I was thinking of building a new wifi AP. The following is a stream of
thoughts on the subject. Any constructive suggestions are welcome.

Requirements:
  * Compatibility with Androids, Kindles, x86 Linux, OpenBSD wifi clients
  * Strong in-doors signal
  * Maximum control

Nice to have:
  * Combine the AP with the wired Ethernet OpenBSD router.
  * Low power & noise.

Complications:
  * A few wireless networks in nearby houses
  * OpenBSD AP capable devices have a CAVEAT: Host AP mode doesn't
    support power saving.  Clients attempting to use power saving mode
    may experience significant packet loss (disabling power saving on
    the client will fix this).

Possible design:
  * OpenBSD host with 2 or more wired Ethernets
  * USB wifi device (free to switch host hardware)
  * External Hi-Gain antenna

Detailed implementation:
 * small i386 or armish machine for the host (Soekris?)
 * Hawking HWUG1 (rum(4)) ( http://goo.gl/ccd6Q )
 * Hawking HAI7SIP Antenna ( http://goo.gl/Axg7j )

Does anybody know if the CAVEAT above present a problem in real life for
the clients I listed?

Thanks
Greg
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rum(4) did not like hostap mode the few times I tried.
via the man page I think this is a problem with all usb radios
so I tend to stick with pci/pcmcia cards ral(4) for my APs,
however I have not had any other problems with rum.

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FWIW - I've had much better luck using obsd as my router/gateway
(providing dhcp,dns, ntp, plus a few other services for a few small
home networks) and then using a dedicated access point (linksys
wrt54gl/ubiquiti networks/etc) as a wired <-> wireless bridge then
actually using obsd as my access point.

Thanks,
--
Josh Smith
KD8HRX
email/jabber:B  juicewvu@gmail.com
phone:B  304.237.9369(c)

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I have a ral(4) in my Soekris. I tried it once, but the performance was
 horrible. Maybe I did something wrong?

 $ dmesg|grep ral
 ral0 at pci0 dev 17 function 0 "Ralink RT2561S" rev 0x00: irq 15, 
 address
 ral0: MAC/BBP RT2561C, RF RT5225

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In my experience, the caveat makes using most devices next to
impossible. It is way worse than using 3G data.

I use separate APs. They're usually cheaper and easier to find than
supported cards, anyway.

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