DIY home Wireless router: help needed

[__Miguel_]

Hi there. Long time SNB reader, a bit of a lurker on the forums, first time I actually need hands-on help not answered elsewhere.

I'll try to make this as short and to the point as possible, since I usually tend to digress a bit. So, there we go:

1) Cause: HORRIBLE all-in-one wireless DSL router/gateway on the network (Thomson TG784), with a lot of bling (it even has PSTN pass-through, DECT and a VOIP server) but a hedious GUI (ISP-locked to boot), lousy packet handling (you can either download or upload at decent speeds, not both, and high loads make it spontaneously reboot, while not always being able to sync again) and only "G" Wireless speeds. Plus firewall rules are laughable, and seldom "stick" during a reboot.

2) Objective: Upgrade the router and consolidate network applications (shutting down one always-on power guzzler serving files), while getting to satisfy my inner IT geek by handling both hardware and software .

3) Available hardware: custom-made 18x18x18cm cube box containing an Intel D945GCLF Atom board, 2GB of RAM, 320GB HDD, PSU and a Realtek PCI Gigabit card; plus standard pen drive (1GB and 4GB available), Belkin F7D2101 Wireless N dongle (Realtek chipset) and a D-Link DSL-320T Ethernet DSL modem (with bridged mode support).

4) Specific requirements: Network firewall and routing, unrestricted WLAN-to-LAN and LAN-to-WLAN access, ED2K and BT handling by the router (limited SMB access will be needed, too), QoS on traffic based on protocol and/or application. I do not need AV screening and other such CPU intensive tasks, this is low-end machine, after all...

5) Wish list: 2 or 3-line VOIP, possibly to handle Faxing duties too (my ISP offers me a VOIP number, and I do have a POTS line, though I'd need an adapter for that, and there's not quite enough money to spare on that one), LAN-to-LAN VPN connection (I'm talking ~1Mbps speeds tops, so not too much hassle there) and transparent proxy.

So, long story short, I'm a long-time Windows user, somewhat fluent in "IPese", and I've actually setup a W2K3+cFosSpeed router with similar hardware (Pentium D 805 at the time, and I seldom had to turn the oil heater on during the winter... lol), but without wireless AP capabilities (not available for XP-based kernels at the time, plus I had repeater requirements for the wireless network, and back then the only sure way to make it work was by using two products from the same vendor).

I've somewhat managed to do the same with W2K8R2 without wireless (RRAS hasn't changed too much, after all, and I still remember how to set up the PPPoE link to the DSL modem on the WAN port), but as soon as I add the wireless dongle to the mix (using Windows built-in AP mode for compatible wireless dongles, which my dongle supports, and Connectify), chaos ensues, with the only machine on the network getting Internet access being the router itself

So, as you see, I need a bit of help. I don't know if I'm messing up big time on the routing tables (not messing with the standard ones Windows creates, btw) or if I'm missing something bigger. Do you have any pointers on this one? Routing table entries, steps I might have not taken?

Also, while I'm not very "fluent" in Linux, I've been around since DOS, and I'm not afraid to use the command line (just need to know the syntax of the commands and what each part of it is used for) or learn new stuff. If you guys think something like Copfilter or similar might be easier (I'd need to use an ad-hoc network, I believe, since Master Mode is only available for non-USB chipsets, and even then only mostly from Atheros, plus I have yet to see a router distro that handles wireless natively), I'd be game for it, as long as I'm able to add the stuff I want not readily available (plus it might even run from USB, and let the HDD for only caching and file serving needs, which is always nice... hehe)

OK, I think that covers it. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[overdrive31]

Skip using Connectify, and manually configure ICS and Virtual Wifi. Connectify now uses it's own non-ICS implementation which might be your problem. Pretty sure Virtual Router app uses ICS, in case you can't muster the net shell commands. http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/
Virtual Wifi only supports one virtual adapter, so no dual band support.

 

[__Miguel_]

Thanks for the reply, overdrive31.

I have tried both Connectify and Virtual Wifi (as I said, I've been around since the DOS era, so I'm familiar with the command line... hehehe), to no avail with both of them. And Connectify, at least on Atom machines, seems a big NO-NO, it takes FOREVER to load and to get a working wireless link.

Major problem seems to be that ICS (and derivatives) are limited/locked to serving DHCP and DNS to only one internal network adapter. As soon as either an additional wired interface (or wireless, if you configured ICS for the wired NIC first) pops up, it all goes down the drain. Plus, for some reason you can't bridge a wired interface with the Virtual WiFi one; nor can you bridge a wired interface with a wireless one set up as Ad-Hoc.

