High volume WAP build.. any NIC advise?
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So…. I'm eyeballing the Intel 7260HMWDTX1 Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 PCIe plus Bluetooth 4.0 AC1200 Wireless adapter
Here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106192Haven't seen much if/any posts on the web regarding pfsense or general freebsd support for this specific NIC, but I figured, hey - it's Intel, so it's probably supported. Strong emphasis on 'probably'. Anyone have any experience with this thing and pfSense? I'm looking to build a stable Captive Portal locked unit that will see between 30 and 50 concurrent connections on average, mixed environment and fairly high throughput.
Also, generally speaking, do these types of desktop/laptop dual band wifi adapters handle simultaneous 802.11b/g/n/ac mixed mode operation very well? I'm accustomed to deploying dual radio cisco WAPs, where global performance degradation is not really a concern. This particular customer is more budget conscious however, but also does not want to sacrifice stability and flexibility. I will be buying parts soon and doing some testing on my own.
If I'm barking up the wrong tree with this plan, I'd like to know now. I don't like the idea of multiple external WAPs for this project, but I suppose if that's the way I need to go then so be it.
Thanks!
Dan
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Ah.. I just read a few posts below.. NO PCIe cards really work well. They're cheap enough I guess, maybe I'll just buy one anyway and test against the 2.2 beta for grins.
Dan
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That card won't work. In fact, only a few 802.11n cards work and even those will only run at "g" speeds.
I'd strongly suggest ditching pfSense for your wireless needs and use external access points.
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DRAT! Well I bought it on Amazon before I read this reply. Oh well. This the case even on ver 2.2?
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DRAT! Well I bought it on Amazon before I read this reply. Oh well. This the case even on ver 2.2?
802.11n support should be much better but I believe ac is still out. Support for wireless is always going to lag the hardware by a lot. You're better off with an external access point.
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pfsense has really poor support for wifi, even with 2.2. If you want something that does wifi really well and has AC support try out MikroTik RouterOS, or just buy a stand-alone wireless AP.