wifi card

jhmc93

hi does the Intel Centrino Advanced N 6230 WiFI card work with pfsense?

elvisimprsntr

pfSense can only include support for what's included in FreeBSD.

You are always much better off with an external access point. Less configuration headaches and more modern WiFi standards. Why limit yourself to WiFi 4 with it's vulnerabilities and limitations, when you can add an external access point and get WiFi 6/6E/7?

Nonetheless, looks like support is in FreeBSD 14 with the IWN driver.

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.3R/hardware/#wlan

The iwn driver provides support for:
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/wireless/hardware.html#ipw-4-iwi-4-iwn-4-wpi-4

iwn(4):
Supports Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965, 1000, 5000 and 6000 series PCI Express adapters.

johnpoz

@jhmc93 with @elvisimprsntr on this one - unless the wifi connection is some sort of out of band connection you use to access pfsense when the normal network is down you are going to be way better off with actual AP.. Shoot even some 20$ wifi router you use as just an AP would be better.

Freebsd and therefore pfsense are just not a good fit for wifi.

Gertjan

@elvisimprsntr said in wifi card:

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.3R/hardware/#wlan

Recheck ?
Latest pfSense releases are all based on FreeBSD 15.

elvisimprsntr

@Gertjan

I assumed if it's in FreeBSD 14, it will be in 15

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/hardware/#wlan

jhmc93

@johnpoz it's more for an emergency use tto be honest

jhmc93

@elvisimprsntr I'm using it as an emergency, but would love a guide on how to get it going, if not ill get an ubuntu machine to serve the wifi card as an access point, hope you can help, also i'm very new to pfsense still so still finding my way around

Gertjan

@jhmc93 said in wifi card:

if not ill get an ubuntu machine to serve the wifi card as an access point

?

What happened to the

@johnpoz said in wifi card:

Shoot even some 20$ wifi router you use as just an AP would be better

suggestion ?

johnpoz

@jhmc93 emergency for clients? Again you would be far better off with just some old wifi router used as an AP.. So pfsense is limited to N, and pretty sure even if supports 5ghz range - you can not run both 2.4 and 5 at the same time.

You could pick up an AC wifi router with 2 streams for like 40 bucks. Even better if you can put 3rd party firmware on it so it can do vlans, etc.

You know what would be great emergency device to use - the GL.iNet GL-SFT1200 (Opal).. I show it for like 36 bucks on amazon right now. I have one, they are great, I use it for my travel router.. Much easier to have all my devices connect to it say at the hotel vs having them all fight with captive portal.

You could use it as your emergency wifi, or as your full blown router in case pfsense blew up.. And if you travel you could take it with you and use it as travel router, etc. Its a tiny little thing.. Well worth the less than 40 bucks, and wifi wise its going to blow away anything you could do with a card in pfsense that is for sure.

johnpoz

@Gertjan said in wifi card:

suggestion ?

I would go with the gl.inet I suggest above - but if want something less than 20..

Here you go - some off brand whatever.. But its 18$ and does AC and has gig ports.. Going to be better than any card you put in pfsense ;)

edit: normally users move to pfsense from some soho wifi router they were using before, why not just leverage that as your AP? Any wifi router can be used as just an AP, even if doesn't have a "mode" for it.. Just turn off its dhcp server and connect it to your network with one of its lan ports = access point.

Other than because you can, test of your skill or just something to do in figuring out how to make it work - I would not do anything with wifi inside pfsense.. Freebsd just has no real support for wifi.. Its not a pfsense limitation, its a freebsd limitation.

jhmc93

@johnpoz I'm trying to keep the amount of equipment I'm using to a minimum but if someone cannot help, I'll use an alternative. Reason why I'm keeping equipment to a minimum is the space I have to place my pfsense firewall hence why this wifi card I need to work hopefully

Gertjan

@johnpoz

I was curious ... a AP less then 20$ and you (Bezos actually) announced 18 $, worlds most ugly (imho) router
Is that AP subsidized by some government or what ?

@johnpoz said in wifi card:

Just turn off its dhcp server and connect it to your network with one of its lan ports = access point.

That's still partially classified as rocket science amongst network admins.

Anyway, I went full "Unifi" mode recently ("look mam, no more power bricks !"), not the same price, roughly 10 x more, but oh boy, the GUI (the controller) is .... beautiful !?

Nan, that can only be valid for an American house. Here in France, probably just one room.

johnpoz

@jhmc93 why would you put your wifi AP where your router is? That is unlikely to be the best spot for wifi coverage ;)

Get a real AP and mount it where they belong (on the ceiling) - they take up really no space that way. They use poe so no need to have power where you put them, etc.

I just don't see how some N wifi card that can't even do 2.4 and 5 at the same time located where your router is would provide any sort of actual useful wifi..

I have 3 AP in my home - they take up no space since they are mounted to the ceiling. And have full coverage no matter where I am in the house.. With good signal..

Looking at the 42 devices currently connected to my wifi the lowest signal is (-61 to 65) dBm which is a firestick on the back of a TV.. So not really best place for signal ;) and strongest is -32 dBm which currently my little hub for my smoke alarms. Sitting on top of my rack under my desk. But the AP is just on the other side of the wall on the ceiling in the hallway. And that firestick prob not selecting its best choice for AP.. The TV is between it and the AP its currently connected to - bet if I moved it to a different AP its signal would go up.

Well look at that, forced it to different AP, and got like a bump of 10 in the strength.

Which came with a bump in PHY from 585 to 780.. Now its wifi isn't having to go through the TV, its connecting to AP in other direction with the TV not in the path of the signal.

I even have decent coverage outside on my patio because one of the AP is near the patio door.

You do you and good luck with it. But you are either going to have crappy wifi, or if you do it right great wifi that you never have to worry about. With low latency, stable and strong signal and coverage everywhere in your home.

I can understand a budget - but you either spend a few bucks and have something that works all the time everywhere you need it. Or you going to have to deal with low speed and spotty coverage and the frustration that comes with that sort of connection.

I would think people moving to pfsense would be after full featured stable robust network. In this day and age that would include wifi and great you got a router that can handle most anything you throw at it or want to do.. But then some N wifi card to provide wifi that can't even dual band at the same time? Which is a limitation of what freebsd wifi support is currently.

stephenw10

Yup, use an external AP.

But that card should work in pfSense. Unless it hits the firmware load bug in 2.8. I don't have one to test.

jhmc93

@johnpoz and @stephenw10 I just wanna get the card working, every time I load into pfsense it doesn't pick the card up, so if someone can just help me get it working it would be great if that's ok, I don't wanna use external. even though it suggested.

stephenw10

What does it show at boot? Some firmware failure. What pfSense version are you testing in?

stephenw10

Ah, a further issue here is that iwn doesn't support hostap mode and that's a show stopper if you want to use it as an access point:

The iwn driver supports station and monitor mode operation.

jhmc93

@stephenw10 2.8.0, not able to provide that as I can't see anything matching it

stephenw10

You should see something in the boot logs even it just shows as an unknown device. But as I say it can only work as client or to scan for traffic.

jhmc93

@stephenw10 it shows as pci but doesn't show any errors