What is a good Wireless NIC ?

browndawg74

I just installed this firewall at my job, and I have a PC computer running this firewall. I am wondering with PCI wireless Nic Card to put in my computer? I was just wondering how to get wireless part to work because I am looking into one box for the network and wireless network.

lsf

This has been asked and answered many times before: http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility
My personal choice for a PCI card atm. is the 3CRDAG675B. it has a SMA connector and removable antenna.

trendchiller

I'm using a NetGear WPN311 with atheros chipset and it works like a charm ;D

Jonb

Has anyone tryed the netgear WG311

goofyfoot

im using a CB9-GP i bought from netgate.com. its pretty sweet. they have Atheros based minipci cards also.

ZGamer

Using an Airlink101 AWLH4030 PCI Card (Atheros Super-G chipset) and it works pretty decent as long as the SSID is visible.

darbin

Hi,

Has anyone had any experience with this card EMP-8602 6G: 802.11a/b/g 400mW with the Atheros AR5006 6th generation chipset?

politicorific

I'm about to add wireless functionality to my pfsense box

Will this card work:
http://3btech.net/hp51wi80pcic.html
according to the documentation its an Atheros AR5006X chipset, which is absent from the

according to this
http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility/3Com#Wireless11abgPCIAdapter3CRDAG675B
it's acutally one of these:
http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility/Atheros#AtherosAR5006XS

Are the AR5006X and AR5006XS the same?
I don't want a stack of worthless PCI cards laying around and I'd rather not waste a lot of money on this

cmb

All Atheros cards should work except for AR5005VL chipset. So that should work, but I wouldn't buy "a stack" of them (or anything for that matter, for pfsense or anything else) before buying and trying one.

politicorific

excellent CMB! Thanks again - you are invaluable to this community, I think you've answered 2-3 of my questions regarding both m0n0wall and pfsense. I will update this when it comes - South Bend is only 3 hours away, so it should be soon

politicorific

card arrived today, Pfsense 1.0 didn't detect the card, downloaded 1.2beta and I'm currently trying to setup another box to switchover to. Running the beta worries me, as I've already attempted to setup the ath0 as an optional interface and the system locked up hard.

hoba

@politicorific:

Running the beta worries me, as I've already attempted to setup the ath0 as an optional interface and the system locked up hard.

The 1.2 beta is actually the better choice in many ways over 1.0.1 imo. Not to mention that it has the newer freebsd with newer drivers.

valnar

Can anyone recommend the best 802.11g miniPCI card for a WRAP board? WPA/TKIP support is a must.

Thanks, Robert

GruensFroeschli

I dont know if it's the "best" but i use in several places the WLM54G from pcengines which is an atheros-based card and i never had any problems.
http://pcengines.ch/wlm54g23.htm

(webshop here: http://pcengines.ch/order.php )

lsf

Just for information, the cards from compex work very well ( http://www.compex.com.sg/home/index.asp ).
They are also the makers of the wlm54g23, I prefer to buy ABG cards so I can live quietly on the 5.XGhz band.
My favorite card atm is the WLM54AG-23dBm (MiniPCI).
see: http://www.compex.com.sg/home/products.asp?112519 for more information.

cybrsrfr

I've been looking for a USB wireless 802.11b/g device that works on PFSense and I finally found the Linksys WUSB54G v4. It uses the Ralink chipset. You need to make sure that it is version 4 otherwise it will not be the right chipset. The only place I have been able to find them has been on ebay search for 'WUSB54G v4'.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=WUSB54G+v4&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&ebaytag1=ebayreg&srchdesc=n&maxRecordsReturned=300&maxRecordsPerPage=50&SortProperty=MetaEndSort

Antenna Mod links.
http://daouid.googlepages.com/wusb54gantennamod2
http://wifi-modification.blogspot.com/2007/04/linksys-wusb54g-modification-for.html
http://egidy.de/wifi/wusb54g/
http://0wned.it/view/2007/04/14/modified_linksys_wusb54g_antenna_for_fun_and_profit/

For other devices that may work see this list.
http://ralink.rapla.net/

I Hope this helps someone.

eckman

I have done some extensive searching of the list of wireless adapters that work with pfsense. I have found the 311T to be the only one still sold, but there is some debate if the revision 2 that is sold new will work with open source OS's like Free BSD and versions of linux. Anyone that could link me a good new adapter thats less than the cisco adapter at 150$ it would be appreciated. It seems alot of the Dlink adapters that are on the list are no longer sold new. Any information at all would be helpful.

Thanks
Eckman

cybrsrfr

I've been considering an atheros based mini-pci cards from Netgate combined with mini-pci to PCI adapter.
http://www.netgate.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_34&products_id=221

I've tested this mini-pci card which works fine but I have not yet tested it with the PCI adapter card.
http://www.netgate.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_34&products_id=474

eckman

I would be interested in how that works out. It looks like an option but I have been thinking about swallowing the 150 bucks for the cisco card.

Thanks
Eckman

sb1

Mentioned earlier by someone else - but to just reinforce this, I've had success with the 3Com PCI WLAN adapter, model 3CRDAG675B.

As an FYI… I did not have success with a Belkin PCI WLAN card (RTL8185L).

Also, I had a non-Intel PCI NIC setup for captured portal on the pfSense box as well (and working), but after adding the 3com WLAN card I couldn't get pfSense box to boot up all the way (same issue with the Belkin). After removing the non-Intel NIC, and leaving the 3com WLAN adapter installed, all was well (the Belkin was never detected). After clicking Interfaces>Assign I was able to add the new WLAN interface and configure it to associate with an AP.