Which of below mini pci-express wifi cards support ap mode

Snailkhan

@Phishfry:

Atheros AR5BXB63 will for sure. Be advised it is only a 802.11G card.

thanks i bough two one is b63 other is b91..
how do i know if it supports multiple ssids ?

Guest

It is built in the ath(4) driver.

ifconfig wlan0 list caps

Have you made clones of your wireless interface and checked. Most atheros cards allow at least 3 clones and one parent.

Snailkhan

@Phishfry:

It is built in the ath(4) driver.

ifconfig wlan0 list caps

Have you made clones of your wireless interface and checked. Most atheros cards allow at least 3 clones and one parent.

[2.2.5-RELEASE][admin@Burki.pfsense.local]/root: ifconfig ath0 list caps
ifconfig: unable to get device capabilities: Invalid argument

also i have configured singel ssid and it is working . but i need to check for multiple ssids .

i can also get a hand on a mini pci e card from apple..
ar5bxb6
ar5bxb72
BCM94321MC

any idea any idea of any of above supported on pfsense and also support multiple ssids ?

Snailkhan

@Snailkhan:

@Phishfry:

It is built in the ath(4) driver.

ifconfig wlan0 list caps

Have you made clones of your wireless interface and checked. Most atheros cards allow at least 3 clones and one parent.

[2.2.5-RELEASE][admin@Burki.pfsense.local]/root: ifconfig ath0 list caps
ifconfig: unable to get device capabilities: Invalid argument

also i have configured singel ssid and it is working . but i need to check for multiple ssids .

i can also get a hand on a mini pci e card from apple..
ar5bxb6
ar5bxb72
BCM94321MC

any idea any idea of any of above supported on pfsense and also support multiple ssids ?

i didnt knew of clone .. so after i cloned it i was able to create maximum of 4 ssids.
one is parent and 3 clones ( couldnt create 4th clone).
then i enabled dhcp on each interface for thier subnets.. allowed their traffic to any any .. then allowed nat … i tested each ssid after creating it individually and internet was working.. but when all 4 were configured i couldnt see the ssd from parent interface .. and in status that was shown as down,, tried enabling disabling it .. but it didnt appear.

Guest

Well it sounds like you have the gist of it. Not sure why you have problem with parent ssid.
I would use this adapter from your list:ar5bxb72
The best cheap one on ebay is atheros AR5BXB112.

The –ifconfig wlan0 list caps-- will not really show you anything useful for number of VAP's supported. To use that command you would need to append your interface name onto it. pfSense adds the interface name like this --wlan0_opt1-- I do believe. Was a bad suggestion.

Snailkhan

@Phishfry:

Well it sounds like you have the gist of it. Not sure why you have problem with parent ssid.
I would use this adapter from your list:ar5bxb72
The best cheap one on ebay is atheros AR5BXB112.

The –ifconfig wlan0 list caps-- will not really show you anything useful for number of VAP's supported. To use that command you would need to append your interface name onto it. pfSense adds the interface name like this --wlan0_opt1-- I do believe. Was a bad suggestion.

i reset it to factory default and then again configured and was able to get all 4 ssids to work.

i am trying to get iperf to work on pfsense box to assess the speed.

i tested it on AR5BXB63 and AR5B91

Guest

If your going for speed go for the DFS(mid-upper) channels in the 5ghz band.

Guest

Here is a good in-depth read on why channel selection is so important.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/wireless-infrastructure/dynamic-frequency-selection-part-3-the-channel-dilemma/a/d-id/1234489?

Derelict

And: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1250-series/design_guide_c07-693245.pdf

Guest

If you notice here

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros_AR5BXB72

This one is 802.11 AGN so 5ghz.

It does use the older AR5xxx series chip but it is a good card being a extreme(X) version of the reference design used commonly in Mac's

The AR5B91 is newer but only offers 2.4ghz coverage.
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros_AR5B91