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    TL-WN727N as WAN interface

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
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    • B
      bavcon22 @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10 I'm sorry for late response. I made connection from USB to wifi dongle to my phone Xiaomi hotspot and then with my new TP-Link device M7350 and I had the same results with Speedtest. When I connect my phone to M7350 I had much better speeds. To see exact connection speed I have to retested it.

      Sincerely yours

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        You should run ifconfig -vvv against the wifi interface when it's connected to see the link speed is. Or check Status > Interfaces but the output there may or may not show it depending on the driver.
        Results from your phone to an AP are almost always going to be far better. It's probably using at least 802.11ac 2x2.

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        • stephenw10S stephenw10 moved this topic from Hardware on
        • B
          bavcon22 @stephenw10
          last edited by stephenw10

          @stephenw10 Here it is reply from your command for my WWAN interface on pfSense+ 22.05:

          rtwn0_wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
          	description: WWAN
          	ether 7c:c2:c6:00:71:d0
          	inet6 fe80::7ec2:c6ff:fe00:71d0%rtwn0_wlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xb
          	inet 192.168.0.101 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
          	groups: wlan
          	ssid TP-Link_6C64 channel 11 (2462 MHz 11g ht/20) bssid 1c:61:b4:1e:6c:64
          	regdomain FCC country US anywhere -ecm authmode WPA2/802.11i -wps
          	-tsn privacy ON deftxkey UNDEF
          	AES-CCM 2:128-bit powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100 txpower 30
          	txpowmax 50.0 -dotd rtsthreshold 2346 fragthreshold 2346 bmiss 7
          	11b     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
          	11g     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
          	11ng    ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
          	scanvalid 60 -bgscan bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250
          	roam:11b     rssi    7dBm rate  1 Mb/s
          	roam:11g     rssi    7dBm rate  5 Mb/s
          	roam:11ng    rssi    7dBm  MCS  1    
          	-pureg protmode OFF ht20 htcompat ampdu ampdulimit 64k
          	ampdudensity 16 amsdu shortgi htprotmode RTSCTS -puren -smps -rifs
          	-stbc -ldpc -uapsd -vht -vht40 -vht80 -vht160 -vht80p80 wme -burst
          	-dwds roaming MANUAL bintval 100
          	AC_BE cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
          	      cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm
          	AC_BK cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
          	      cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm
          	AC_VI cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  2 txopLimit  94 -acm ack
          	      cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  2 txopLimit  94 -acm
          	AC_VO cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  2 txopLimit  47 -acm ack
          	      cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  2 txopLimit  47 -acm
          	parent interface: rtwn0
          	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet MCS mode 11ng
          	status: associated
          	nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
          

          I saw that interface is connected with 11g, but the WiFi module (TL-WN727N) and the device M7350 has 11n network capability and the distance is less then 1m one device from another.
          Sincerely yours

          NightlySharkN B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • NightlySharkN
            NightlyShark @bavcon22
            last edited by

            @bavcon22 I know this is a long shot, but, cloud it be inserted in a USB 1.1 port by any chance? Or have a USB controller run in 1.1 speed? Again, I know it is a long shot.

            B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • B
              bavcon22 @bavcon22
              last edited by

              Speed test results:
              Screenshot from 2023-02-19 20-39-43.png

              NightlySharkN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • NightlySharkN
                NightlyShark @bavcon22
                last edited by

                @bavcon22 41524bc2-f699-475a-9102-2ad839f021d9-image.png

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • B
                  bavcon22 @NightlyShark
                  last edited by

                  @nightlyshark The WiFi module is connected to Lenovo ThinkCentre M9xp (x is an number) to USB 3.0 port. Is the USB 3.0 a problem the wifi device is USB 2.0?

                  NightlySharkN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • NightlySharkN
                    NightlyShark @bavcon22
                    last edited by

                    @bavcon22 It is a problem if the port drops to 1.1. I don't know if this can be caused by a rusted connector, driver (both controller and chipset) or something...

                    B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • NightlySharkN
                      NightlyShark
                      last edited by

                      @bavcon22 said in TL-WN727N as WAN interface:

                      Lenovo ThinkCentre M9xp

                      a2acf4c6-6934-4639-a18f-fdfb15d23a16-image.png
                      Do you need any OEM chipset (more like, on-CPU-controller) drivers for the AMD Lenovo-specific (most likely), CPU?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Hmm, I don't have one I can test in station mode. In hostap mode though the Status > Interfaces page does show the link 'Rate'. Do you see that?

                        NightlySharkN 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • NightlySharkN
                          NightlyShark @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10 Maybe you can whip-up a VM in a PC, pass-trough a USB controller and test it from there?

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                          • B
                            bavcon22 @NightlyShark
                            last edited by

                            @nightlyshark The PC has USB 2.0 connectors I will try it. Next weekend I have intent to update my pfsense+ 12.05 to 13.01 and then I will give the feedback in this forum.

                            B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • NightlySharkN
                              NightlyShark @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10 Sorry, replied to the wrong answer. 🙄

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • B
                                bavcon22 @bavcon22
                                last edited by

                                @bavcon22 Speedtest results with USB 2.0 PC port:
                                Screenshot from 2023-02-19 21-05-40.png

                                No better results.
                                Thank you for all, I will see if any better results with newer version of pfSense+ afrer I will update the software.

                                NightlySharkN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • NightlySharkN
                                  NightlyShark @bavcon22
                                  last edited by

                                  @bavcon22 There is always the case that the adapter has some damaged component that causes it to drop to a USB 1.1 mode, or just be like that from factory (highly unlikely).

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                                  • B
                                    bavcon22 @NightlyShark
                                    last edited by

                                    @nightlyshark I will try to connect this dongle tp-link tl-wn727n to Raspberry Pi to "see" if the device actually work with 11n connection with different OS's and than report back what I will find.

                                    B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • B
                                      bavcon22 @bavcon22
                                      last edited by

                                      @bavcon22 I tested the dongle on PC x86 x64 with Linux mint OS.
                                      Testing specs:

                                      OS: Linux mint 21.1 cinnamon
                                      PC: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R5X9
                                      USB: dongle conected to USB3 on PC, USB2 on dongle
                                      Connection: via Android phone or home wifi
                                      Conected: LAN
                                      Speedtest results ~30Mbit simetric on bought wifi devices.

                                      I think the dongle is capable of 11n transmission.

                                      NightlySharkN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        Were you able to see what the reported connection 'rate' was in pfSense?

                                        B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • NightlySharkN
                                          NightlyShark @bavcon22
                                          last edited by

                                          @bavcon22 Judging from my bad experiences with TP-Link Wi-Fi adapters, maybe try another adapter? 30 Mbits is still pretty low. I owned such an adapter, and I had to manually resolder the antenna connections (many years ago, though). My point is, they are unreliable and unpredictable.

                                          B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • B
                                            bavcon22
                                            last edited by

                                            Now I tested dongle with the upgraded pfSense+ v. 13.01 and FreeBSD 14 and the connection was 11g not 11n. Speed test gives me 10Mbits symmetric. My conclusion is not to buy this version of dongle for FreeBSD OS, it is not fully supported.
                                            Before I buy it, I consulted the FreeBSD hardware and I saw the TL-WN727N that is supported in FreeBSD 13 but I missed crucial information v.3.0 is supported not my version of dongle, my dongle is v.5.2. I will use it for my other project.

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