Wireless - VMware 6.5 - Debian
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I have 3 Ethernet cards and 3 Wireless cards, the only thing I can not seem to get going is the wireless under a pfsense virtual machine. I currently have the wireless cards bridged in my virtual network editor. Should I be using NAT instead and have all the wireless cards connected to each of their connections in linux?
I am using Debian Lenny as Host and pfsense 1.2.2 guest. All wired/wireless cards work great under linux (atheros)
My goal is to have all WAN/WIFI connections load balanced out to LAN.
Thanks in advance
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Is more information needed here?
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AFAIK you can only have 4 interfaces in a single VM.
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Thanks for the response…
So that is a limit for pfs? I know vmware 6.5 has a max of 10.. Actually..
"Guest OS installs are limited to two processors, a maximum of 8GB of system memory and a maximum of 10 network adapters. Compatibility with VMware's ESX server is limited to version 4.xx and below of Workstation."
All of my network interfaces come up under vmware and the pfs guest. Problem is I do not know how to make multiWAN's with the wireless. Wired WAN from router is fine, amazing speed, OPT1, OPT2 and OPT3 are there and detected but not as wireless. I have them bridged in the VM Virtual Network Editor. If I connected them all, in my linux distro at the same time (each connected to their individual SSID) could I load balance in a pfs vm?
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Ah then they changed it.
The last time i treid to make a virtual pfSense with vmware there was a limit of 4 virtual network adapters.For the wireless i'm not sue if this is possible with a bridge.
I think i once read somewhere something about not being able to bridge wireless-interfaces because then you'd have 2 MAC's for the same interface and this isnt allowed by 802.11 standard.
Not sure about that.In the worst case you would have to let the host-system connect to the wireless network, and then NAT the virtual system to the host.
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Thanks for the direction. I had a feeling that was going to be the way. I started editing my interfaces config last night to make them static.
If anyone has gotten this to work I would really appreciate the input. Thanks
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You can bridge to wireless in VMware, it translates the MAC address to the MAC of the wireless adapter you're bridging to. I've never tried multiple wireless cards in a single box though. I have done multiple wired cards in a single box with bridging and that works fine.
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CMB,
I saw that it grabbed the mac address when I bridged them. My concern was they were not detected as wireless cards. My OPT1 option screen was that of an ethernet. Although I have multiple wireless cards I am starting with 2 wired and 1 wireless (1 wired + 1 wireless as LoadBalanced WAN and obviously the other wired is my LAN) until working. then I will continue to add one at a time.
SO would it be better to bridge or NAT? I am in the VMware forums now asking howto NAT to a specific interface.
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Thanks Again For The Input.
Everything works great. Here is a quick overview in-case someone else has a similar question.
Host: Ubuntu 8.10
Guest: pfsense 1.2
VMWorkstation 6.51 Lan
1 WAN
1 OPT (wireless WAN)connected WAN and LAN with standard setup.
Wireless interface (OPT1) I have connected to my desired wireless connection through Ubuntu's (host) Network Manager. I bridged a connection to wlan0 (my wireless, yours may be ath0 or something else) in the virtual network editor. pfsense detects this connection as an ethernet wan. I than followed the instructions found at http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/MultiWanVersion1.2 for multiple wan load balancing. I have a few minor details to tweak but all and all its works great. I am able to ping with 0 loss with both connection using pfsense Diagnostic option.PFsense is an amazing piece of software.
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Would just like to add one thing here.
This method was great because I am able to use the compatibility of linux's wireless cards that freebsd/pfsense does not. For Example my wireless N Draft cards.
