Wireless Networking Stuff

THIS PAGE IS LIKELY REALLY OBSOLETE FROM WHEN CREATED.

IT IS LEFT HERE FOR HISTORICAL, OR PERHAPS HYSTERICAL, REASONS.

AND AVOIDS BROKEN LINKS!

February 2020

Instructions for setting up and securing a wireless network using Linux and 802.11b stuff. There's also information on making IPSEC and DHCP operate happily together.

Setting Up A Wireless Network

Details of the steps required to create a wireless network operating other than in the default configuration.

Making DHCP And IPSEC Work Together

Note that this does not work with kernel 2.6.9 (the only I have tried)!

It's convenient for network administration to use DHCP to configure clients. And it's a good idea to use IPSEC on the wireless link for security and authentication. However, making the two work together is a little more complex when the IPSEC link is between two directly connected hosts and you want all traffic on the link to be encrypted! But it can be done.

While making all the above operate, I came across a number of useful links. Google was the originating source for most of them, and these were the ones I found most useful.

HOWTO Documents

http://www.holtmann.org/linux/wlan/
This page is in German. I do not understand German. However, it's not too hard to follow, and shows some wonderful tricks to allow configuring PCMCIA cards differently depending upon the environment. And more useful links too.

#howto http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/#howto
The Linux Wireless LAN HOWTO from Jean Tourrilhes, which contains a good deal of information, and more links than you can shake a stick at!

Encrypting Network Traffic
Part of the Linux Encryption HOWTO. It's becoming a little dated, but is still useful.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Adv-Routing-HOWTO/
Additional information on policy routing in general, with a number of useful examples.

Programs

http://wap11gui.sourceforge.net/
A linux alternative to LinkSys's WAP-11 access point configuration client. I haven't tried this, as I found the web browser interface OK.

http://korinoco.sourceforge.net/
The project page for a KDE program to configure and monitor an Orinoco wireless card. I haven't tried this - yet!

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
A vast collection of information about networking products in general, including product reviews and customer comments.

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2002/04/19/security.html
Part of O'Reilly's Wireless Devcenter this article covers the history of wireless LAN security, or lack of it.

http://www.goonda.org/wireless/
Another collection of wireless information, based on experience. It also has a useful collection of links.