Summary

Setting up a home gateway requires more then just following basic security steps. Of course, you will want to take basic security measures such as disabling SSID broadcasts, enabling MAC filtering, turning on WEP, or using WPA (if available). However, deploying a useful home network requires management functionality that is simply not available in the 802.11 protocol. This requires using management tools such as LEAF Bering, Sputnik, or ReefEdge Dolphin.

All three of these options are based on customized Linux distributions. Bering is an open Linux distribution with lots of flexibility that lets you customize a variety of settings. Sputnik gives you a shell, but does not have flexible configurations. Dolphin is the least flexible and does not offer a shell. Bering can be deployed with two wired NICs, one wired and one wireless NIC, or any other combination of interfaces. Sputnik requires one wired NIC and one wireless NIC (Prism-based). Dolphin requires two wired NICs. While each software package varies in its features, perhaps most impressive is that all of these products are free. This makes them particularly attractive for smaller home deployments that require some control over who can do what in the network.