Simplifying the management of wireless networks with Linux system scripts

Setting up a wireless Internet service provider (WISP) for your office or neighbor does not require heavy labor or expensive investment. If you build your network with devices and Linux™ that are easy to buy, you can leverage the power of the shell script to simplify the management of your network. This article will provide some of the techniques and scripts you need.

Creating a small wireless network using an existing wireless router is simple. But providing an industry-standard wireless Link to an office, apartment or neighborhood is another matter. After you have built your wireless network, you can run the wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) service. To run WISP, you need to answer the following questions:

What is the quality of the connections you provide to the Internet?

Which clients can connect directly to the network, and what are the qualities of these connections?

Is there enough bandwidth to meet peak demand?

Which clients have been connected to the network recently, and how often are they active?

Which clients have reliable connections and which client connections are unreliable?

Does the client have many transmission errors and need to try again?

Is there an upgradeable version of the package installed?

Do large files take up a lot of space?

How do I simplify the management of clients?

In this article, you will learn how to use Linux scripts to answer these questions. Before you start, you need to set up the server.

Wireless server hardware

I became a wireless internet service provider because my neighbor did not have a DSL or other Internet access service. Another WISP a (costly) connection from a nearby hilltop, so I decided to buy the service, share bandwidth with the neighbors, and pay for it together. The access point's wireless card generates a very faint signal, so in order to minimize the loss of the signal, I want to be able to make the antenna as short as possible. Also hope to be able to erect an outdoor antenna, so that more neighbors can access the wireless link. Both of these devices allow me to set up the server on an outdoor antenna (a picture is given in the links to resources, as well as information about the products and packages discussed in this article). This demo server is an existing wireless access point (WAP), which is installed in a waterproof Pelican box. It's not very reliable, so I often need to climb the roof to solve the problem. I need to use a ladder to help me climb up and down, and then I need to upgrade this access point to a more reliable system. The next generation of hardware will:

Very reliable.

Support for 10 clients, plus some system administration tools.

Use a standard wireless card.

Support is enabled for power on over Ethernet.

is Linux-friendly.

I purchased a very inexpensive system board (Soekris Engineering net4521) that fully meets these requirements and can use a Compact Flash card without having to use the hard drive. This system board can be used in environments with a high temperature change without a cooling fan.

The wireless card chip determines that the system board is Linux friendly, and the Intersil/conexant PRISM2/3 chip also provides a good support for Linux.

Linux Software

Pebble Linux is a distributed version designed specifically for embedded wireless applications. The name Pebble is because it is very small and very simple. This system contains some good features, such as:

A customized kernel for wireless use, so there is no need to recompile the kernel.

The whole system is small and can be placed in a small Compact Flash card, so the hard drive is no longer needed.

The file system is loaded as read-only, so even a power outage does not cause the file system to crash.

Debian packages are available because of the Debian Linux distribution.

Have a good support.