@jdubau55:

Where's the super simple "I just want to setup pfsense like a store bought wireless router" tutorial? Plug in to modem, setup the wifi SSID and PW, and I'm good to go?

A lot of people use pfSense precisely because it is not like a store-bought router. These ISP supplied or consumer grade devices are enough for the average user, but if you are familiar with DD-WRT I imagine you have greater requirements and more confidence in your skills than most home users.

I can't comment on out of date documentation without knowing which ones you read, but I would research this as two separate issues. One is setting up the wireless AP. Two is configuring an OPTx interface - whether or not OPT1 is a wireless interface should be irrelevant for most of it. I would remove the bridge (or start again from scratch if you are not too far in to configuring it already) and simply set up OPT1 as a separate network, and ensure your rules allow the appropriate traffic out (see my earlier post about default rules only for LAN).

@renatohtpc:

…
The AP gets a fixed IP address 192.168.2.2
...

W.r.t. screenshot of your post #8. First within the AP-box you should set the Static addressing and DNS to pfSense-server. So not a double entry in pfSense DHCP-leases due to dynamic & static. Do not allow the AP address as a dynamic. Secondly set the AP static in pfSense DHCP-server, of course with the correct MAC.

Hello everyone,

I'm having the same problem with a Tenda W322P PCI card (ralink 3060 chip) on 2.2-Release. Setting up everything in pfSense, status shows it as running but none of the clients can see the wireless connection and obviously cannot connect. Tried in AP or adhoc or business mode, bridged or in different subnet, nothing seems to work so far. Any idea?

Thanks,
Daniel

Yes that was my next choice. I should really do a fresh install soon and apply some of the things I have learned with pfSense over the last year or so, I have bought a USB install stick.

It and some other small utilities like cryptostats were taken out since they didn't quite fit into the proper build process. I think there's an open ticket to bring them back eventually, but we need to find a better way to build them reliably.

I have setup some rules for passthrough in firewall. Everything seems to be working now.

I'm not sure why the other addresses on the lan subnet are not working. In any case, I performed a factory reset and have setup my firewall with fresh new settings.

I have heard about the issues regarding using PFsense as an access point because of compatability issues. For me, the WLAN is working fine. The radio adapter is a Compex WLE200NX a/b/g/n miniPCI express w/ Atheros AR9280 chipset.

And about using PFsense as DNS, I guess thats for another time.

In any case, Thanks for your help. I think my problems are resolved for now

@notaduck:

i tried to connect a scrren to my pfsense system and i am getting these errors every time i apply or change somthing on ath0( wlan)
http://s21.postimg.org/m6qfqitmu/pfsense.jpg

You don't need a monitor for that, it's in the system log too. It's a common error that you'll just have to live with until they fix it in FreeBSD.

Just tell ddwrt to put a Wi-Fi network on the same VLAN as your main subnet.  Tell it to put your guest BSSID on another VLAN.  Create VLAN interfaces on pfSense and set whatever behavior you want.

MACs are easily spoofable.  You don't want to use them as a security device.

If you are looking for a great AP you might want to search for a used Ruckus Wireless 7343 or 7363.
Great coverage and rock-solid operation in my house for more than a year now where I have to compete with >30 neighboring APs. I manage to provide streaming audio to 6+ Squeezebox receivers constantly without dropouts in an area of 200m².

Thanks for that suggestion, I'll see what I can find.

Anyways, did I get it right that you connect the WAN of the Actiontec cable modem to your pfSense?

In my original posted question, yes I did have the OPT1 connected to the WAN port of the Actiontec. The coax
output from this verizon router needs to stay viable to provide data to the set top boxes in my home,
I was under the impression that in order for the router to provide this, the WAN had to be used.
This was bad information/assumption on my part!!!
The solution was as follows;
pfSense LAN –> Switch --> LAN1 of Actiontec.
Configure (in pfsense gui) a static IP of 192.168.1.12 for the Actiontec,
Disable (in actiontec gui) DHCP/Firewall/IP Distribution and set static IP (192.168.1.12).
pfSense is now in complete charge of IP distribution, as I can view all clients in "Status-DHCP Leases"

This works great for me, the wireless clients now have access to the local LAN as
well as the Web and my STB have channel guide data and are fully functional!  ;D

@pLu:

@razzfazz:

pfSense starts the wlan numbering at [ifname]_wlan1.

My one and only is called 'ath0_wlan0'.

Hah… Just saw that that's actually what you get when you just assign the "ath0" parent to a (logical) interface (which seems a bit inconsistent -- the actual network interface is the ath0_wlanX child, not ath0 itself). I had previously always created a wlan instance on the "wireless" tab, and these do start at 1.

@fdisk:

just looking for an easy way to get this going. Blew 24 hours on trying to get my TL-WDR3600 to work with the pfsense so I was looking for an easy out.

1/ Install DD-WRT on it
2/ Follow this: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point
3/ Profit!

Lastly My PPP log with a successful connection

pfmifi5.jpg
pfmifi5.jpg_thumb

In the past there have been bugs relating to Wifi encryption. (WPA-Supplicant)
When i say break it down to just essentials I mean no encryption. Just the bare basics.
Just for testing of course.

I've reinstalled pfsense to ensure I had a base install with no modifications and did more testing.

In order for my WIFI WAN link to make the association and get an IP address from the AP, I had to configure my AP to use a specific channel and use WPA2 only. The WAN interface on pfsense is set to use the same channel, 802.11g, and WPA2. I do not need to set the regulatory or distance settings.

I don't know the reason for having to set the specific channel, WPA mode, and wireless mode but that's what I had to do to get the Atheros 9285 connected to the ATT uverse AP.

I have never tried this, but logically, why not just create a NAS client for loopback?  127.0.0.1  I am not sure if this will work given I haven't done my homework on this kind of build, but for conjecture it is the local device making the request to the authentication server, or in this case itself.

give it a whirl I suppose, I'd like to know if this works myself  :)

@XanALaOM00:

how about… turn off NAT on the consumer router, turn the consumer router into AP mode, use the WAN port as an "access port" to Pfsense and configure the AP with a static IP address on the same subnet as the Pfsense Opt1 range (make sure to not hand out the same IP address in the DHCP range).

In theory that would work - but in practice it doesn't unless your network is very simple.  All the consumer wireless routers that I've tried that approach with over the years will allow wireless devices to access the local network and the internet WAN via pfSense - but devices on the local network LAN often have subtle problems talking to the wireless devices.

@Spyryt:

I set up a new PFsense box yesterday (running 2.1.5-release) and am currently having a few problems with the WiFi.  I can access the internet fine on my LAN connection, but I can't get devices connected via WiFi to connect to the internet.  The devices are getting an IP from DHCP.

Here's my firewall rule for the wireless interface:

ID Proto Source Port Destination Port Gateway Queue Schedule Description
add

add
icon   IPv4 * * * * * * none   WiFi data

The WiFi was actually working yesterday until I swapped the WiFi card.  The WiFi interface is bridged with the LAN connection.

off the top of my head, always go with packet flow logically.

what does the firewall log show?  can you ping your OPT1 Default gateway? can you ping your LAN default gateway?  can you ping your WAN ip address?  etc…

if you can ping all of the above I would check your source NAT rules and verify that pfsense has created a rule to NAT your OPT1 source traffic.  etc...