How to make a cheap AP with Pfsense?
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Hey guys… If I get a regular wireless PCI card, will I instantly turn Pfsense into an AP? I couldn't find this in any faq or here.
What do I need? Because Pfsense only needs a Wireless card to turn into an AP, but the signal will suck if I don't make it stronger with another device, right?
How do I do that?
Thx! -
Hey guys… If I get a regular wireless PCI card, will I instantly turn Pfsense into an AP? I couldn't find this in any faq or here.
Well, not "instantly", but after configuring the wireless interface for hostap, yes, you'll have an AP. It's easy.
What do I need?
A supported wireless card. Anything with an Atheros chipset is recommended, they're the most reliable.
Because Pfsense only needs a Wireless card to turn into an AP, but the signal will suck if I don't make it stronger with another device, right?
No, the signal depends on what kind of antenna you have on the wireless card. Get a card that uses standard SMA connectors on the card (most do), then you can buy whatever kind of antenna you want from wireless vendors like netgate.com if the stock antenna isn't adequate. Depending on the amount of area you need to cover, and specifics of your environment, the stock antenna may work just fine.
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Btw, ever opened one of these Accesspoints that you can buy? Lot's of them have a minipci or even cardbus card in there that are wired to the antenna with a pigtailcable (for example see http://www.ralphfowler.com/links/dwl900.html for some shots of an open dlink AP with pccard at the bottom of the article).