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I'm looking for an industrial grade (din mount, preferably weatherproof enclosure, no reboot every month like home APs, etc) Access Point / Bridge (802.11 b/g, dual radio) with APIs.

The issue here is APIs. Let me explain. I have built a management system that manages elements in the network and I want to support Wireless Access points. So are there any APs that have Web 2.0 style APIs (REST, Web Services, etc) or at least SSH with config files that I can download, modify and reboot AP?

Note that I can choose any AP for this solution as long as the requirements I've mentioned are met.

Thanks!

Zepplock
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6 Answers6

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if http interface is not strong requirement - take a look at mikrotik, i had reasonably good experience with it on router-board platforms. they are configurable over ssh / telnet.

btw - isn't it enough to use radius and put unauthenticated clients to separate vlan with captive portal? all additional things [ firewalling / bandwidth shaping ] could be sorted out on central router.

pQd
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  • I'll take a look at MikroTik. I'm more interesting in changing SSID/Passkey than authenticating clients. – Zepplock Oct 03 '09 at 15:12
  • They're also configurable via an API, to there's no need to mess around with a SSH interpretation layer. – Oesor Oct 08 '09 at 15:48
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I'd recommend you look at the offerings from Ubiquiti (http://www.ubnt.com). They're a manufacturer of WISP-grade 802.11a/b/g APs. All their APs are Linux-based, and a development kit including toolchain is available. Out of the box you have SSH-based access to the OS running on the AP, but you could compile anything you want.

Evan Anderson
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Cisco has Cisco Cloud Connect, see API and SDK info

lvmeijer
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It depends on what you need. You could always get any supported WAP and install dd-wrt or similar OS on it. That will give you a whole bunch of services and configuration options including SSH. I regularly update the /etc/hosts file on my WAP with local entries and get the built-in DNS server to use it. Uptime is excellent too (run it for months without a reboot even on consumer WAP).

sybreon
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  • I agree. Probably the best way to do it. I think most problems with consumer grade APs are software and something like OpenWRT would work well. – Zepplock Oct 03 '09 at 15:17
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Cisco LWAPP seems to becoming or at least be the base of a new standard called Capwap for controlling thin access points. In turn, the controller (WLC) doing this should have plenty of programatically accessible interfaces and of course ssh shell access as a last resort.

When deploying more than a few access points I'd always recommend a central controller solution and supporting those might be much easier than supporting actual individual access points - which may be thought more of as just dumb antennas.

Community
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Oskar Duveborn
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  • Thanks for the information. Unfortunately I don't want to have one more point of failure. Also Cisco controllers usually are very pricey. – Zepplock Oct 03 '09 at 15:17
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To shed some light for Evan Anderson, DIN is something like the NIST in the US, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Institut_f%C3%BCr_Normung

I have used LANCOM APs in such a situation. They are not that cheap, but very reliable
and feature-rich. You can configure them with http, ssh or a special software. I changed
the WPA passphrase via ssh every month, worked like charm.

Best regards.

Phil Swiss
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