Yup iwn(4) does not support hostap mode:

iwn supports station and monitor mode operation. Only one virtual interface may be configured at any time.

You can reassign the WAN to the wireless NIC. Or just rename the existing interface and set that as the default gateway in System > Routing.

Steve

@stephenw10

Yep, that's the way to go!

Cheers!

@stephenw10 Thanks. Figuring out what those units are capable of has been somewhat difficult. TP-Link support hasn't been very helpful. These are a consumer-grade product so I'm working with that level of support techs - and this is more of a business application.

Generally you need to use the BGW320 as a modem device for the AT&T connection. In that situation it must be on the WAN side of the 2100 so cannot also be an Access Point inside the 2100.

See: https://forum.netgate.com/post/1120881

@stephenw10 I went to plug a USB cable into the 8800 and noticed that the plastic back was kind of sticking out. I took off the back and the battery is bulged. I am thinking replacement is a great idea as those batteries aren't free. I tried plugging it in via USB to the PFsense and it didn't show up. Must be a windows only sort of device. I got the other router for $37.99 (it is on sale for 20% off)

Thanks for the feedback. I factory reset the access point (again) which seems to have resolved the issue.

@randommen That would eliminate the PPP part with all its performance and throughput issues….

@MccV12SV23 said in Slow Wi-FI:

router I get about 380mbps on my laptop and phone

380mbps over your typical 2 stream AC wifi would be about right..

If you want more speed over wifi your going to need to use AX or more streams of AC.. As mentioned this has nothing to do with pfsense.

The max phy you can get with 2 streams of AC wifi is 867, but it can be lower.. Depending on distance, other interference, etc. etc. lots of variables in wifi. A rough rule of thumb is 50% of the phy is normal to see..

How do you increase transmission power??

@doronl15 hi can I ask you, what card did you use to gain this functionality?

@stephenw10 yes we can agree the user can configure it wrong all over. Again, an administrator might fat finger a large static DHCP list with a couple entries thus causing hostname mix ups. That for one would be very hard to pinpoint. Moreover, we know the amount of hours system administrators work. It's a lot of hours. This would make PfSense have a ease of use software functionality built in. I assumed that if pfSense allowed multiple duplicate entries, it was done for a situation when two devices need to be swapped in and out and need the same IP address, in this mindset PfSense should still log the correct hostnames. Again, if that was the reason for PfSense allowing the GUI duplicate entries.

Weird thing to research, but the hostnames mixup was what I was after and or why
PfSense would allow the duplicate entries in the first place. Let's agree admins have monster static dhcp lists that are updated and changed all the time within a secure setting. This situation would want controls in place for hostnames. Finally, logs for the hostnames could get bonkered up and with a monster list and that would be hard to track down why hostnames are wrong. We know PfSense now has experimental layer 2 Ethernet filtering.

Did you change the USB IDs? Is i still showing as those?

The USB serial devices in /dev are created by u3g when it recognises a device. So if it isn't creating them it's not seeing a device it supports.

Steve

As well as changing the USB IDs to something u3g will recognise you may also need to set the USB composition so it presents an AT port to pfSense.

@SkippyTheMagnificent

Well done 👍

Feels good ... Doesn't it

/Bingo

In my limited experience, Atheros cards (some, not all) will work in AP mode. No, they won't do AC or AX, but they'll do N, at 2.4 or 5GHz. Take a look at the wireless forum here. I'm using both an AR9280 and an AR9380 in AP mode successfully. Cheap and effective. Seems a lot of Intel cards will only work in client, not host, mode.

@johnpoz

Hi
Yes, networks are not correct, that are example for easy explanation nothing else.

I will look a bit later at another post and revert back.

@stephenw10 I received the USB enclosure, installed Windows Drivers and use the BZ31018_DIP_QMI_ModeSwitch tool . Everything is working as intended!!!

Thanks all for the help.

Additional info below in case any else has the same issue.

Modem model: MC7710
USB enclosure used: TBD, AliExpress site not working
Windows drivers: GenericDriverSetup_5087.exe from the Sierra website
QMI > DIP mode switch: Search online for BZ31018_DIP_QMI_ModeSwitch.zip

It should work given what you've said here. So something must be missing....

Try to ping out from pfSense itself but set the source as the LAN address. If that fails then you have a NAT problem. Usually that's because the gateway is not applied on the interface but that cannot happen with a DHCP interface.

@jackthesmack
Again pfSense on its own can do nothing here.

If you're familiar with scripting and the access points provide SSH or telnet access or possibly SNMP, you can monitor the devices connections and reboot the concerned AP in case they're connected to the wrong one.
I did a similar thing in the past with my Engenius AP.