Campus WLAN

[jindabyne]

I am a student at an Ohio university. I am interested in building a WLAN on campus with the ACM club. We have lots of trees, Faraday traps and concrete, but we have ethernet connections in our dorm rooms (and "free" electricity) and lots of people with PCs and laptops.

I have read here that we cannot "mix" ad hoc and non-ad-hoc routing protocols. Is it possible to set up two wireless networks (one 802.11a and one 802.11g, for example) to permit a point-to-multipoint network to co-exist (in some parallel universe) with a peer-to-peer network? How can we use the campus wired ethernet for backhaul purposes?

I have heard that Broadband over Power Line is becoming a possitiblity. (http:///www.amperion.com). Is this a feasible way to get around the issue?

I am trying to avoid interference issues cheaply....

[jatkins679]

You can set up different ad hoc or infrastructure networks just on SSID, you don't need to use different bands(11b/g vs 11a, etc.).

[BTW, ad hoc and infrastructure are not 'routing protocols'. They are modes of networking wireless devices. It's obviously not a big deal here, but in certain discussions you might end up confusing people, especially if/when you begin to talk about routers and true routing protocols (RIP, OSPF, etc.).]

Your use of PTMP and P2P is kind of mixed, too. PTMP usually refers to how an AP might/would communicate with other wireless devices, not how a client might communicate with other devices.

Either way, I would check with your school's networking people before you decide to do anything. I'm sure they probably have policies regarding adding network portals (like routers of any sort) to their networks or if they don't, when they find out they are going to be very concerned. Are they going to find out if you don't tell them? Depends on how sophisticated they are and what kind of efforts they already make. But your 'backhaul' is their network....

'Get around this issue'..... I don't follow. What issue does broadband over powerline address/cause?

[jindabyne]

Thanks. Yes, I was a little sloppy with verbiage.

First, I will run this by the ACM club's faculty liaison and the university's facilities/IT people. Second, "the issue" I am trying to get around is interference caused by trees and concrete - hence the power line option. The lines are ubiquitous....

Back to the P2P/PTMP question. Can an AP (or the Amperion antenna attached to the power line) act like a node in the ad hoc network? A related question: can the two types of networks (with differennt SSID's) "connect" so that messages on one can be carried through to the other?

If I can use the power lines (I know, a long shot), mobile devices, and PCs with antennae, perhaps I can take the load off the uni's wired ethernet system.

[jatkins679]

Originally posted by jindabyne
Thanks. Yes, I was a little sloppy with verbiage.

First, I will run this by the ACM club's faculty liaison and the university's facilities/IT people. Second, "the issue" I am trying to get around is interference caused by trees and concrete - hence the power line option. The lines are ubiquitous....


One word: noisy. That's been a problem with the technology and the equipment you need is specific to its technology. You have to buy a powerline adaptor for each network node. I don't know any one who is using it... yet.


Back to the P2P/PTMP question. Can an AP (or the Amperion antenna attached to the power line) act like a node in the ad hoc network? A related question: can the two types of networks (with differennt SSID's) "connect" so that messages on one can be carried through to the other?

If I can use the power lines (I know, a long shot), mobile devices, and PCs with antennae, perhaps I can take the load off the uni's wired ethernet system. [/QUOTE]

I guess I just don't understand what you're trying to do. Ad hoc and infrastructure WLANs with different SSIDs cannot communicate with each other and you wouldn't want them to anyway because it's a security hazard. If they are within each other's coverage area (co-located), then why wouldn't you just use the infrastructure AP to serve all the clients and eliminate the ad hoc arrangement? I'm not sure what problem you're trying to solve. You don't want to run an ad hoc network when you have an AP in the same area that you can use. You'll get better service and it would probably be more secure if you use an AP.

Ad hoc is a really, really bad idea unless you absolutely have to and you cannot access your internal network via it (meaning probably just Internet access). I can't stress that enough. You're just asking for problems with hackers not only with your ad hoc machines, but machines on the wired network because your security is minimal. If your school's network people know anything about wireless, they aren't going to allow it. I would suggest that you eliminate that as an option.