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    Bridgding problems - wireless card+LAN

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    • A
      alexandru
      last edited by

      Hello all,
      a few brownouts today toasted my AP. I put a Linksys WMP54G in my PFS box 1.2.1. It did't work (Status: no carrier). I upgraded to 1.2.3 RC1 (21.05.2009) and tried to build an AP following the instructions here: http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Access_Point2.
      After about 5 hours of reading the forums: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,15405.0.html, http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,11309.0.html, http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,11300.0.html, I still can not connect any clients.
      I might not be a total genius, but i know how to follow instructions. Pretty please, anyone? Any ideeas?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • W
        wallabybob
        last edited by

        Your wireless clients use DHCP to request an IP address? If so, you need firewall rules to pass DHCP requests.

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        • A
          alexandru
          last edited by

          Hello,
          Like this?

          Proto Source Port Destination Port Gateway Schedule Description
          UDP 0.0.0.0 68 255.255.255.255 67 *

          This is the ruleset for both LAN and WLAN. Am I missing something?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • W
            wallabybob
            last edited by

            I think you will also need a rule like:

            Proto  Source  Port  Destination  Port  Gateway  Schedule  Description         
            UDP    0.0.0.0    68    LAN address    67    *            *    *    *    *    *    *

            to cover DHCP lease renewal requests which I believe are sent to the IP address of the last used server rather than to the broadcast address.

            The Linksys WMP54G is apparently a wireless LAN PCI card but it can have a variety of different chipsets. Do you know what is in yours? Is it a Ralink?

            What reported "no carrier"? On what interface? Is that still reported?

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            • A
              alexandru
              last edited by

              Yes, Ralink chipset, reported as ral0. From what i read here: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.0R/hardware.html,  Linksys WMP54G.V4 under the is suported. Mine is the EU version, do you think that there are many differences?
              Status: no carrier appeared in PFS 1.2.1 under Status - Interfaces for ral0. Now, 1.2.3 RC1, it shows up OK under Status - Interfaces.

              However, when i ran (2 min ago - your question about the chipset made me think) "dmesg | grep ral0" this is what i get:

              ral0: <ralink technology="" rt2561s="">mem 0x40000000-0x40007fff irq 21 at device 10.0 on pci2
ral0: MAC/BBP RT2561C, RF RT2527
ral0: Ethernet address: 00:23:69:02:6c:1b
ral0: [ITHREAD]
ral0: sending data frame failed 0x00009f1b
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: device timeout
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled
ral0: promiscuous mode disabled
ral0: promiscuous mode enabled</ralink>

              ???

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              • W
                wallabybob
                last edited by

                I think promiscuous mode will be enabled on a bridged interface. It doesn't look good that it is enabled and disabled repeatedly.

                I've been reading the forums for over a year now and have rarely seen reports on ralink wireless NICs which suggests either very few people use them OR they normally "just work". Depending on how much time you are prepared to put into resolving this issue you might be better off going to an Atheros based wireless NIC (e.g. one of the TP Link TL-WN550G, TL-WN551G, TL-WN650G, TL-WN651G though there are many brands that use Atheros chipsets). The Atheros based devices are well regarded in these forums and generally seem to be trouble free though there have been a couple of reports in the 1.2.3-Prerelease testing snapshots forum of Atheros interfaces not working. I have not had any trouble with any of the 1.2.3 builds and my TP Link TL-WN651G.

                You could use http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts/default.asp to check if a particular card has a supported Atheros chipset or http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ which, although it is specifically about Linux drivers, has been useful to me in the past for working out if a particular model has a chipset that is supported by FreeBSD.

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                • A
                  alexandru
                  last edited by

                  @wallabybob:

                  Depending on how much time you are prepared to put into resolving this issue you might be better off ….

                  I'd like to make it work. However, time is not the problem…knowledge is. Or the lack of it...  :P

                  I will switch to an Atheros based card. Funny thing w/ this [censored] adapter…it never worked under Vista either, although it's advertised as being Vista Certified. Thank you very much Linksys.

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                  • A
                    alexandru
                    last edited by

                    Hello all (again),

                    got my hands on a TP-Link TL WN651G rev 1.5.

