What WiFi cards are functional on a 4200?

[aaronouthier]

I have a NetGate 4200. All 4 Ethernet ports are in use. I need to squeeze out 1 more WiFi connection. I purchased a Dell DW1810 with Atheros QCNFA435 chipset, hoping against hope that it would work. It doesn't appear to be detected. Does it need to be in the other slot? Or perhaps a config file flag is needed somewhere? I chose one with Atheros because the old WiFi support thread showed mostly Atheros cards were working. The list is old however, and doesn't seem to list any NGFF cards. NetGate 4200 only takes NGFF cards.

Anything I can do, aside from switching the card?

[rcoleman612]

@aaronouthier Buy a switch and VLAN the port for the WiFi to split.

WiFi suport on FreeBSD is abysmal on a good day.

[tgl]

@aaronouthier said in What WiFi cards are functional on a 4200?:

Dell DW1810

From a quick google search, I see no reason to think that a DW1810 is capable of being a wifi access point (as opposed to client) at all. Buy a real AP, and if you don't have a spare port to plug it into, add a switch as @rcoleman612 suggested.

[provels]

Although the AP route is likely easiest and best, I use Atheros AR9280 (Compex) and AR9380 (Apple) based cards in my homebrew box. Just because I can. But I'm a hobbyist, a one man show. The best connection they will support is 'Wireless N'. They "work". But I also have AP's. If you feel like mucking about, go for it.

Compex - 2 antennas
Apple - 3 antennas

The Compex is the one Netgate used to offer as a option way back when. FreeBSD just doesn't seem very interested in Wi-Fi development.

If you haven't seen already:
Does the Netgate 4200 support Wi-Fi cards?

Wireless

[stephenw10]

Neither of those cards will work in the 4200 because it only has m.2 slots and those are mPCIe.

But you could find a card that will work in the 4200. It needs to be m.2 and Atheros 802.11N based.
QCNFA222 should work for example. Though you'd need an extension/adapter to fit it because it's only a 30mm card.

QCNFA435 is a .ac card. No driver exists for it. Yet.

[aaronouthier]

Everyone:

Good to know, all around. I would've setup another switch and AP, except there is physically not room for either one - I do have both of these. That said, the landlord is adding on here, so we may have more room in a few months. All of my APs run OpenWRT, so in theory I COULD easily pass VLANs to that, but I don't understand enough about VLANs to attempt it.

FWIW, I would be Ok with WiFi N - this would be just for an IoT network. I don't need 802.11AC or AX for that. I don't really want my WiFi Light Bulb and Relays running on my home network.

I knew WiFi support was spotty at best. I took a gamble, and hoped for the best. No harm done.

[stephenw10]

@aaronouthier said in What WiFi cards are functional on a 4200?:

All of my APs run OpenWRT, so in theory I COULD easily pass VLANs to that

Ah, then yes, you could almost certainly just add an ssid to the existing APs and put them on a VLAN. Then use that VLAN in the 4200 without or without a switch in between.

[aaronouthier]

@stephenw10

The issue, is that I don't understand enough about vlans to be able to set that up.

Also, the OpenWrt Router that I use is a NetGear NightHawk R8000. It sports a Broadcom chipset, albeit the only one to my knowledge which is supported in Linux (FullMAC or something similar). I am not 100% sure HOW well it is supported. I'll need to check if I can actually make another set of APs.

I suppose that is a job for the OpenWRT Forums.

Thanks everybody!

[rcoleman612]

@aaronouthier on pfSense the configuration is fairly straight forward...

1 Add a VLAN in Interfaces->VLANs
2 Then create your interface and assign it to that VLAN.
3 Set up your interface to be a network and get your rules.
4 Then follow whatever steps on the OpenWRT is needed to get a TAGGED vlan into the device on your uplink port.
5 Configure your SSID.

Bob's your uncle.

[aaronouthier]

@rcoleman612

Yes, I know how to setup VLANs in pfSense. It is your step 4 that I'm not 100% certain on. I mean, I can set the uplink to Tagged, but creating a second WiFi interface and assigning it to 1 VLAN and everything else to another is wherein lies the problem.

I know a fair amount about the OpenWRT I guess it's more the intersection of VLAN setup and OpenWRT-specific networking where I lack knowledge and experience.

[rcoleman612]

@aaronouthier Here's where I'd start:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/vlan/switch_configuration#is_there_a_vlan-capable_hardware_switch_integrated_in_your_device

I don't have anything OpenWRT at this time so I can't suggest more than the documentation above.

[aaronouthier]

@rcoleman612 Ok. Thanks again.

[stephenw10]

Yeah, any OpenWRT device will do VLANs. It just may be more complex if it has to be passed through a built-in switch.

Try it and ask if it doesn't work.

[rcoleman612]

@aaronouthier Any luck? DM me if you need a hand -- I have an OpenWRT device here I can test steps against for an external AP that should be a comparable config to what you're wanting to do.

[aaronouthier]

@rcoleman612

Haven’t really tried yet. Had other things going on. I’ll let you know. Thanks!