1. Get on an old PC and install Linux. Many community lan members bought portable $100 Stylistic 1000 webtablets and use those as an AP.
2. Install an 802.11b card in your PC like the Zcomax X-300 card. It makes adding an external antenna easy.
3. Load the (free) Linux software into your PC. NoCat software works well (FAQ). You can get more background information from the HostAP List Serve and Ashland Wireless help.
4. Read the Book. Get Rob’s Building Community LANs, the definitive book and WONDERFULLY written.
5. Check to see if there’s free Community LAN in your city. If there is you can establish a single ESSID and splash screen that identifies you as part of a community network.
6. Log on. People operating community LANs generally require a log-on splash screen which lowers risk from bad actors.
7. Enjoy.

Another method of creating community LAN access points is gaining popularity because it eliminates the computer. It’s called OpenAP and was developed by Instant802.com. This Opens Source distribution can actually be burned right onto the Flash ram of some Access Points. The catch is that only a few (mostly obsolete) APs have be certified to work with it using the WL11000SA-N board. These Access Points are resold as: US Robotics (USR 2450) (tested), SMC 2652W EZconnect Wireless AP (tested) , and the Addtron AWS-100 (not tested). An Access Point with this software burned in its Flash Ram features:

• Simultaneous Bridge + Access Point + Repeater
• Fully wireless operation
• Multipoint to Multipoint mesh networking
• 802.1d spanning tree protocol
• Layer 2 roaming
• Serial console login

Burning an old Access Point with the OpenAP software is pretty tricky and not a job for casual users but it may result in a cheap, Linux powered AP (with no moving parts). Nodes can be inter-connected to form mesh networks for practically nothin’.

A new version of Prism2 Host AP driver was just released and it is now available at http://people.ssh.com/jkm/Prism2/.

According to Adam Shand, the founder of PersonalTelco and a leader in the international Community LAN movement, “OpenAp stuff sounds like something that could/will be really useful for small “cloud” deployments.”

Posted by Sam Churchill on Wednesday, March 27th, 2002 at 5:01 am.