                    ath0: <atheros 5212=""> mem 0x40000000-0x4000ffff irq 21 at device 10.0 on pci2
ath0: [ITHREAD]
ath0: WARNING: using obsoleted if_watchdog interface
ath0: Ethernet address: 00:25:86:cb:1b:5b
ath0: mac 7.9 phy 4.5 radio 5.6</atheros>
```.

I had it bridged w/ LAN if

                    fxp0: <intel 100="" 82801ba="" cam="" (ich2="" 3)="" pro="" ethernet=""> port 0x1400-0x143f mem 0x40100000-0x40100fff irq 20 at device 8.0 on pci2</intel>

                    
The problem is that i keep getting this errors when i do _dmesg | grep ath0_

                    $ dmesg | grep ath0
                    ath0: <atheros 5212=""> mem 0x40000000-0x4000ffff irq 21 at device 10.0 on pci2
                    ath0: [ITHREAD]
                    ath0: WARNING: using obsoleted if_watchdog interface
                    ath0: Ethernet address: 00:25:86:cb:1b:5b
                    ath0: mac 7.9 phy 4.5 radio 5.6
                    ath0: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel 6 (2437 Mhz, flags 0x490 hal flags 0x150), hal status 12
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 12
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 12
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 12
                    ath0: promiscuous mode enabled
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: promiscuous mode disabled
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 12
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 12
                    ath0: promiscuous mode enabled
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0
                    ath0: promiscuous mode disabled
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 12
                    ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 12
                    ath0: promiscuous mode enabled</atheros>

                    
this is _dmesg | grep bridge0_

                    $ dmesg | grep bridge0
                    bridge0: Ethernet address: ea:f8:75:01:66:db
                    bridge0: Ethernet address: a2:ed:51:df:03:7d
                    bridge0: Ethernet address: 5e:85:85:ec:4d:f3

                    
Under status_interfaces.php the ath0's if shows as _Status no carrier_

Oh…and it doesn't work :(
Anyone...any ideeas?
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                    • W
                      wallabybob
                      last edited by

                      Does the card work in another slot? another system?

                      Any chance some "foreign material" might have fallen into the PCI connector and is now preventing one or more connectors on the card making good contact?

                      Does another card (say a LAN card) work in the same slot?

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                      • W
                        wallabybob
                        last edited by

                        Also see http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,18606.0.html  for a possible remedy.

                        It might be worth "unbridging" the WLAN card, assigning a static and seeing if the card now works.

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                        • A
                          alexandru
                          last edited by

                          Does another card (say a LAN card) work in the same slot?

                          My answer is not exactlly what you asked, but please bare w/ me. My configurations is a 933MHz, 512Mb RAM, 10Gb Hdd Compaq Deskpro ENL. Funny thing is this: at first I had 2 Intel adapters: fxp0 (onboard) and fxp1 (addon). After adding ath0, the two Intel adapters became switched (fxp0 became fxp1 and viceversa). After about 100 pings (on any adapter. tested it about 4 times) network would go down, no interface would respond anymore. Replaced the addon Intel card w/ a Realtek card (rl0) - problem solved. Sounds SF? Perhaps.

                          Does the card work in another slot? another system?

                          Tested it under 4 (more or less different) systems:
                          1. Dell Poweredge 2400 runing pfSense 1.2.3 RC2 fresh install (same result - no carrier, ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0/12 )
                          2. Intel Pentium 4 2400MHz, ASRock Intel 945GC, 512MB RAM, 10 GB Seagate HDD, running Live Ubuntu 9.04 Server (it worked both as client and as AP)
                          3. same as above, running Zeroshell 1.0.beta12 CD (it worked)
                          4. same as above, running pfSense 1.2.2 fresh install (same result - no carrier, ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 0/12 )
                          5. If time permits I will test it today w/ Smoothwall, Monowall and Astaro Internet Security, but pfSense is the main goal.

                          Any chance some "foreign material" might have fallen into the PCI connector and is now preventing one or more connectors on the card making good contact?

                          No

                          Also see http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,18606.0.html  for a possible remedy.

                          It might be worth "unbridging" the WLAN card, assigning a static and seeing if the card now works.

                          ath0 unbridged, assigned a static IP…still no joy.

                          wallabybob, what revision of the WN651G are you using?

                          L.E. Monowall works...flawlessly! under 10% errors

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                          • W
                            wallabybob
                            last edited by

                            @alexandru:

                            On the box it says 1.5.

                            Exactly what version of pfSense are you using? I'm currently using the snapshot build.

                            1.2.3-RC2
                            built on Tue Jun 16 04:58:42 EDT 2009

                            I've been updating the snapshot builds every couple of months or so. Therefore there is a considerable number of snapshot builds I haven't tried.

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                            • A
                              alexandru
                              last edited by

                              It's working…i don't know how, but sometimes it works. I said sometimes because if I reboot it stops working and I have to destroy the ath0 interface, re-add it, get it up, manually recreate the bridge w/ ifconfig bridge0 create , add the interfaces manually and then go in the webif and configure the wireless properties. I'm happy it's working, but…

                              Btw...it works verry nice under pfSense 1.2-RELEASE :)). It stops working after pfSense 1.2.1-RELEASE :(

                              Ooops…forgot to say that I'm using the latest build of pfSense 1.2.3-RC2.

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                              • M
                                mr_lore
                                last edited by

                                Any movement on this?

                                I have the exact card and the no carrier issue as well, running 1.2.3 RC3.  I have not tried the manual bridging yet…

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