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Unusual usages of a wireless router/access point
As I have mentioned in the description of this document, these days you can find on the market a lot of wireless
routers/access points powered by a customized Linux distribution.
Moreover, those wireless routers/access points have some interesting properties. Here are some important ones:
The ability to customize the firmware is the most important requirement. This can be done in two ways:
For an efective customization of original firmware, the manufacturer should provide as much source code as possible
from the original firmware.
Pay attention to the fact that some of the parts does NOT come as source code so you cannot modify them! As an example,
the network drives, the web server and the web management packages may be supplied as object files.
Depending on the platform used, you may find another Linux distribution that can be builded and installed on the
wireless router/access point. There are few, quite evolved, and, in some ways, better than the original firmware.
You may have heard about
OpenWRT, or about
dd-wrt, but there are others too.
If you choose this customization branch, you must check that your equipment is supported.
The manufacturer may be choosed if you have decided on the customization method, because not all supply the firmware's source code (not all manufacturers use Linux for their equipment), or you may like another distribution which runs on models from just a few manufacturers.
The model of your choice should be able to have the facilities you need. Or, it may be extensible whithout big efforts. Maybe the wheel is invented allready! I have seen modification that allows you to add:
Building a robot able to move, feel, express and do something, using as a main computing core a wireless router/access point.
More details will be available.
Building a distributed home management/alarm/surveillance sistem, using components dedicated to specific tasks.
The components should communicate using a mesh-like network. Each component is a wireless router/access point
with a custom firmware.
More details will be available.
No matter how many computers you have in your car, there is always room for one more. And, if the new one has small
power requirements, it can run all the time.
More details will be available.
You may have heard about quarter mile races. You may have seen some at TV. You may be a participant. If not, here is the
basic idea: two drivers are competing to see which one drives a quarter mile (or 400 meters) faster.
Generally there is no time counter to see the time exactly, so performance improving is a kind of experiment. Using a time
counter it will be easy for participants to compare their successive times not just to compare their performance with others.
More details will be available.
This document is copyrighted (c) 2006 by Calin Radoni. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document.
No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk. There may be errors and inaccuracies that could be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, the author do not take any responsibility.
All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
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