Airport alternative

[Allan Irving]

I need something to do what it does, similarly but cannot think of a simple
solution off the top of my head. Simply a router to work on an existing set
up that can connect via Wifi and therefore extend the network and allow me
to have a private sub network with a hard drive and printer attached to the
Airport alternative, allowing me to have my own private network drive and
printer on a university network.

Any ideas?

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[Neal H. Walfield]

At Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:06:54 +0100,

Post by Allan Irving
I need something to do what it does, similarly but cannot think of a simple
solution off the top of my head. Simply a router to work on an existing set
up that can connect via Wifi and therefore extend the network and allow me
to have a private sub network with a hard drive and printer attached to the
Airport alternative, allowing me to have my own private network drive and
printer on a university network.
Any ideas?

If you want it private, I'd use a VPN (I like tinc). As for the rest,
your favorite GNU/Linux distribution should suffice.

Neal

[Paul Hänsch]

Allan Irving <allanirving at allanirving.co.uk>, Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:06:54

Post by Allan Irving
I need something to do what it does, similarly but cannot think of a
simple solution off the top of my head. Simply a router to work on an
existing set up that can connect via Wifi and therefore extend the
network and allow me to have a private sub network with a hard drive
and printer attached to the Airport alternative, allowing me to have
my own private network drive and printer on a university network.

Hi Allan,

the features you describe do not sound unique at all. The German market
for wireless routers for example is largely covered by the AVM FritzBox,
which supports complex network setups and can provide access to
printers, storage devices, and some scanner models connected via USB. I
believe it can even operate LTE modems on the USB port to provide
internet access.

Because parts of the firmware are under GPL there is a small hacker
community around the AVM devices (keyword: Freetz).

Most of the FritzBox models contain a DSL modem for German DSL
connections which are different from those in the rest of the world. I
believe recently they started to produce for the wider European market.
In any case the devices can also work as simple wireless routers.

Beyond that some LinkSys and TP-Link routers are famous for their
hackability. At least in the case of Linksys this is hugely due to the
work of the GPL violations project which forced the company to release
the firmware used on their WRT routers. I don't know which models of
those routers come with native printer support. However there is a
number of small Linux distributions specially made for them.

Only few of the router models run entirely with free software.
--
Paul H?nsch ?? Webmaster, System-Hacker
??????
Jabber: paul at jabber.fsfe.org ?? Free Software Foundation Europe
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[Jann Eike Kruse]

Post by Paul Hänsch
Allan Irving <allanirving at allanirving.co.uk>, Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:06:54

Post by Allan Irving
I need something to do what it does, similarly but cannot think of a
simple solution off the top of my head. Simply a router to work on an
existing set up that can connect via Wifi and therefore extend the
network and allow me to have a private sub network with a hard drive
and printer attached to the Airport alternative, allowing me to have
my own private network drive and printer on a university network.

Hi Allan,
the features you describe do not sound unique at all. The German market
for wireless routers for example is largely covered by the AVM FritzBox,
which supports complex network setups and can provide access to
printers, storage devices, and some scanner models connected via USB. I
believe it can even operate LTE modems on the USB port to provide
internet access.
Because parts of the firmware are under GPL there is a small hacker
community around the AVM devices (keyword: Freetz).
Most of the FritzBox models contain a DSL modem for German DSL
connections which are different from those in the rest of the world. I
believe recently they started to produce for the wider European market.
In any case the devices can also work as simple wireless routers.
Beyond that some LinkSys and TP-Link routers are famous for their
hackability. At least in the case of Linksys this is hugely due to the
work of the GPL violations project which forced the company to release
the firmware used on their WRT routers. I don't know which models of
those routers come with native printer support. However there is a
number of small Linux distributions specially made for them.
Only few of the router models run entirely with free software.

Hi Allan,

You might want to also look into OpenWRT.org.
It's a GNU/Linux distribution optimized for embedded (wireless) router
devices. It can run on a number of low-end consumer devices and it runs
excellently on some higher-grade (wireless) routers. There's support for
usb and for printers. Personally, I have not used it for the purpose you
describe, but GNU/Linux (and therefore OpenWRT) is highly configurable,
so I believe it can do it. There's a lot of documentation out there. You
might start here:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/cups.server

Best,
Jann
--
Sent with open-source Free Software. Respect your freedoms!
Send me encrypted messages for privacy. OpenPGP key: 8a30148a

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