[ale] Dualing wireless APs

[Jim Popovitch]

Interesting stuff.  Thanks Keith.

-Jim P.

On Sun, 2004-03-14 at 21:58, Keith Hopkins wrote:
> Jim Popovitch wrote:
> > On Sun, 2004-03-14 at 21:11, Keith Hopkins wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >>I'm still a beginner in the wireless world myself, but I believe if 
> >>you set the ESSID on your client to match that of your AP, it will 
> >>only connect to that AP.  You should always change an AP's ESSID to
> >> something other than the default.
> > 
> > 
> > Well, that works at home... what do I do at the next network. ;)
> > 
> > The underlying issue is that Linux wireless networking isn't too
> > friendly to roaming users who access multiple networks unless those
> > networks are completely isolated and either all running the same
> > encryption (which is weak anyways) or not running any encryption at all.
> 
> Well...time to get your hands dirty I guess, and start customizing those startup scripts....
> 
> Here's some ideas, some of which I have 1/2 implemented on my laptop:
> 
> 1) after loading the wlan drivers, the network startup runs `iwlist scan` to see what APs are available;
> 
> 2) cross check that list against know APs, in order to associate WEP keys, WPA, ESSID and other settings with it;
> 
> 3) configure appropriately for known APs;
> 
> 4) or optionally set some other values for `any` AP,
> 4) prompt to store new AP info in config file,
> 4) optionally delay wlan setup to end of normal startup and prompt user for which AP they want to attach to;
> 
> 5) continue with IP config as normal.
> 
> Basically, your setting a profile dynamically based upon the conditions at startup.