[H-GEN] WIFI access point recommendations

[Russell Stuart]

On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 10:58 +1000, mick wrote:
> I'm about to buy a WIFI Access point and would be interested in hearing 
> suggestions on what to buy, what not to buy, what to look for in the under 
> $100.00 price range

Depends on how much of a fiddler you are.  If you don't mind re-flashing
your access point with Linux, I recommend www.openwrt.org or a cousin.
I have not tried the cousins, but I understand some, such as
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato are similar but have a nicer GUI.  If
you use openwrt, be sure to add X-Wrt - its web interface.

If you are going to use one of those projects one of the better access
points to get is a WRT54GL.  Note the L suffix.  Its important.  If it
is doesn't have an L it won't work.  The WRT54GL is better only because
it was the one openwrt.org was developed on, and so is very well
supported.  A WRT54GL running openwrt is what humbug uses at its
meetings.  If you shop around you can find other boxes such as the Asus
WL-500g Premium (again note the specific model) that have USB ports
meaning you can do all sort of trick things with them - like plug in a
HDD and web cam and monitor your front door.  Then again, the price or
all USB devices is a little over $100.

If you aren't going to use an replacement firmware then I can't really
help.  Frankly, they all suck, and have been getting worse as time goes
on.  Its not the hardware, is the software in them.  The last few I have
bought (from Netgear and Linksys if memory serves me right), the web
interface (or more correctly the embedded java script) rejected
perfectly valid IP addresses.  I had to bypass the web interface,
monitor the data stream with tcpflow figure out what it wanted and talk
to the HTTP server directly using telnet.  If they were selling cars
they would forget to screw on the wheel nuts, I swear.

Finally, don't get a combined ADSL modem + wireless.  They work well
enough.  The issue is the ADSL modem eventually gets taken out by spikes
coming down the phone line.  With the combined version you loose both
the modem and the router.