From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 30 13:08:30 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 85D0B1065677 for ; Fri, 30 May 2008 13:08:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from stapleton.41@gmail.com) Received: from rn-out-0910.google.com (rn-out-0910.google.com [64.233.170.189]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F8D38FC20 for ; Fri, 30 May 2008 13:08:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from stapleton.41@gmail.com) Received: by rn-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id j40so2327183rnf.12 for ; Fri, 30 May 2008 06:08:29 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; bh=HSBQ9WNUzAJHcseASR2PGU/D5sBJm+Z6RDTml1EFTyw=; b=Mq4omi6jyrp4Ost0N6uNsV24Cu+0eDIhKwMsa/zC6dwJA+yC9Ja6fBbINNLUuCNdeJ+6YSVWDgx9f84X7o5y1IKQGLpIee+yniUoCF9X1bQbjz1OsLU/wVu34D14FYGE9vl5kN2gxRXnwQsyydiZgrU78aWKgc9cvYxpuPhyeaA= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=P25CHjSJYA9ZCHPAbm8LiTn7EcSQ7/IoEUj3p25ZeBZDrs64SOA4vzj7ao2yXa7s8rq6GgSLXuop4LMrp8WtymvWyiXJEDcPqTsGkaZeTMe8yysSTI37SESF9o5xggeYFISnznDbp17/cQDyntr4kmcOzb4g+rn7RXcdOOC001Q= Received: by 10.114.15.1 with SMTP id 1mr6007809wao.184.1212152904620; Fri, 30 May 2008 06:08:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.114.150.14 with HTTP; Fri, 30 May 2008 06:08:24 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <80f4f2b20805300608s13ec0fa7x7034f1a89ea07c46@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:08:24 -0400 From: "Jim Stapleton" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Best solution - mobile wifi hotspot X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 13:08:30 -0000 My dad makes instruments and goes to a lot of festivals. They are typically in the middle of nowhere, without internet. Many vendors still bring notebooks as they provide quick & easy access to many things, but there is no internet. For credit cards, many use their cell phones to make the transaction. My dad wants to get a satellite connection (pure sattelite, no phone), and set up something to offer a wireless hotspot. - Some shows will just pay a flat fee, and have the hotspot open. - Some shows won't pay a fee, and so he'll want to charge to recover some of the cost. For the open hotspots, a simple wireless router will do. For the charge hotspots, we'd want something a little more flexible. My first thought was 'FreeBSD can do that!'. The trick is that we will be using battery power most of the time. Low power is the key. I'm thinknig sub-20W max power drain worst case, SUB 10-15W is ideal. With that background info, my questions are: 1) Is building a low power computer based on FreeBSD the right way to go? Or would you all recommend something else? What? 2) Does anyone have experience with the GeodeNX or VIA C7 boards available on NewEgg? Heads ups and pointers? 3) Does anyone have experiences with these and a given wireless adaptor, How good/bad is/was it? Thanks, -Jim Stapleton