Help me choose HW

[dimi3]

Hi all,

Im noob when it comes to wireless, but I'm familar with UNIX/Linux stuff, so I decided to build myself a firewall.

I choose ALIX board 3 LAN 1 Mini PCI, USB

I need some help with other stuff like mini wireless card, what to choose? I was looking Wistron CM9, but im not shure witch cable I need to connect it..what is the difference of using one or two antenas? The card works 2,4 and 5Ghz, does this mean that I need dual band antennas or one antenna for each band? Are pcengines enclosures drilled for one or two antennas?

Thank you for the help,

Regards,

[hoba]

The CM9 is fine. I use them in all my WRAPs and ALIXs. You can live with one antenna though 2 antennas will work a bit better when using diversity. You only can use one band at a time (either a or b/g). I use a with b/g antennas but it of course would be better to have an optimized anntenna that handles a better. Depends on the range you need of course.

The cases will come with one hole prepared: http://pcengines.ch/case1c2u.htm

You'll need this cable: http://pcengines.ch/pigsma.htm
Antennaoptions: http://pcengines.ch/antsma.htm (b/g) or http://pcengines.ch/antsmadb.htm (a/b/g; nice that one must be new :) )

[dimi3]

thank you for informative reply..I will go with one antenna then, since I need coverage only in my house.

[clamasters]

Checkout the pfSense blog.  They have a parts list of all the stuff you need.  http://blog.pfsense.org/?p=155