With Windows, as far as I can tell, probably only using RRAS (Routing and Remote Access Service, fancy name for "ICS on steroids"... lol) might do it for me. However, while I am (mostly) capable of getting each individual network interface up and running independently with manual IP addressing (Network Connections gets CRAZY that way... the thing was NOT made for server implementations...), to the point where I have Internet connectivity on the router, I end up with:

1) No DHCP (or DNS or NAT functions) on ANY on the computers connected to the LAN and WLAN interfaces, or at least one of the branches fails;

2) Sometimes, networked PCs can't even see the server, even if using manual IP configurations;

3) LAN-to-WLAN and WLAN-to-LAN communications are a no go.

4) Using RRAS, the PPPoE connection to the Internet has to be manually brought up, it doesn't auto-dial even with requests for external addresses from the localhost.

From my experience, this seems of either

1) random Windows quirkiness, in which case I haven't rebooted the router enough times (don't even get me started on that stuff, I've actually banged my head to the wall several times over the years, when configurations not touched refused to work for several reboot cycles and all of a sudden BAM everything working); or

2) major routing table mess. Handling more than two networks never was my forte, even with W2K3 running with RRAS full blast I could not access the DSL modem's webui from any other machine on the network other than the router itself... DHCP/DNS/NAT were working fine, so no worries there, but the "192.168.1.0" network (consisting of the WAN NIC and the DSL modem) was invisible to the "192.168.0.0" network.

As for Virtual WiFi only handling one virtual adapter, no problem there. My USB dongle is single-band 2.4GHz N only, so the only odd thing there is I end up with a frequent "there are networks available" on the task bar (from the regular client mode). I guess I could implement a dual-WAN solution (piggybacking on my neighbor's WLAN), but that's both illegal and a COLOSSAL pain in the behind (being I can't even get it working decently with only ONE WAN interface... lol).

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[overdrive31]

What I meant by no dual "band" support, is you can't run more than one wireless client as a virtual access point, so no 2.4GHz on one and 5GHz on another.
FYI - dual band clients are single radio so you can only use one or the other.

What modem do you have?

Probably easier to just use an router as an access point plugged into one of the lan ports, gives you an extra 3 ports too.

 

[__Miguel_]

What I meant by no dual "band" support, is you can't run more than one wireless client as a virtual access point, so no 2.4GHz on one and 5GHz on another.
FYI - dual band clients are single radio so you can only use one or the other.

Ah, OK. Bit of a mix-up there. Probably because setting up a dual-band wireless router never even crossed my mind. The wireless network is basically for my laptop in the bedroom (mostly Youtube and web browsing, so no big bandwidth needs there) and my smartphone; all my HD video viewing is made from a wired computer, and there are only two WiFi networks in my area (including mine; there is a third one, far away enough it doesn't bother mine, and it's overlapping with the closest one from me, on the other end of the spectrum), so I don't really feel the need to go with 2.4GHz + 5GHz.

Thanks for the heads-up, though!

What modem do you have?

As I said on the original post (don't worry, I know it's easy to get lost on most of my posts... lol), it's a D-Link DSL-320T single-port Ethernet Annex A ADSL2+ modem (quite a mouthful, huh? ).

Probably easier to just use an router as an access point plugged into one of the lan ports, gives you an extra 3 ports too.

Well, that would be somewhat manageable (though an inefficient use of power outlets and power, generally speaking), but neither router I have right now can work as a pure AP. The Thomson one is ISP-locked, I can't access most advanced features (no ISP password cracked, AFAIK ); and the Pirelli one (yes, I know, ), well, let's just say it has a "gateway complex", "taking over" full DHCP server roles on the network (anything connected to it can only see it's DHCP server, period) and refusing to route anything destined to 0.0.0.0 to any port but its WAN port (the DSL connection), even if you tell it the network gateway is elsewhere...

Uhh, why is it so damn hard to build your own wireless router? Geez, you'd think by now there would be a standard or two for Master Mode, plus general OS support (at least in Linux, Master Mode was first available there)... Or at least decent "pure APs" on the market... Last one I could get my hands on was a crappy Conceptronics "Super G" one, about 6 YEARS ago...

Anyway, /RANT and thanks again for your input. Any other help is appreciated.

Cheers.

Miguel