Ken's Musings about the Apple AirPort

Last updated: Monday, 28 March 2005 14:08 -0500

All right, thanks to Manoj, I got my AirPort up and running at home, and the wireless network there is now working a treat. (The secret was to set up my clients in 'Managed' mode rather than 'Ad-Hoc' -- who knew?) I haven't begun playing around with encryption yet; I have the impression that's going to take a bit of time.

Flash! One day, when I was home sick, I decided to investigate the encryption stuff. It turned out to be simplicity itself, and took only a few minutes to get set up. The main stumbling block was the format of the key specification on the Linux side; the exact syntax depends upon which wireless driver you are using. Some interpret the key string directly as hexadecimal, and some want the "0x" prefix. One really cool aspect of the Linux /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts mechanism is that you can have different settings for the different PCMCIA slots -- so if I have my wireless card in slot 0, as I do at home, it uses encryption. If I insert it in slot 1, as I do when appropriate (such as at tech conferences), it uses unencrypted transmission. But enough; this page is about the AirPort, not Linux.

Ergonomics

Although the shape is cool, it's a little difficult to fit into a space-challenged work area. The mounting bracket, which lets you hang the thing on the wall, makes things a little better.. but since I've had the thing up and down from the wall over a dozen times while trying to get it working, the snap-in aspect of the bracket is a little trying. If the bracket were, in fact, screwed into the wall rather than just hanging on it, I suspect that detaching the unit would be a significant undertaking. And since the bracket's screwholes are behind the unit when snapped in place, getting the sucker off the wall could make one go 'Hmmmm.'

Configuration

My Macintosh isn't running the correct OS version, so I've had to rely on reverse-engineered configurators such as that from KarlNet and Jon Sevy (see below for links). I therefore have no opinion concerning configuring the AirPort using Apple's custom interface. And since I'm using an after-market unauthorised set of tools, I can't be sure where any issues lie: with the tool, the reverse-engineered MIB definition, or the device.

Java configurator: see <URL:http://gicl.mcs.drexel.edu/people/sevy/airport/>.

One thing I miss about the item is a 'reset to factory defaults' button. There is a reset button, which serves two purposes:

Reset the login information for a few minutes, or
Wipe the device clean and require a new firmware download.

The first is useful, but very specific and an early-troubleshooting sort of activity. The other (which I've never tested, not having a Mac that can unpack the firmware package, etc., etc.) seems a little drastic. The problems I encountered which caused me to wish for a reset button generally had to do with having screwed up the IP information, requiring a lot of manual route-setting magic in order to get back in touch with the AirPort.

Usability

When it comes right down to it, the AirPort seems to do exactly what I hoped it would do. At home I have no need for the modem capabilities, but they came very much in handy at a recent hackathon, at which my AirPort provided DHCP to about forty (40) people, some wireless and some wired. The AirPort dialed out to a local ISP, and we all shared a single 56Kbd line. It wasn't fun, but there weren't any technical problems. In fact, it was actually quite impressive.

At home I'm using the AirPort in a strictly bridge-only mode; one of my Linux boxes acts as the DHCP server. This has some drawbacks, some of which are DHCP's and some the AirPort's. For one thing, the AirPort doesn't appear to permit you to make specific associations between DHCP addresses and client MAC addresses (like the fixed-address statement in some dhcpd.conf files). The result is that I can't assign specific IP addresses to any wireless stations: if I try with my Linux DHCP server, it only hears the AirPort's Ethernet MAC, not the client's; if I use the AirPort, there's no way to make the association.

I suspect this may cause problems in a couple of cases:

What will happen if I try to run more than one wireless device at once? What will my Linux DHCP server do when it sees multiple DHCPREQUEST requests from the same MAC? Presumably it won't care, and will hand them out as requested, but ..
I live in an apartment complex. I verified (while waiting for a jumpstart for my car one morning!) that my wireless area of effect extends out to the parking lot, so it certainly should include the other apartments in my building -- modulo shielding, of course. So: what happens if someone in my building decides to go wireless? They'll probably/potentially end up on my wireless LAN, with an address from my DHCP server. Bah. This may (hopefully) be addressed by getting encryption running.

The Apple documentation for the device seems a little sparse; it appears to rely heavily on your having installed the software on a Mac. It's possible there's documentation on the CD, but I'm not sure the CD is readable except on a Mac. I'm sorry, I guess I just like having a hardcopy to which I can refer, rather than having to fire up another bit of software on an already crowded screen.

Conclusions

Considering its feature-richness, the AirPort seems to me to be a pretty good value. So what if I don't need all of its capabilities at the moment? I might someday -- as evidenced by the recent hackathon usage -- and the cost is still less than I would have had to spend if I wanted to bring up one of my other boxes as the wireless hub. So it's a thumbs-up from me. There are still some areas of improvement, and Apple would do well to publish the MIB and either sell Gold-level versions or get rid of the warranty clause that restricts customers from doing it themselves. Opening the interface would sell more of these, not fewer, IMHO.

The shape of the thing brings to mind a certain television programme from the 1960s, so I'll use this page to reveal some never-before-seen photographs. Makes you wonder about Apple's origins, hmm?

The small silver, red, and blue object was a gift from my wife, since she knows I like to have widgets and doodads around my office. How fortuitous; it gravitated to the AirPort as though made for it.

coar