Setting up wifi as WAN interface

SteveITS · May 15, 2023, 7:21 AM

@balanga You might detail how it’s connected, but in general you can assign WAN to any interface.

Balanga · May 15, 2023, 7:21 AM

@steveits said in Setting up wifi as WAN interface:

@balanga You might detail how it’s connected, but in general you can assign WAN to any interface.

I see that pfSense has added a iwn0_wlan0 interface but I don't know how to configure it. There is no /etc/rc.conf in pfSense. I have added a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, but I don't know how to enable DHCP since the interface does not show up I try assign interfaces or IP addresses from the main menu.

SteveITS · May 15, 2023, 11:50 AM

@balanga You can do it in the GUI, Interfaces/Assignments.
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/interfaces/configure.html
Once assigned as WAN then (re)configure the WAN interface as desired.

Normally DHCP would be enabled on an internal interface not WAN. But that would be on the Services menu.

stephenw10 · May 15, 2023, 1:06 PM

You have to add it as a wireless interface in Interface > Wireless first. It should be added in Infrastructure mode to be a client.
Then it will show as available to assign as WAN.

Nothing at the CLI should be required. Anything you have added there is more likely to break stuff!

Steve

Balanga · May 15, 2023, 3:56 PM

@stephenw10
I am unable to use the GUI until I configure WIFI.

Can I do this from the command line?

stephenw10 · May 15, 2023, 4:02 PM

No. Why can't you access the gui from the LAN? (or another internal interface).

What do you see in Interfaces > Wireless when you try to add it?

Balanga · May 15, 2023, 5:59 PM

@stephenw10 said in Setting up wifi as WAN interface:

No. Why can't you access the gui from the LAN? (or another internal interface).

What do you see in Interfaces > Wireless when you try to add it?

The other system with a LAN connection is running FreeBSD without Xorg and it doesn't have Internet access.

I was hoping to install pfSense to enable that system to access the Internet.

Maybe I can somehow incorporate pfSense routing functionality into an existing FreeBSD installation....

stephenw10 · May 15, 2023, 6:58 PM

Hmm, well FreeBSD already has all of that built in if, you just need to configure it.

Technically you could probably configure enough in pfSense by just editing the config by hand and loading it. But the chances of getting that right first time are pretty low!

Can you not just connect a laptop there to configure it?

Balanga · May 16, 2023, 8:57 AM

@stephenw10 said in Setting up wifi as WAN interface:

Hmm, well FreeBSD already has all of that built in if, you just need to configure it.

I wish I knew how....

Technically you could probably configure enough in pfSense by just editing the config by hand and loading it. But the chances of getting that right first time are pretty low!

Maybe the second or third time :)

Can you not just connect a laptop there to configure it?

Eventually I managed to get a broken laptop to work and have got as far as

Interfaces -> Wireless -> Edit

My Intel Wireless NIC is identified, but I'm not sure about what mode to use or where to provide wpa_supplicant.conf data.

stephenw10 · May 17, 2023, 2:37 PM

@stephenw10 said in Setting up wifi as WAN interface:

It should be added in Infrastructure mode to be a client.

The wpa data is added via the interface config page once it's assigned in pfSense.

But you could just use the FreeBSD box directly if you want:
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/advanced-networking/#network-wireless-quick-start

Balanga · May 17, 2023, 2:37 PM

@stephenw10 said in Setting up wifi as WAN interface:

@stephenw10 said in Setting up wifi as WAN interface:

It should be added in Infrastructure mode to be a client.

The wpa data is added via the interface config page once it's assigned in pfSense.

But you could just use the FreeBSD box directly if you want:
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/advanced-networking/#network-wireless-quick-start

I do know how to get wifi working on FreeBSD, what I was unclear about was how to set up FreeBSD as a basic router, ie configure basic pfSense routing capabilities.

Anyhow, I finally got my WAN interface set up to use wifi, but I am unable to access the Internet from my LAN, and I'm not sure that this is possible.

My Internet access is via a wifi broadband router (192.168.1.1) which assigns 192.168.1.15 to the WAN of my pfSense box and I can ping the outside world from there, but my internal network (192.168.2.0) cannot. I seem to be missing something....

stephenw10 · May 17, 2023, 2:56 PM

No firewal rules?
No default route?
No gateway on WAN? Is it DHCP?

Balanga · May 19, 2023, 3:37 PM

@stephenw10 said in Setting up wifi as WAN interface:

No firewal rules?
No default route?
No gateway on WAN? Is it DHCP?

I've been happily using pfSense for over six years on my home lan and have been blissfully unaware of such things... everything just worked.

In this particular case pfSense I have setup pfSense as an intermeiary router hoping I could set up a route between one system and the internet. The pfSense system uses wifi to access the Internet via a broadband router which acts as a DHCP server for the WAN port.

The Gateway is 192.168.1.1 - the broadband router. There are no firewall rules.
I'm looking for advice on setting up the parameters you mention.

stephenw10 · May 19, 2023, 6:02 PM

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.