@wallabybob:
Danswartz: …my take on why someone might be interested in this: Suppose you are on a restricted budget
!!! come on, say it…'if you're a cheap skate u might want to do this'... ;D @wallabybob:
and you have a wireless modem to cable or ADSL. You have discovered the limitations of the cheap versions of such modems and have scrounged a system to run pfSense and like pfSense. But you still need wireless access and because of your limited budget (money, slots, equipment, whatever) you want to know if its possible to use the wireless hardware support in the modem you already have but want pfSense to have some control over the wireless traffic.
Well there are many scenarios… I am a cheapskate often <oh dear,="" my="" secret="" has="" been="" exposed="" in="" first="" post="">, but not with hardware. If I have no budget, I go old over good rather than new but crap. I do prefer minimal hardware and smart config (a bit too much I do admit) too, as this is a way to improve one's code (and waste days aimlessly hacking...).
The absolute reason in this case is: I don't want to have a built-in WiFi interface as the box is a ESX host and won't support it probably, pass thru USB would suck and have to be in the DRP. Another wireless router in addition to the ADSL gateway... no, because it uses more power to load the UPS, generate heat and add ongoing cost and dependability. (I like to have two of everything- so I don't want 4 commodity routers if instead I can have 2)
@wallabybob:
Or, maybe you are fairly new to networking and just want to see if you can make the suggested configuration work - as a learning exercise.
Indeed. There are a few reasons…
@wallabybob:
… using the ADSL modem with wireless support would have allowed the wireless connected systems to bypass the pfSense firewall
Hmm. If they were on a VLAN it'd be harder, but yes security here is a major compromise. For me, the reason is less the WiFi AP. The more I thin about it, the more I'd like to use the Billion's VoIP gateway… for others it might be USB NAS, or VPN... Anyway, you know 'what they say about justifications and statistics!'
I'll report again once I can get a decent night's hacking done :)</oh>