@JdawgSmythe:

Is there a way that I can incorporate psSense to one of my networked computers,

Do you mean "convert one of the existing computers to run pfSense"?

Have tried this again a few times the interface never comes up as associated at boot. I have to either manually down/up the interface or save the settings in the webGUI. I doesn't seem to matter what settings I've used.

Steve

I wasn't aware there were such adapters for these cards.  However, of the adapters on that site in your link, that one is opposite of what you would want.  To use a miniPCI card, you would want one like this instead: http://www.amfeltec.com/products/flexible-minipcie-to-minipci-adapter.php

@wallabybob:

Bridging a wired interface and a wireless interface is a fairly common activity. I suggest you read http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,20917.0.html

Thank you very much! I'll read it and try to make it work!

@son4r:

if anyone has any ideas or suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.

Your AP is acting as a router but your configuration requires it to be a bridge?

You have connected the WAN port of your AP to the switch instead of a LAN port?

@son4r:

Pinging 10.2.10.21 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 10.2.10.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.2.10.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.2.10.20: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.2.10.20: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 10.2.10.21:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

What has  IP address 10.2.10.20? Why is it replying "Destination host unreachable"?

Thank you wallabybob. I changed the mode to Access Point and it worked.

@wallabybob:

@nfz300zx:

Little annoyed TP-Link changed the chipset but dont list the hardware revision on the cards box.

Tell them and explain why you are annoyed.

@nfz300zx:

do you know of a recommended card that's PCI-E and easy to find in the UK?

I can't recommend one from personal experience.

The AR9285 chipset appears to be recognised by the ath driver in FreeBSD 8.1 (hence pfSense 2.0.x) and FreeBSD 8.3 (hence pfSense 2.1 snapshots).

A quick scan on eBay turned up a number of sellers of mini-PCI-E cards with AR9285 chipset. I have also seen a number of eBay sellers of adapters that plug into "full" PCI-E slots and take a mini PCI-E card.

The Ralink RT3070 chipset USB will operate in Access Point mode but the driver (hardware?) doesn't support multiple SSIDs. A number of readers of the pfSense forums have had success with adapters using this chipset. The chipset is apparently "fairly old" and adapters using it are no longer readily available in retail outlets near me but there seems to be good supplies from eBay sellers.

Hey Wallabybob,

Thanks for your help, I managed to find a laptop mini-pcie card from a work buddy who got it for his laptop but decided not to use it and an adaptor from ebay. that seams to be picked up fine.  Also just got a d-link 556 and thats picked up as well so i just need to workout how to setup the wireless now….... think i set it up but don't see the SSID

As for everything else, pfsense rocks.  have my VPN working from home to the box at the datacenter where my VMs are. have my IPv6 HE tunnel running on my second unit (2.1 Snapshot) and its working absolutely perfectly bar a couple of issues but thats probably down to it being the 2.1 snapshot (RRDtool not working).

Thanks for your help its works great

After more then 6 months everything is still running .

Installed shellcmd package as a user suggested and added this commands to get a better wireless link .

ifconfig ath0_wlan0 down ifconfig ath0_wlan0 bintval 120 ifconfig ath0_wlan0 -bgscan ifconfig ath0_wlan0 maxretry 3 ifconfig ath0_wlan0 up

But i am still missing one major wireless feature, SHORTPREAMBLE.
In AccessPoint  mode is enable by default but i would like to disable it .

Does anyone knows if its possible to disable it and whats the syntax of the command ?


I agree with you: There is not concrete hint all over the forum to a working miniPCIe card working with pfSense 2.0.1 or 2.1.

All I could offer is a conrecte miniPCI card: Compex WLM54AG. I am using it both directly in a miniPCI slot and in a PCI2miniPCI adapter card. This WLAN card works perfectly in hostap mode - even with cloning.

Peter

I've got the same access point, it's configured through DHCP. You cannot serve so many clients from one AP, especially that one. You'd need to have multiple access points to facilitate that many clients.

@hcigmx:

Switching of LAN adapters from wired to wifi was done in VM setting, so pfSense should not see anything different.

I have no experience with VMware but I suspect that in the VMware environment you have somehow failed to adjust something crucial when making that change.

Can you do a packet capture in VMware to verify VMware is seeing the ping traffic over WiFi? Can you trace where it goes then?

@manubz:

So when i connect a client on the AP, i can ping the AP, the OPT interface but no one else.

Is your OPT interface a wifi adapter? If so, your problem seems similar to mine: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,55170.0.html

When LAN-facing adapter is a wireless adapter connected to an Access Point, all other computers can't route through it.

It is supposed to support it; I just couldn't get it to work when I tried to use it (between two FreeBSD systems).  However, one caveat that I'm aware of is that the mode they call 4 address frame mode, which allows connecting as a client with any existing encryption and bridging the client, is supported on both FreeBSD and Linux (some Linux-based TP-Link routers/access points support this, for example), but I've heard that the implementations of the mode on FreeBSD and Linux are incompatible with each other and can't connect with each other, unfortunately.

You should be able to pick up a mini-PCI-Express card with Atheros chipset on eBay for under US$15.

pfSense doesn't yet support 802.11N features but some forum readers have reported success in using cards supporting 802.11N is "802.11G compatible" mode. I suspect you are less likely to have trouble if you select a B/G card rather than B/G/N card.

At the eBay prices for these cards your budget is unlikely to be seriously stretched if you upgrade to a B/G/N card when the necessary software support is in pfSense.

I have suggested Atheros cards because the driver supports AP mode. I have used an Atheros based PCI for over three years with good results but that card is no longer available. I have no experience of any of the currently available Atheros chipsets.

Take care you select the correct option out of mini-PCI express or half mini-PCI express.

@nexusN:

Thanks for your input,  ;)
I didn't check but I can expect the rt-n66u to be much more expensive…....it would be the best if I can get the access point to work. ;D

Did you get one in the end, and if so, how is it performing?

I figured it out.  I had checked the "Block Private/Bogon Network" options when I set up the Wireless interface.  Removing those allowed the traffic to get through.  I just didn't realize what it was that I had set until I looked at the rules closer.

Thanks for your input!  Definitely helped me get to the root of the problem.

Dave

I got it working actually.  Now the only problem is the usb wireless card is dropping connections every so often.

Well i figured out why i was having problems, i over looked what APs the school used and there are cisco, which have a feature that that is meant for security, it sands out a de auth frame packet to any wireless client that is connecting to a router not part of its system so thats why my clients would not connect, it would see it and go "i dont like that" DEAUTHED. that is why it was dropping the signal.

Now im pissed, i get the crappiest signal in my room only computers can get anything over a bar and thats iffy at best. i use Ethernet anyway but my phone and tablet are not going to be much use.

If only there was a way around this…I wonder if moving to the 5ghz range would get by it but i dont think my phone supports it...