What if I Wanted to Build a Machine With 16 WLAN Ports?

[Amused]

How would I go about doing that? Cost is no issue, really.

 

[Matthias99]

Well, the obvious solution would be to get something like a SUN Ultra 4000, which can have dozens and dozens of LAN ports installed. However, I feel like you're looking for a solution in the thousands of dollars, not the hundreds of thousands.

I know they *used* to make 4-port hub PCI LAN cards (and somebody probably still does, and they probably have switched ones by now). You should be able to throw four of those into a standard system and have it do whatever you want (act as a router, or just bridge all the ports together as a switch/hub, etc.) Odds are you'll have to use some sort of UNIX to do anything fancy, as I'm unsure how well Windows would handle a task like that.

 

[Amused]

Cool ideas, but this needs to be 16 Wireless LAN ports on the PCI bus.

What is the max number of PCI slots I can get on a mobo?

 

[brxndxn]

16 WLAN ports? like.. run an 802.11b adapter on every channel?

You could do it with USB and a hub.. but that would be slow and crappy..

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: brxndxn
16 WLAN ports? like.. run an 802.11b adapter on every channel?

You could do it with USB and a hub.. but that would be slow and crappy..

Exactly.

Anyone know of an 8 PCI slot mobo? I'm seeing servers with 8 PCI slots, but no bare mobos.

 

[loup garou]

Ok...I'm going to be the first to ask:

Why?

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

There are industrial chassis with lots of slots, you're looking in the wrong places. Look at stuff like this... http://www.bcmcom.com/industrial/SBC/ipc_sbc_backplanes.htm

 

[Matthias99]

Sorry, didn't catch the W in there.

Again, why? A single 802.11b AP can handle dozens of clients (although throughput will suck if they're all going simultaneously). If you try to run all 16 channels, you'll just cross-interfere all your bandwidth away. You can't really run more than 3 or 4 APs overlapping in the same area with reasonable speed (AFAIK; I've never tried it!)

 

[Amused]

It's for my brother. He's starting a company and wont tell me why he needs it, just that he needs it. I know, I know, but he's funny about corporate secrets.

Gunrunnerjohn, I already found those and sent him the link. He's checking into them.

I'm just curious why I see loads of pre-built servers with 8 PCI slots, but no bare mobos.

 

[Amused]

I found something VERY interesting. What do you guys think of this?

http://www.magma.com/

 

[cmetz]

Amused, tell your brother to have fun war-driving.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: cmetz
Amused, tell your brother to have fun war-driving.

LOL!!! It's a thought, but that's not what he's doing.

 

[Garion]

Reality? You would probably want to get a couple of PCI-based USB 2.- dual port cards and stick a USB hub off of each port, then four wireless adaptors off of each, for a total of 16.. USB 2.0- has 480Mb/s bandwidth, giving each card 120Mb/s of bandwidth - 10X what 802.11b needs and more than 2X what 802.1a/g needs. There's no reason this wouldn't work, at least from a bus and throughput perspective, if your machine can keep up with it. (Unless there's some kind of wierd limit on the number of USB devices you can, but I doubt it's less than 16!)

In general, it's more difficult and more expensive to use the PCI WIFI cards - You have too little flexibility on the antennas (unless you spend the cash for an external antenna, which considerably runs up the score).

The only thing I can possibily think of is that he's trying to use this as some kind of "hub" for a campus-style environment and needs 16 directional antennas, each aimed at a different remote location, line of sight. If so, that'd work, but it would certainly be a royal pain to manage.

Last caveat, however - I have NO idea how multiple WIFI cards would work in Windows, with it's built-in wireless tools. Might have to totally disable those and just use that which comes with the USB NIC.

- G

 

[Garion]

Originally posted by: Amused
I found something VERY interesting. What do you guys think of this?

http://www.magma.com/

Might work, but man, would it be a pain.. All the legacy IRQ/memory issues to deal with, the drivers for the box and cards, the extra space for the chassis, long-term support issues to have to deal with the thing when the manufacturer no longer makes drivers, etc. USB gives you more aggregate bandwidth, is a much better standard for this kind of thing and probably cost 1/3 the price. Not to mention the long-term support issues.

Remember the ultimate rule of computing - Thou Shalt Keep It Simple or Thou Shalt Eventually Pay The Price.

- G

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Garion

Originally posted by: Amused
I found something VERY interesting. What do you guys think of this?

http://www.magma.com/

Might work, but man, would it be a pain.. All the legacy IRQ/memory issues to deal with, the drivers for the box and cards, the extra space for the chassis, long-term support issues to have to deal with the thing when the manufacturer no longer makes drivers, etc. USB gives you more aggregate bandwidth, is a much better standard for this kind of thing and probably cost 1/3 the price. Not to mention the long-term support issues.

Remember the ultimate rule of computing - Thou Shalt Keep It Simple or Thou Shalt Eventually Pay The Price.

- G

They'll be using Linux. But yes, I agree with simplicity. My brother, however, is a complexity FREAK.