Created access point on laptop, but no connection? Help, please!
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Hello! I'm very new to pfSense. Yesterday I installed pfSense onto my HP dv5-1250us. Today I turned it into an access point! It shows up on my laptop, android phone, and PS3, but none of my devices are able to connect to it.
I pretty much just did what this guy did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd3sHu5uTGw It seemed outdated, but I gave it a shot and it created the access point for me! Sadly no connections though.
I'm at a loss on what to do. Any help is appreciated, thanks!
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Sorry if my questions would be answered by the video. I'm currently at a remote location with insufficient bandwidth to watch it.
Please clarify what you mean by @doremi:
none of my devices are able to connect to it.
1. Your devices don't associate with the access point? (see Status -> Wireless on your pfSense web server to see if pFsense thinks they have associated)
2. Your devices don't get an IP address from pfSense? (Did you configure DHCP server on the wireless interface?)
3. Your devices can't access the Internet? (If your wireless interface is not the pfSense LAN interface you will need to configure a firewall rule to allow computers on your wireless network to access the internet. If you changed or added firewall rules you may need to reset firewall states - see Diagnostics -> States on your pfSense web server and click on the Reset States tab for an explanation and a button to reset firewall states.) -
Sorry if my questions would be answered by the video. I'm currently at a remote location with insufficient bandwidth to watch it.
Please clarify what you mean by @doremi:
none of my devices are able to connect to it.
1. Your devices don't associate with the access point? (see Status -> Wireless on your pfSense web server to see if pFsense thinks they have associated)
2. Your devices don't get an IP address from pfSense? (Did you configure DHCP server on the wireless interface?)
3. Your devices can't access the Internet? (If your wireless interface is not the pfSense LAN interface you will need to configure a firewall rule to allow computers on your wireless network to access the internet. If you changed or added firewall rules you may need to reset firewall states - see Diagnostics -> States on your pfSense web server and click on the Reset States tab for an explanation and a button to reset firewall states.)Thank you for helping! :D
1. It shows that they're able to associate. I tried connecting my phone and when I looked under wireless it showed up. My phone stayed in the "Getting IP" part.
2. When connecting they don't get an IP, or if they do (so far only my laptop has) it's with limited connection. In the video, the person just said to turn off DHCP server. Is that wrong? If it is, then I don't know how to configure it. ):
3. They are also not able to access the internet. I made a rule for my WAN (which is my WiFi) to pass any, because he showed that in the video. I also reset it like you said. -
1. It shows that they're able to associate.
Good start!.
My phone stayed in the "Getting IP" part.
Its looking for a response from a DHCP server.
2. When connecting they don't get an IP, or if they do (so far only my laptop has) it's with limited connection.
Windows generally picks some random, seemingly unused IP address starting with 169 if it doesn't hear from a DHCP server (assuming it is configured to use DHCP, and that is the default).
In the video, the person just said to turn off DHCP server. Is that wrong?
Yes, when you have systems looking for a DHCP server.
3. They are also not able to access the internet. I made a rule for my WAN (which is my WiFi) to pass any, because he showed that in the video.
This is troubling. The WAN link in pfSense is the interface through which pfSense connects to the Internet. This implies that you have a WiFi router somewhere that connects to your Access Point in the laptop and provides the internet connection. This is at least a little bit unusual, though not necessarily wrong or impossible.
In particular, if your pfSense WAN interface is the WiFi link then your phone, laptop etc shouldn't be connecting to it.
Please explain how you intend your pfSense to connect to the internet and give some more details of your configuration.
I'm on the road and will likely be offline for up to the next two days. If there aren't any other readers jumping in to help you could probably be profitably spending some time reading some of the pfSense FAQs and How-tos on http://doc.pfsense.org
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3. They are also not able to access the internet. I made a rule for my WAN (which is my WiFi) to pass any, because he showed that in the video.
This is troubling. The WAN link in pfSense is the interface through which pfSense connects to the Internet. This implies that you have a WiFi router somewhere that connects to your Access Point in the laptop and provides the internet connection. This is at least a little bit unusual, though not necessarily wrong or impossible.
In particular, if your pfSense WAN interface is the WiFi link then your phone, laptop etc shouldn't be connecting to it.
Please explain how you intend your pfSense to connect to the internet and give some more details of your configuration.
I'm on the road and will likely be offline for up to the next two days. If there aren't any other readers jumping in to help you could probably be profitably spending some time reading some of the pfSense FAQs and How-tos on http://doc.pfsense.org
Oh gosh. So I got my phone and laptop to connect to it, but there's no internet. I re-configured my pfSense to what is shown on the pfSense documents. Am I doing this wrong? Maybe I was mistaken, but I can't just turn my laptop into a WiFi router? Am I able to turn it into a repeater, maybe? I'm renting a downstairs/basement and the WiFi isn't great here. I thought since I have a spare laptop it could be of use to strengthen my WiFi instead of going out to buy a reapeater or something.
):
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Oh gosh. So I got my phone and laptop to connect to it, but there's no internet. I re-configured my pfSense to what is shown on the pfSense documents. Am I doing this wrong? Maybe I was mistaken, but I can't just turn my laptop into a WiFi router? Am I able to turn it into a repeater, maybe? I'm renting a downstairs/basement and the WiFi isn't great here. I thought since I have a spare laptop it could be of use to strengthen my WiFi instead of going out to buy a reapeater or something.
):
You still haven't revealed how you expect your pfSense to connect to the Internet: over a Ethernet cable to a WiFi router upstatirs? Over a WiFi link to a Wifi Router upstairs? Over a 3G link to the mobile phone network? Over a taut string between two tin cans? Magic? I would recommend the first option
You can have pfSense act as WiFi router or a WiFi "repeater" or a number of things, but you may have to add particular interfaces to the laptop to get it to do what you want.