Re: Question about hostap.


From: Jouni Malinen (jkmaline_at_cc.hut.fi)
Date: 2002-01-18 22:03:40 UTC



On Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 03:05:22PM -0800, Eric Johanson wrote:

> It's looking like it 'fakes' an AP by grabbing the broadcast pings, and
> replying with stuff that makes it look like an AP. I could be wrong on
> this, but if you could do the same thing with a Hermes based chipset, then
> it could be put into AP mode as well.

I would not call it 'faking'. Host AP mode is a 'real' AP mode supported by Prism2 based cards. It just needs some support from the host driver to perform 802.11 management, etc.

> I'm sure the question of 'does it work with XXX card, based on the hermes
> chipset' has comeup a number of times on this list (but I'm new here, so I
> gotta ask..) <grin>.

Assuming you are talking about AP functionality, it will not work in its current form with any Hermes (Orinoco/Lucent) cards.

> What features of the prism2 based cards are you guys using to make this
> happen? Does it have anything to do with the promisc mode to capture raw
> 802.11 frames?

The driver uses so called Host AP mode of Prism2 cards. It gives you raw frames, but it is more than just a promisc mode for capturing packets. Among other things, station f/w handled beacon sending and broadcast/multicast packet delivery to stations in power saving mode.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA


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