DD-WRT 24 will come with Virtual BSSID features : this will enable the use of multiple SSID and multiple security settings (Open, WEP and WPA). More info here : http://forum.bsr-clan.de/ftopic3297.html

The author is not sure that the result will be open source. Having such a feature in OpenWRT would be great.

ROTFLMAO. Let me translate it.

*** WARNING: the following is stritcly my personal opinion, so flame me in private if a dd-wrt fan gets here ***

"i found now a way how to create multiple virtual wlan networks with the broadcom chipset" - "i found (or rather told so) that the new broadcom drivers support virtual bssids"

"otherwise i have to change something to keep sveasoft back from this invention. so possibly the source for this enhancement will be released as closed source binary only within the sourcetree" - "i am getting as gay as sveasoft and i want to release some simple binary that sets some variables to try to hide that i didn't really do anything"

If you are really looking for virtual SSIDs and VLAN affectation, you can also afford for a Cisco access point, or simply use a Dlink DWL-2100 or any newest atheros based access points.

I have to admit, this would be a cool option to play with.  I would not mind setting up a free access hotspot, but not at the expense of my WPA security.  It sounds like this would let me still use WPA on my private network, with full access, and at the same time allow restricted internet access for visitors and neighbors. 

It would be a 'fun' feature, not something I would change hardware for.

It doesn't matter whether the dd-wrt author publishes sources for this stuff or produces binary-only crap. He's just copying code from the latest ASUS source release, which contains these features

Is it planned to include it in OpenWRT then ?

Of course! What's not clear yet is: which version and when?

I have started looking at what should be done. The most difficult part (for me) is to adapt wlcompat. I don't really understand how this piece of code works (it is both a wrapper to wireless extensions and to the original driver but I feel that adapting without breaking it will be difficult). Other parts seem easy : using the new driver, implementing the new "iovar" functions and using them (documented in wlconf.c).

On bad news, some ioctl are no more valid. For example, setting tx power. Other are replaced by a call to the new "iovar" functions. The problem with those is that the possible variables are not documented in some .h. So we need to extract them from ASUS sources and from the drivers (with strings).

Would an OpenWRT developer be interested into a some kind of bounty on this feature ?

Sure

Is there any progress being done on this future?

The new driver is integrated and I'm currently working on scripts to set it up from a configuration file...

Will it be available in Kamikaze or WhiteRussian?

Kamikaze

Any chance to backport it to WhiteRussian?

We'll see

I encryption working too?

Hi,

Regarding multi BSSID, you know how this feature is implemented in the brcm driver ?
with Atheros based hardware you have a real virtual AP, all with different MAC(BSSID)
addresses. Anybody know's the brcm driver does the same ? or "only" multiple SSID ?

Only multiple ESSID...

Hi nbd,

I found this thread, an I felt like commenting on it:

According to the information I have gathered from the forum, the OpenWRT solution for Virtual Access Points (VAPs) is implemented by simply including multiple SSIDs by means of multiple IEs in the same beacon.

Advertising multiple ESSIDs within the same beacon as a solution is said to have a number of shortcomings (see: www.drizzle.com/~aboba/IEEE/). The main drawback is that it is reportedly incompatible with many existing STA implementations (I have heard this from many places, though not experienced it myself.)

Another issue is that the usage scenarios where VAP implementations are particularly valuable normally require support for:
-  Different capability sets for each SSID
-  Multiple capability sets within an SSID
-  Pre-authentication routing

Do you know if OpenWRT is be able to support such general VAP capablities, even though the implementation is based on the simple use of multiple ESSIDs within a beacon?

A good solution for virtual APs is instead to use separate BSSIDs for each Virtual AP, and send a separate beacon for each SSID. That is, only one information element containing the SSID in each beacon, but a separate beacon per each SSID.

Do you know if there is any plans of implementing such VAP functionality in OpenWRT?

Hope these questions make sense to you. I must admit I have not yet tested out OpenWRT. I have ordered an LinkSys WRT, and I am excited about testing out OpenWRT. Meanwhile, I try to figure out what OpenWRT has to offer. And I am daydreaming about all the fun capablities I would like to test out...

B.Rgds,
trumph

Yes, you are right about incompatibilities with several different STA implementations. Especially Windows gets easily confused by this and often refuses to connect when different encryption types are used on different ESSIDs.
These capabilities do exist, although you typically have to tell the driver to broadcast only one ESSID, otherwise every single STA I know gets confused.
In the end, I don't consider this feature very useful because of all the problems that it creates for connecting clients.

If you want decent Multi-ESSID features, you should buy Atheros WiFi hardware instead, which supports multiple ESSIDs through multiple different BSSIDs.