How To: Make your Untangle Server a Wireless Access Point

[Silver Bullet]

THIS WILL NOT WORK IN 6.1... PLEASE WAIT FOR UPDATED INSTRUCTIONS

I have been running this since 5.1 beta 1 and it has been very stable and thought I would post how I did it in case someone else wants to do it.

To begin with, you will need a wireless card that is supported by the madwifi driver. The one I am using is an Atheros based card. To be specific, this is the card I am using. Got it for under $25.
http://www.engeniustech.com/datacom/...ls.aspx?id=223

So, let's get started with the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Perform this at your own risk. While I was careful in constructing these instructions, they may not be perfect. The instructions below were made so you would only have to copy and paste them into a terminal. If your Untangle Gremlins leave and your server no longer runs, then you have been warned and I accept NO responsibility. These were made for Untangle 5.1. DO NOT USE THIS ONE IN 5.03

Now that we have that out of the way.

First we are going to backup our original sources.list, add Ubuntu Gutsy repos and update in one whack. So just copy everything you see in this window, paste it and hit enter.

Edit: Run this first

sed -i -e 's/APT::Cache-Limit 10000000/APT::Cache-Limit 20000000/' /etc/apt/apt.conf

cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.orig

echo "deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted" >>/etc/apt/sources.list

echo "deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main restricted" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main restricted" >>/etc/apt/sources.list

echo "deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy universe" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy universe" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates universe" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates universe" >>/etc/apt/sources.list

echo "deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy multiverse" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy multiverse" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates multiverse" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates multiverse" >>/etc/apt/sources.list

echo "deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security universe" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security universe" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security multiverse" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
echo "deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security multiverse" >>/etc/apt/sources.list

apt-get update

Now let's install what we can with apt.

apt-get install make build-essential wireless-tools

apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

apt-get install hostapd

We can now restore the original sources.list since we have installed what we need from apt.

cp /etc/apt/sources.list.orig /etc/apt/sources.list
rm /etc/apt/sources.list.orig

Now let's get the madwifi drivers and put them in /tmp to build

cd /tmp

Download the madwifi drivers

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.4.tar.gz?modtime=1202880185&big_mirror=0

tar zxf madwifi-0.9.4.tar.gz

cd madwifi-0.9.4

make

make install

modprobe ath_pci

ifconfig ath0 up

At this point, you should have a new interface that shows up in ifconfig. Now llet's make Untangle aware of it. To do this, you need to:
Browse to http://ipaddressofuntangle/alpaca. Make sure you are in Advanced mode.
Click the interfaces tab
click refresh (Alpaca should report your new interface(s)
Click Save

Now, back on the interfaces tab, click edit to edit the ath0 interface.
Configure it to bridge to your internal interface
Click Save.

Now the bridge information is loaded into /etc/network/interfaces automatically by Alpaca.

Here we are going to have to manually edit /etc/network/interfaces so that our new interface will come up in master mode and will be on the channel we want. To do this, paste the following between the eth0 and br.eth1 entries.

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet manual
        pre-up wlanconfig ath0 destroy
        pre-up wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
        post-down wlanconfig ath0 destroy
	pre-up iwconfig ath0 channel 11
	wireless-mode master

Almost finished.
Last thing to do is add security to our Wireless Access Point. To do this, we are going to use the hostapd package that we installed earlier.

First, let's allow hostapd to automatically start.

cd /etc/default

sed -i -e 's/#RUN_DAEMON="yes"/RUN_DAEMON="yes"/' hostapd

perl -i -pe 's/^#DAEMON_CONF/DAEMON_CONF/' hostapd

Now the last file is going to take some manual editing in order to set your SSID and Security you want. I suggest making a copy of the original and then creating your own so that you have the original to reference. To create a copy of it just do

cp /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf.orig

Then edit /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf to suit your needs. Each setting is documented very well in the conf file.

If you run into problems with the hostapd.conf, then post here and I will try to help. Googling "hostapd.conf" should also help though.

Here is a sample config of hostapd found in /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

interface=ath0
bridge=br.eth1
driver=madwifi
logger_syslog=-1
logger_syslog_level=2
logger_stdout=-1
logger_stdout_level=2
debug=0
dump_file=/tmp/hostapd.dump
ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd
ctrl_interface_group=0
ssid=Untangle
auth_algs=3
eapol_key_index_workaround=0
eap_server=0
wpa=3
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP CCMP
wpa_passphrase=secret passphrase!

Once you have your hostapd.conf set how you like it, REBOOT and your new Wireless AP should be up and going.

Note: Since you manually edited /etc/network/interfaces, if you make a save in Alpaca interface tab, then your edit will be overwritten. So, be sure that you have your interfaces set how you like them.

Now that the Wireless is up and running, you need to create the following port forward, packet filter and bypass rule so that both your internal and wireless will be as one.
>>>See Attached Screen Shots<<<

The Port Forward rule should look EXACTLY like the screen shot... forward to 192.0.2.42.

The Packet Filter rule needs to have the destination address of your internal interface.

The Bypass Rule should be your network address in the source and destination


This may look like it takes a long time, but it really doesn't. I usually knock this out pretty quickly after the initial install.

DHCP and DNS
If you want Untangle to provide these services, then go to the Alpaca interface Advanced > Packet Filter
DHCP > Uncheck Block all DHCP Requests to the local DHCP Server.

DNS > Check Accept DNS traffic from the Internal and VPN interfaces to the local DNS Server.

Good Luck and happy wireless networking.

[SystemRequest]

apt-get update

Reading Package Lists... Error!
E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
E: Error occured while processing xfce4-iconbox (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

durring ap-get update is does a number of packages and then says....i have a 40gb hd and 512mb ram....do you have any ideas?

[Silver Bullet]

Yeah... I did a fresh install the other day and the same thing happened. The Apt cache isn't large enough.

Just run this and it should take care of it... if you haven't already changed the Apt Cache.

sed -i -e 's/APT::Cache-Limit 10000000/APT::Cache-Limit 20000000/' /etc/apt/apt.conf

now do apt-get update

[SystemRequest]

does this work with a USB NIC or only pci?

[Silver Bullet]

I don't *think* that madwifi supports usb devices. But, if your usb device can be put into master mode then everything else should work. Just leave the madwifi part out.

Which one are you using?

[SystemRequest]

its a usb netgear wg111...

[Silver Bullet]

Have you got that one to work in linux before? If so, how? NDISWRAPPER?

[SystemRequest]

no i have not, i am new to Linux ... and untangle. does Linux not like netgear usb? is there something you recommend?

[Silver Bullet]

I am personally using the one that I posted in my original post and I am pleased with it.

[Zalman1]

Nice work Silver, will this be added to Untangle as a update one day?