Subj : WiFi for Fido
To   : Whomever
From : Mike Luther
Date : Mon Jul 24 2006 10:51 pm

Posted as an information item.  Whatever comes of this is what will be!

As a secondary communications platform to work in conjunction with the Hughes
Satellite operations and OS/2, it has become necessary to also address the
interface of the whole operation to a locally administrated WiFi operation from
there, or .. to actually use an existing WiFi network in place of the Hughes
bird to service a LAN and an IP that way.

That whole deal is now working here and at another Fido BBS site.  In general
here is what has been learned.  Yes, the Linksys WRT-54GL does work with an
existing IP WAN (IP) source to provide a private encryptable site.  And yes,
there is the question about security thereon as a function of the Linux based
WRT-54GL router.  But we now know that the Linksys WRT-54G will also do the job
as needed.  And with a WiFi source for it's ORIGINAL IP side as well!  Now
that's fascinating.

Here is how to do it.

The Linksys WET-54G Wireless Bridge can be used.  It has to be set up from an
existing LAN operation.  That can be done with WIN XP and the disk out of the
box, provided that you first ghost a local address on the LAN side such as
192.168.1.225.  Then you pop the WET-54G setup interface from IE, Netscape.
Seamonkey; whatever, to use the setup 192.168.1.226 designated address for
setup on the WET-54G.

But that setup can also be done just fine with OS/2 and its LAN.  Simply go in
and set LAN0 for a designated address to that same 192.168.1.225 and a mask of
255.255.255.0.  You can then go in with Seamonkey and do the whole setup job
for the WET-54G beautifully with OS/2.  You proceed with the standard enabled
WET-54G setup menu from either way here.

You simply Site Scan with the WET-54G right out of the box.  You choose your
shown WiFi and then comply with whatever security choices it needs. Then you
tell it to switch away from the default 192.168.1.226 address and use DHCP to
get the required bridge address.  You the APPLY those settings in the setup
menu.  Lights flash and you get connected to the desired WiFi network choice.

Then .. for OS/2, you will find there is one more curious need!  If you are
using WIN XP, you can simply then keep the LAN cable from the WET-54G plugged
into the box.  You then go back and tell WIN-XP to look for a DHCP address on
the LAN connection.  It does so without reboot. And you are up and running.
You can also do this through a cheap CAT5 Switch such as the little Linksys
unintelligent switch.

But .. sadly .. you can't likewise go to OS/2 in the TCP/IP setup game and then
switch from the 'default' game and use a DHCP address on OS/2 like you can on
WIN XP.  But you CAN do something very unexpected!

If you take the WET-54G router you have just configured and which can connect
to the chosen WiFi operation, you can then use the LinkSys WRT-54G or WRT-54GL
to host the whole LAN.  And it *CAN* work with your as set up WET-54G Wifi
Bridge!  You simply take the set up bridge and jam it into the IP side of the
Linksys router.  You turn off the power on the Linksys router with the WET-45G
synced to the Wifi choice.  You power up the Linksys router.  POOF .. believe
it or not .. if what you see is what we see, you'll get a connection to the
WiFi network to the Linksys router!  Now that's not supposed to happen per my
sources.  But it works!  And then, using the standard DHCP service provided by
the Linksys router, you can build the whole LAN side of it serviced by the WiFi
connection you have.  This includes the whole gamut of LAN services and so on
you can configure between numerous OS/2 ThinkPads, and even WIN-XP and other
boxes!

Then, if you choose to use the NTFS driver for OS/2 .. well you get the idea.
We now have demonstrated this alternate source for a mission critical disaster
relief system that could be keyed to a WiFi network instead of the Hughes bird.
And with the WRT-54GL version which has the Linux operating system, there are
a whole group of hams now working on customizing that unit for higher power ham
radio use.  The 'standard' Wifi channels are 1 through 6.  The ARRL has
requested that the hams avoid use of channel 1 and channel 6 for minimizing
interference to the 'default' channels many systems propose there.  Plus as I
understand this the ARRL is working toward solving the forbidden issue of
encrypted communications over the ham channels with the US FCC here.  We'll
see.

But this really begins to look like a favorable tool for disaster relief
operations for the RECEIVING end of the higher power network I'm researching
with OS/2 and so on.

And it works beautifully with the whole OS/2 LAN operations to enable OS/2 even
for Thinkpads in a LAN environment behind even WiFi with absolutely none of the
mess of driver and setup mish-mash for connecting IBM Thinkpads to whatever
WiFi.  No, it is not self contained.  But seems almost bullet proof from what
has suddenly erupted from the research.  And I was told that the WET-54G could
absolutely NOT be ever used on the IP side of the router!   It can.

In fact, 117/600 just polled me and pulled traffic and files this way over the
newly found solution for wireless connectivity and the Fido BBS game.

FWIW ..


--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike @ 1:117/3001



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