Setting up wireless and pfsense
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New to the forums, I will try to keep this short. Currently have a dlink wireless router but with all of these devices on it now via wireless I would like to upgrade. I have ipads, laptops, wireless tvs, xbox, dsi/psp etc. So I decided to take this old pc that isn't doing anything and install pfsense. My question is, what would be the best option to setup wireless access for all of these devices? Should I just turn my dlink into a wireless access point and have all my devices go through that? Or is there more/better way to setting up wireless access via pfsense?
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Let me rephrase what Im asking, Im new to pfsense so please excuse me if what Im asking is stupid. All Im asking is to setup wireless access on my network do I just need to add an access point to the lan? Or do I have to add an access point to the lan and then do additional setup steps via pfsense for the wireless access to work? If additional steps need to be taken in pfsense to setup wireless access can you please explain this to me or point me into the right direction that shows me what I need to do to set it up? Thanks!
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IMHO: Best solution is to turn that d-link to ap, no need to double router at home at least.
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IMHO: Best solution is to turn that d-link to ap, no need to double router at home at least.
So if I connect the ap to the lan there is nothing else I need to do with pfsense?
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in pfsense you're ready to go, but in wireless router/access point you should do the modifications
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i had the same question on pfsense i have my pfsense box installed and i added a wireless card, i am planning to use this as wireless accesspoint in our office but how can i link the lan and wap together so others using wireless can still access the lan connected devices. i hope somebody could help me configuring this one i am new to pfsense.
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i had the same question on pfsense i have my pfsense box installed and i added a wireless card, i am planning to use this as wireless accesspoint in our office but how can i link the lan and wap together so others using wireless can still access the lan connected devices. i hope somebody could help me configuring this one i am new to pfsense.
I'm not sure why you put a wireless card in your pfsense box (did I understand that correctly)? The easiest way to set this up is to configure as follows
internet <–-> WAN card - pfsense box -LAN card <---> switch <---> Wireless AP <---> wireless clients
`- <---> wired clientsPlug a switch into the LAN card on pfsense. All wired clients plug into the switch. Then just configure your normal wireless router as an access point and plug it into the switch. The pfsense box will serve as the dhcp server, dns server, etc for your internal network that is connected to the switch (both wired and wireless).
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i had the same question on pfsense i have my pfsense box installed and i added a wireless card, i am planning to use this as wireless accesspoint in our office
What is the chipset in the wireless card you installed? Not all chipsets are supported and not all supported chipsets support AP mode. If your card is some sort of PCI card the most effective way to answer my question would probably be to post the output of the pfSense shell command
pciconf -l -v
If your card supports AP mode then you could
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have your wired and wireless LANs on separate IP subnets and add firewall rule(s) to allow conversations between wired and wireless systems
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create a software bridge in pfSense linking the wired and wireless networks
There is a small amount of work involved in both configurations but they are "well trodden" paths.
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to give you some idea sir rjcrowder i just maximized the usage of pfsense and what i did i installed a pci wireless card on my pfsense box just to have a wireless access point here in our office. i am new to pfsense and i find very interesting thank you for the reply
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to give you some idea sir rjcrowder i just maximized the usage of pfsense and what i did i installed a pci wireless card on my pfsense box just to have a wireless access point here in our office. i am new to pfsense and i find very interesting thank you for the reply
Makes sense… As the previous poster described, I'm certain it works.
The config that I described is just another alternative. It's what I have setup at home. Putting the switch on the LAN connection and then setting up the access point is very easy to do and doesn't require any special config on PFsense. If your wired clients and the AP are plugged into the switch, everything will be on the same subnet.
Best of luck...
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I would say the easiest way is to turn your existing router into an AP, this is exactly what I am doing with my pfsense router and the Buffalo Wireless router; they works perfectly together. ;D
In case your dlink router doesn't support AP mode, leave it on as a router will also be fine(note you will have to do double NAT).Turning the pf box into a wireless router by installing a wireless lan card is possible, however, till now only 802.11g is supported(no N support yet mainly restricted by FreeBSD) and you will have to pick carefully for a wireless NIC that is supported by pf and can function in AP mode.
That is, honestly, quite a lot of trouble. Particularly when you can just keep the current router to have all the jobs done. -
ok got it thank you guys for the reply your a big help i will try to see if my card is supported by pfsense, actually what i did was my pfsense wan is connected on the main router which is from our service provider then another 24 port switch is connected to the lan port of pfsense then i installed a wireless card on pfsense box so what i am trying to aim is to make my pfsense box is to work as firewall for lan and be an access point that all my computers connected to switch which is connected to pfsense lan be linked to my wireless card which is also installed on the same pfsense box. because now i have my lan and wireless having internet connection but i noticed this two cannot link together.
thank you