We propose deploying a Soekris Net4511 to provide wireless coverage to the surrounding neighborhood. This device would run the M0n0wall FreeBSD based operating system. The advantage of the net4501 is that it supports a PCMCIA card (allowing us to install a 200mw Senao radio) in addition to a mini-PCI slot, which we could leave unoccupied and available for future 802.11a expansion. Unlike the Netgate G8 WRAP-based alternatives, the Soekris net4511 contains 2 ethernet ports.
We intend to assign one port for the WAN. We have selected DSL Extreme as the ISP, as they allow sharing in their ToS. The other port will be configured as a LAN port (in a segment protected and firewalled from the WLAN segment). The LAN port of the Soekris device will be connected to a 24-port switch, which will then be connected to the lab PCs.
M0n0wall offers standard functionality we intend to enable, including captive portal, bandwidth shaping, SNMP monitoring and more.
Here are the steps taken to program monowall for use at El Toyon Rec Center with a Soekris 4511 box. Read the Network Configuration in conjunction with this guide.
Download M0n0wall, install on 16MB CF Card.
Connect Ethernet to eth0 (PoE). By default, M0n0wall will be running DHCP on that interface and give your laptop an IP address of 192.168.1.199/24, with a default gateway of 192.168.1.1. Open a browser and point it to 192.168.1.1. Default username/password = admin/mono.
The latest version of m0n0wall available was used, 1.2b6. It was configured as follows.
Query: It would also be possible to bridge the wireless and LAN interfaces and just use one /24 subnet instead of two separate ones. This may be a preferable configuration. It also has the advantage of forcing the captive portal on the lab computers also - which would otherwise avoid the captive portal because it can only be active on one interface
That's the important settings completed. Everything should basically work at this point and its worth stopping to make sure. Click Reboot.
After rebooting, you'll need to release and renew your IP address. Assuming you are on a wired interface, M0n0wall should assign an IP address of 10.12.10.99/25, with a default gateway of 10.12.10.1. Open a browser and point it to https://10.12.10.1. (Don't forget the S in httpS://10.12.10.1).
We want to keep the LAN completely firewalled from the WLAN so we need some rules to ensure that it is:
Unfortunately now we can't access the browser-based administration interface via wireless on the WLAN, so we add another rule. We make this rule very specific:
At this point it shold now be possible to access https://10.12.10.1 from a client on the WLAN port (i.e. a wireless client).
Some additional settings will complete the configuration:
That's it! Save the configuration just to be safe (under Diagnostices -> Backup/Restore).
Further configuration can be done for syslog, outside PPTP access etc. This will be added here as time permits.