I’m trying to design a small WIFI controller that can sit in a corner of a room and basically records the laptops that are within it’s vicinity (and are connected to it with the given WEP key). If any of them goes out of range, it should sound an alarm. It should also have a display showing the number of laptops connected to it currently and a button so that when an alarm goes off, the user can reset the module (incase a laptop needs to be taken away somewhere).
I looked at the Flyport module but it doesn’t seem to have the extensibility of allowing an LCD display and a button.
Thank you very much for your reply Carlos, much appreciated.
My situation is such that there will be several laptops at a given area (and hence automatically already have WiFi built in) and I don’t have the space for a desktop computer (this whole setup is out in the field… literally!) so only a small module will do really as far as I can see.
The FlyPort boasts being able to host a webserver, which presumably can serve multiple requests - basically the security module will only be receiving a few bursts of packets from several laptops spread across a 1 minute interval. If you’re still reluctant to advise this, please do advise further.
Also, out of curiousity, do you stock the FlyPort at all … ?
Unfortunately hardware WiFi modules cannot support too many WiFi connections at once. Also, if you connect a laptop to a WiFi device via an addhoc network, it will not be possible to connect them to the internet unless you forward the traffic (which is once again not straight forward using hardware modules).
If you have one central computer (maybe a desktop computer) in the room which has WiFi and another networking interface to connect to the internet, you could create an adhoc network and monitor which computers are connected to you (by checking their MAC addresses). If the central computer does not have a WiFi connection, you can us a USB WiFi dongle.
You will need to create your own software or possibly use a combination of off-the-shelf software.
Finally, please do not use WEP security. It is outdated and can be very easily cracked.
Your project is now clearer to us. Indeed, it you create a web server that periodically pings other members of a WiFi network, then you could determine when one of the laptops is not responding and infer it is gone from the network (or OFF).
