Acces point with wifi card not working

pvg103 · Aug 26, 2012, 4:54 PM

hi,
i want to setup an acces point with a wifi card. im using an atheros chipset wifi card. pfsense 2.1

interfaces:
-em1 = wan (wan ip given by isp)
-em0 = lan (192.168.1.1)
-opt1 = alc0 (atheros card)

wan and lan are working great. opti1 interface is enabled with static ip (192.168.3.1). i created a bridge with em0 and opt1. then i go to the wireless tab.

there are three things to fill in:
-parent interface
-mode
-description

i set mode to acces point. discription called wifi. now comes the problem. parent interface option is blank. when i use the down Arrow, no options available. im getting an error message when i just click on the save button.

error: The following input errors were detected:
The field 'Parent interface' is required.

is this a bug in pfsense??

gderf · Aug 26, 2012, 5:02 PM

IIRC, an interface that is bridged to another does not have an IP address.

You say opt1 has IP 192.168.3.1. But it should not have an IP at all. You bridge it to parent em0 instead.

pvg103 · Aug 26, 2012, 5:50 PM

i created abridge allready with lan and opt1 (alc0 and em0). i allready mentioned this in the topic start post. even without an ip, the option stays blank in de wireless tab. at the start page. the interfaces are up. (em1, em0, alc0).

wallabybob · Aug 26, 2012, 9:18 PM

alc is the FreeBSD device name of a Gigabit/Fast Ethernet interface, not a WiFi interface. See the FreeBSD man page for alc at http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=alc&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.3-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html

If the supposed WiFi card was really recognised as a WiFi card it would have a FreeBSD device name of ath.

@pvg103:

the option stays blank in de wireless tab.

I presume you mean you go to Interfaces -> (assign), click on the Wireless tab and then click on the "+" to clone a wireless interface. If the supposed WiFi card is really called alc0, then the the system doesn't believe you have a WiFi interface available to pfSense and hence is not offering you any option for the parent of cloned interface because there is no interface available to be the parent.

Some possibilities:

You have a Wifi card with a LAN chip in it
You have a motherboard with an alc interface and you have a real Wifi card with a ath chip in it but you haven't clicked "+" on Interfaces -> (assign) to add the ath to the pfSense pool of available interaces

Please post the output of pfSense shell command```

pciconf -l -v

pvg103 · Aug 28, 2012, 1:14 PM

well, i placed a different atheros wifi card. now it works very well. i assigned opti1 (ath driver). now i get wireless options when i enable the opti1 interface. the other atheros card (alc0) isnt working. i think its a driver issue. can i install seperate drivers for that alc0 card? then i use both of them.

wallabybob · Aug 28, 2012, 9:00 PM

@pvg103:

the other atheros card (alc0) isnt working. i think its a driver issue.

Do you have some evidence to support that thought? And what do you mean by "isn't working" - pfSense doesn't allow setting WiFi parameters for it?

@pvg103:

can i install seperate drivers for that alc0 card?

Possibly. Lets find out a bit more about it first. Please post the output of pfSense shell command```

pciconf -l -v

pvg103 · Aug 29, 2012, 7:08 PM

teh card recognized in pfsense, but there werent wireless parameters to setup….