[ale] Dualing wireless APs

[Keith Hopkins]

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.

-- 
Lost in Tokyo,
  Keith