Turning a PC into a wireless router?

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dandbonline

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Can someone suggest some software to turn a PC into a wireless router? I would be ok with some version of linux. I have the old computer I want to use. I am also curious about what type of wireless card that I would need to enable the wireless devices in my apartment to connect. Thanks.
 
ClearOS is the only one that actually works from my experience.

There are others that "support" wireless but will only work with a couple specific cards and also only have support for G.

ClearOS supports Wireless N as well as multi-stream, so you can actually get good speeds with it.

You will want to get an Atheros based card. I have a 3x3 mini-pcie card mounted into a mini-pci-e to pci-e adapter card that also has the antennas on it.

You will also want an Intel based PCI-e Gb card. Dual port recommended. One port will be hooked up to your modem, and the other port will go out to a switch.

If you really wanted to, you can get a 6-port Intel based Gb card and setup Clearos to use 5 of the ports as a switch.. but it is much simpler to setup with a standalone switch.

I ordered used stuff off of Ebay except for the mini-pci-e to pci-e adapter card. It was new off of Ebay.

If you decide to go this route, I can get you the info on the exact parts I used.
 
Basically what I would need are these two things....a PCI Ethernet Card with 4 ports, and a PCI Wireless Card that can act like an access point. I have everything else. Thanks.
 
from my experience with diy routers (i'm actually on here to look for some stuff regarding them)
the simplest and probably most effective option is instead of getting a card, grab a cheap wireless N router on sale, set it up as an access point and run it into your network switch.
 
dandbonline said:
Basically what I would need are these two things....a PCI Ethernet Card with 4 ports, and a PCI Wireless Card that can act like an access point. I have everything else. Thanks.
Click to expand...
As others have pointed out, if you still haven't bought the wireless card, it may be better to simply buy a separate external wireless access point or router, and then use the computer for actual routing with some router OS (pfsense, smoothwall, utangle, etc).

The reason for this is most router OS's are either linux or some variant of BSD. Most wireless card manufacturers do not target these OS's and only target windows. For those that do provide BSD or linux drivers, you then have to go through the process of installing said drivers. Some are pretty simple, some might require some hacked up job. If you are not familiar with using unix style terminal command lines it might get annnoying.
 
dandbonline said:
Please send the exact part #'s u used. Thanks.
Click to expand...

dandbonline said:
Basically what I would need are these two things....a PCI Ethernet Card with 4 ports, and a PCI Wireless Card that can act like an access point. I have everything else. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Your computer will need to have at least 2 available pci-e slots, with one of them being 4x, 8x, or 16x.

wireless: mini pci-e
Atheros AR5BXB112 AR9380

For the mini pci-e to pci-e adapter, something like this... doesn't have to be this exact one as they basically all do the same thing.. just need to make sure it has 3 antennas.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E-to-PCI-E-Wireless-Adapter-w-3-Antenna-WiFi-/320616348203?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item4aa6393a2b

For the NIC:

2-port:
Intel D33682 PRO/1000 Dual Port Server Adapter (any dual port intel NIC should work fine)

if you want 6-port, look for one of these. There is a newer model that can do higher throughput. This one can't saturate all 6 ports because it is only PCI-E 1.0

The newer ones are PCI-E 2.0, but I never saw any on Ebay and am sure that they are very expensive.

HotLava Vesuvius 6 Port Gigabit Network Adapter Card

Why are you wanting a 4-port card? If you really need one, any Intel based Gb 4-port should work just fine.
 
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serpretetsky said:
As others have pointed out, if you still haven't bought the wireless card, it may be better to simply buy a separate external wireless access point or router, and then use the computer for actual routing with some router OS (pfsense, smoothwall, utangle, etc).

The reason for this is most router OS's are either linux or some variant of BSD. Most wireless card manufacturers do not target these OS's and only target windows. For those that do provide BSD or linux drivers, you then have to go through the process of installing said drivers. Some are pretty simple, some might require some hacked up job. If you are not familiar with using unix style terminal command lines it might get annnoying.
Click to expand...

ClearOS comes with the drivers already there. You only have to install the wireless package and configure it.

I thought about doing pfsense or untangle, but decided against it as I have had really bad experience with all sorst of different consumer targeted routers and access points for the past 10 years or so. Good luck having one last more than a year or so before it starts flaking out or completely dies.

With this setup, the only reboots have been when we lost power completely or when I changed OS versions.
 
cyclone3d said:
Your computer will need to have at least 2 available pci-e slots, with one of them being 4x, 8x, or 16x.

wireless: mini pci-e
Atheros AR5BXB112 AR9380

For the mini pci-e to pci-e adapter, something like this... doesn't have to be this exact one as they basically all do the same thing.. just need to make sure it has 3 antennas.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E-to-PCI-E-Wireless-Adapter-w-3-Antenna-WiFi-/320616348203?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item4aa6393a2b

For the NIC:

2-port:
Intel D33682 PRO/1000 Dual Port Server Adapter (any dual port intel NIC should work fine)

if you want 6-port, look for one of these. There is a newer model that can do higher throughput. This one can't saturate all 6 ports because it is only PCI-E 1.0

The newer ones are PCI-E 2.0, but I never saw any on Ebay and am sure that they are very expensive.

HotLava Vesuvius 6 Port Gigabit Network Adapter Card

Why are you wanting a 4-port card? If you really need one, any Intel based Gb 4-port should work just fine.
Click to expand...

The computer I am going to use is an older Pentium 4 with just PCI slots. Could I simply get a four port PCI Ethernet card, and then some type of Wireless PCI card? I am wanting a four port because I want to use those four ports as a switch, and then the onboard ethernet for my cable modem.
 
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dandbonline said:
The computer I am going to use is an older Pentium 4 with just PCI slots. Could I simply get a four port PCI Ethernet card, and then some type of Wireless PCI card? I am wanting a four port because I want to use those four ports as a switch, and then the onboard ethernet for my cable modem.
Click to expand...

PCI cannot even give you full Gb for a single port card.

As for the wireless, I am not sure if you are going to be able to find a wireless N PCI card that uses the Atheros chipset, which is the preferred chipset.

Either way, you have to have a card that supports master mode, which I really doubt you are going to find on a PCI wireless card.

You really should be using a system with PCI-e.
 
I don't have a system with PCI-E to devote to this. This is simply just an experiment, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. I realize that I wouldn't get the full 1GB speed with just PCI. I would only have two computers connected to it, and one of them is my girlfriends, and she will go days without even turning it on. I will just use an old 10/100 for that. I will look for a PCI Wi-Fi card that supports master mode...It would matter to me if it was just Wireless-G. Like I said, it is simply an experiment for now.
 
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