be the cause, but it feels like the weakest link. Any experience with this?

Probably not.

#2, I'm trying to get by without using ndiswrapper. If I can't sort out the Linux problem I guess I'll look into access points, or maybe just go with SageTV. Newegg seems to have a decent deal on the DWL-G700AP with rebate. "static IP"...my mistake, "static IP on the same subnet that doesn't conflict with the primary router's IP".

Sounds ugly. Thanks for the input.

No Linux drivers. See:

You have time to watch TV?

Sorry no clue.

No, not really. I'm lazy and use older Orinoco cards, which are well supported on all Linux mutations. Mostly, I do sniffing and monitoring, so I've never tried to do anything useful.

Pardon my confusion but I still cannot tell if you need a client radio (such as your PCI card or an external bridge running in client mode), or if you want an access point. Are you feeding video data via firewire to the Linux box and then to various clients around the house, or are you sucking video via ethernet from another source? You could run an ad-hoc network and eliminate the distinction but I prefer infrastructure for everything. Client radio or Access Point?

Nope. It was easy once I figured it out. I haven't run into the same problem with any routers I've played with in the last year or so. Methinks the problem was specific to some older generation of router firmware, which has probably been fixed. I only mentioned it so you would recognize the problem if you saw it. No sense in fighting the same problem twice.

Ok, it's a wireless client, not an access point. My brain keeps thinking that all Linux boxes are servers as most of those that I deal with are.

NO, as in absolutely no way in hell. There's a big difference between a wireless client radio (actually a bridge) and an access point. Put simply, an access point cannot talk to another access point. They are not setup to initiate a connection or act as a transparent bridge. You will need a box or card specifically designed to act as a client.

I suggest an external ethernet connected (not USB) radio because it involves NO drivers on the Linux end. Some of the access points have a client mode, such as the DWL-900AP+ and WAP54G. I'm not thrilled with the DWL-2100 and suggest you avoid it. A "game adapter" will also work as it was made for exactly the purpose you suggest.

No problem. However another DI-524 will not help as it has no wireless client mode.

Jeff Liebermann wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Client radio. (Sorry about the confusion.) It's just another box on the network that needs to be able to talk to the wireless router. It doesn't need to do anything fancy, just have Internet access to download TV programming schedules.

The easy solution would be a wireless "bridge" that people use to connect their wired Xboxes/PS2s to their wireless networks, like the DWL-G810

. My question -- can I get away with a cheaper option that's just as reliable, like an access point (DWL- G700AP) or a wireless router (DI-524)?

(BTW, my router's a DI-524, hence the constant D-Link references.)