Hardware for home usage

simplei

A wireless AP can be as cheap as $15.

I'm using this one for one section of the house that is blocked from my main AP: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704147&cm_re=tplink--33-704-147--Product It might not be enough for a larger space, but it's working really well for me.

i will be also using a tp-link product for wireless ap. I will be flashing with openwrt btw. ;)

Paul47

My wireless is this (from dmesg):

ugen4.2: <ralink>at usbus4
run0: <.0> on usbus4
run0: MAC/BBP RT3070 (rev 0x0201), RF RT3020 (MIMO 1T1R), address xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
run0: firmware RT2870 loaded

That is, a usb-based AP. If I had to do it over again I might go ahead with an ethernet-based AP as everybody here seems to think it makes a lot more sense and is simpler to configure. Also I thought I read somewhere that higher wireless speeds are available in that configuration. I am limited to 802.11g speeds.

I am using the embedded solution, just running off a USB flash drive. Can't get any cheaper…</ralink>

Guest

I'm curious to know if you have considered http://www.ecs.com.tw/LIVA/
I am in a similar predicament as I need to build a new router. Low power consumption and high performance and reliability are on top of my priority list. What troubles me most with the traditional mobos is the multi-voltage power inlet that needs an on board power converter module or a full blown PC power supply (heat dissipation and reliability/durability issues).
HK

Guest

@simplei:

@oppland:

A wireless AP can be as cheap as $15.

I'm using this one for one section of the house that is blocked from my main AP: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704147&cm_re=tplink--33-704-147--Product It might not be enough for a larger space, but it's working really well for me.

i will be also using a tp-link product for wireless ap. I will be flashing with openwrt btw. ;)

Not sure which model of TP-LINK you're intending to use, but watch out; the cheaper models have very limited storage. I once installed openwrt on a TL-WR841N ($20), it worked flawlessly but it was useless for all intents and purposes because it ran out of space as soon as I entered a few firewall rules or DHCP leases.

messerchmidt

use a netgear r7000 with ddwrt for wifi.

rjcrowder

@simplei:

Hello all,

I am trying to configure a home pfsense hardware.
My intention is to use pfsense for both firewall and wireless access solution.

I am thinking on using d410pt as board.
I will be adding basic hdd like 80 gb and 2 gb ram.
I will be directly connecting my adsl modem to pfsense and i will disable adsl modem's wireless radio.

I want to add a pci card to d410pt for wireless solution.
But i couldn't find a product to solve this issue. There are several mini pci cards but d410pt not compatible with mini pci.

I am thinking on using freeradius for wireless access control.

Can anyone give some advice to me on this topic ?

Thanks

If you're still interested in the d410pt let me know… I just picked up five of them off of eBay for $50. Larger mini-itx case than I'd prefer but it has a 3.5" 160GB HD and 2 gigs of memory. Not all of the face plates are complete and I yanked the CD drives just cuz they weren't necessary. I added a dual PCI broadcom NIC so there are now 2 gig ports and one 100 mb port. They seem to run just fine and are very quiet.

At any rate - I don't need all of them. I'd sell at least 2 of them for my cost - $60 plus shipping if anyone wants one.

stephenw10

@haleakalas:

I once installed openwrt on a TL-WR841N ($20), it worked flawlessly but it was useless for all intents and purposes because it ran out of space as soon as I entered a few firewall rules or DHCP leases.

That's surprising because the various versions of that all have 32MB RAM which, by OpenWRT hardware standards, is quite a lot. Many SOHO routers are 8MB (and 2MB flash). I guess things have moved on quite a bit since the original WRT54 (16mb?).

@messerchmidt:

use a netgear r7000 with ddwrt for wifi.

I imagine that work well. It's pretty far from a $15 TP-Link unit though to be fair. ;)

Steve

Guest

@stephenw10:

@haleakalas:

I once installed openwrt on a TL-WR841N ($20), it worked flawlessly but it was useless for all intents and purposes because it ran out of space as soon as I entered a few firewall rules or DHCP leases.

That's surprising because the various versions of that all have 32MB RAM which, by OpenWRT hardware standards, is quite a lot. Many SOHO routers are 8MB (and 2MB flash). I guess things have moved on quite a bit since the original WRT54 (16mb?).
Steve

I thought that I would have plenty of space too, but as soon as I installed openwrt there was very little space left. I don't have that setup any longer as I put back the original firmware but I recall that there was less than a megabyte of free space left and I wondered why anybody would bother to port wrt on such limited hardware.
Halea

stephenw10

Hmm. I have an old Buffalo wla-g54 here that runs OpenWRT flawlessly. It's 16MB RAM 4MB ROM. However it's an older version, I don't think current will run on it. I know that when moving to newer kernels they had to abandon some of the older Broadcom SoCs.

Steve

rjcrowder

Gargoyle works great on a lot of the TP-Link hardware… nice interface on top of OpenWRT. Personally, I think most TP-Link hardware hits a sweet spot between cost and quality.