APPro5000 Software for Atheros-based devices

APPro5000 includes all tools needed for computer network configuration, administration, and diagnostics. Employing the Linux system ensures much better capabilities – e.g. traffic management, port filtering, firewall or NAT – than those offered by typical products available on the market.

Thanks to MadWifi drivers, users of APPro5000 have access to advanced, state of the art technologies, for example the can configure up to three virtual Access Points, use one of numerous operating modes or monitor network traffic with built-in sniffer tool. The software is designed both for companies offering WISP services (where it can be used as an efficient P2P bridge), and wireless network clients (in flexible and cost-effective client devices operating in 5 GHz bandwidth).

Software:

• Linux kernel;
• Busybox toolset;
• Iptables (MASQUERADE, SNAT, DNAT, MAC, TTL, iplimit, IPP2P);
• Iproute2 (HTB, WRR, PRIO, ESFQ);
• traceroute, ping, arping, tcpdump, and nslookup tools;
• Bash-compatible shell (for SSH/Telnet);
• MadWifi driver;
• available gcc compiler for custom enhancements.

Features

• AP, APC Infrastructure, APC Transparent, WDS, P2P bridge, and multipoint bridge operating modes;
• dedicated client modes for Mikrotik base stations (WDS or Infrastructure);
• device does not masks MAC addresses when connected to MikroTik and Ubiquiti base stations;
• channels available from 4,9 - 6 GHz range;
• supprot for 5, 10, 20, and 40 MHz channels;
• automatic and manual ACK adjustment;
• full WLAN/LAN routing in any configuration;
• NAT and DHCP available on WLAN or LAN;
• MAC address cloning available on each interface;
• packet aggregation and compression in bridge mode;
• traffic filtering between clients (Intra BSS Traffic);
• filtering of Windows 'network neighborhood' traffic - for example RPC (NETBIOS Filtering);
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• watchdog that restarts device in case of lost connectivity;
• automatic device restart at specified intervals;
• PPPoE Relay feature for connecting multiple PPPoE clients to the device;
• PPPoE client compatible with MikroTik systems, and supporting pap, chap, mschap and mschapv2 authentication;
• new, easy to use Web interface that speeds-up configuration of DHCP server, Traffic Manager and many other features;
• live traffic statistics graphs;
• Site Survey feature, enhanced with live signal level graphs;
• Active Clients list, enhanced with live signal level, and modulation graphs.

Performance:

Performance tests were conducted in following conditions: devices were placed on the desk with no antennas, and default ACK. We tested UDP protocol, and with 1500 bytes packet size.

• AP-APC Transparent
  802.11a turbo mode, WPA2 encryption enabled, QoS, TFM, and Firewall disabled
  
  result: over 49 Mbit/s;
   
• AP-APC Transparent
  802.11a mode, WEP128 encryption enabled, compression enabled, QoS, TFM, and Firewall disabled
  
  result: over 50 Mbit/s;
   
• AP-APC Transparent
  802.11a mode, WPA2 encryption enabled, QoS, TFM, and Firewall disabled
  
  result: over 34 Mbit/s.

Bandwidth management:

• QoS that fully utilizes Linux system capabilities;
• Flexible Traffic Manager that can limit a bandwidth, number of connections and packets per second for selected hosts, or host groups;
• traffic priorities;
• limiting of total number of packets per second flowing through the device protects the AP against overloading by P2P, VoIP or traffic generated by viruses or other malicious software;
• limiting combined traffic flowing through the device allows bandwidth management optimizations in the network;
• automatic, based on link speed, selection of queue algorithm;
• traffic filtering for addresses without assigned bandwidth;
• transfer statistics for each rule in Traffic Manager table.

Security:

• static ARP table based on DHCP settings;
• extended firewall with NAT;
• traffic filtering for unauthorized IP addresses;
• traffic filtering on selected port ranges;
• P2P filtering;
• Windows' network neighborhood filtering;
• filtering of known ports employed by viruses and trojans;
• filtering of all incoming connections;
• filtering of all traffic other than Web browsing and e-mail;
• port forwarding;
• DMZ feature (forwarding of all ports to selected IP address);
• static ARP combined with filtering of incorrect IP/MAC address pairs limits amount of network abuses.

Flexibility:

• device management via WWW, FTP, SSH or Telnet;
• possibility of central configuration management via FTP, Telnet, or SSH;
• custom rules for QoS, NAT, firewall, and routing configuration;
• ability to install custom software and scripts in /usr/local directory;
• saving configuration, system files and user scripts in flash memory.

Device's operation monitoring:

• device is compatible with SNMP-based tools used for network monitoring and statistics generation (e.g. Dude MT);
• extended status information: Active Clients, DHCP Clients, Connection Tracking;
• enhanced Site Survey tool and Active Clients list, with live signal level, and modulation graphs;
• graphic traffic statistics, that are stored in flash memory for easy access to archved data.

Potential of adaptation to various hardware platforms

APPro5000 software can be easily adapted to hardware platforms based on following chipsets:

• AR5002AP-A (AR2312 CPU + AR5122 5 GHz RoC),
• AR5002AP-G (AR2312 CPU + AR2112 2.4 GHz RoC),
• AR5002AP-X (AR2312 CPU + AR5112 2.4/5 GHz RoC),
• AR5002AP-2X (AR5312 CPU + AR5112 2.4/5 GHz RoC + AR2112 2.4 GHz RoC),
• AR2313, AR5213, AR2314, AR2316, AR5005VA (AR5513 CPU + AR5112 RoC),
• AR5005VL (AR5513 CPU + AR5112 RoC),
• AR5312, AR5315 and later.