WIFI and LTE
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@flipperen said in WIFI and LTE:
my goal is to have a single box that handles WAN, LAN, LTE and WIFI. :-)
Then to be honest pfsense is prob not your best choice - since its based on freebsd, and freebsd support for wifi is very lacking..
If what you want is single box that does all that stuff I would suggest you look at the cradlepoint stuff..
Or just get a box you run pfsense on - then a lte modem that hands off LTE to ethernet, and and a wifi AP... Which can be put together for cheap. And will just rock it.. Just not all in 1 box.. And to be honest wifi AP is prob not going to be in the best location where your router is - best to place that or multiples of them in the locations for best coverage..
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@JKnott said in WIFI and LTE:
As I understand it, WiFi problems tend to be due to poor WiFi support in FreeBSD, which pfSense runs on. So, your best bet would be to contact the FreeBSD folks.
Ah, so the root cause is poor WIFI support in FreeBSD. This complicates matters a bit :-)
@johnpoz said in WIFI and LTE:
@flipperen said in WIFI and LTE:
my goal is to have a single box that handles WAN, LAN, LTE and WIFI. :-)
Then to be honest pfsense is prob not your best choice - since its based on freebsd, and freebsd support for wifi is very lacking..
If what you want is single box that does all that stuff I would suggest you look at the cradlepoint stuff..
Or just get a box you run pfsense on - then a lte modem that hands off LTE to ethernet, and and a wifi AP... Which can be put together for cheap. And will just rock it.. Just not all in 1 box.. And to be honest wifi AP is prob not going to be in the best location where your router is - best to place that or multiples of them in the locations for best coverage..
My current setup is a pfsense router (PC Engines APU3B4), a Huawei LTE-modem(router in bridge-mode) and a TP-Link WIFI-router (in AP-mode). The LAN consists of 2x Cisco 12 port gigabit switches located in two different rooms. My goal was to eliminate the TP-Link router and the Huawei router but the best solution could very well be to continue to have the services divided on multiple units. How is the support for LTE in FreeBSD/pfsense? I've never tried it but my APU does have 2x SIM slots so I have the possibility to move the SIM-card from the Huawei-router thus reducing the amount of equipment. :-)
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I personally never understood this desire to put everything in 1 box.. Almost never does all the features you talk about work out to be best places in single spot.
Where the internet comes into your dwelling is prob not the best place for everything. So you place the modem there, then run the line to where you would like to best place the router.. In business this would be the dmarc and then the IDF room..
You then if need be can place your switches where needed for access.. This may or may not be the same location as the IDF.. Then wifi is going to be best place to cover the most area for wifi. This rarely going to be the dmarc or idf location ;)
Putting all things in 1 box also means you have a single point of failure where if the box fails you could have catastrophic loss of everything.. If services are broken out into their constitute parts if something fails you only loose that piece of the overall network.
Separation of function also allows you to work or replace or even upgrade pieces of the network without taking the whole thing offline, etc..
Also it is almost never the case where all the features once shoved into the 1 box are best choices for each piece of the puzzle.. Also once placed into single piece of equipment you are constrained even in software - since your going to be limited to the maker of said equipment to update the overall software, or support all the pieces you might put in the box.. For example the problem of freebsd wifi support being what we could call lacking at best ;)
Just my take on the matter - but good luck on your hunt for single piece of equipment to do everything...
If you do want a single box - I will again suggest the cradlepoints - but they are not what I would call "cheap"
Another option that does LTE and wifi all in small footprint and not really a bad price would be say the netgear m1 nighthawk travel router.. They do have their use case for sure - having one of them in your travel kit could be very useful for example.
Or just use the gateway box your isp wants you to use for X $ month rent ;) They normally combine everything into one little box.. modem/router/wifi/switch ports.
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@flipperen said in WIFI and LTE:
Will the pfsense 2.5 support the wle900vx
Maybe. No promises at this point. I'm testing the wle600 currently which works at .11n mode only in FreeBSD 12 right now but looks promising. If it does the support will be very early. It's never going to be as good as a dedicated access point.
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/142991/athp-driverSteve
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@flipperen said in WIFI and LTE:
are there any recommendations for LTE-modems?
Huawei B618 is one of the best LTE-modem.
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@neelsha02 said in WIFI and LTE:
Huawei B618
That is not a "modem" that is a wifi router with LTE..
Something like a netgear LB1120, would be a "modem"
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Also it's not something that will allow:
...my goal is to have a single box that handles WAN, LAN, LTE and WIFI
Steve
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@flipperen said in WIFI and LTE:
recommendations for LTE-modems?
You should try Verizon MiFi 6620L Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot.
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That would likely work well but it's also not a single box solution and not a modem it's a router with all that implies.
Steve
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@stephenw10 said in WIFI and LTE:
That would likely work well but it's also not a single box solution and not a modem it's a router with all that implies.
Does such a solution even exist in one box?
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Possibly not and if it does should that really be the target?
You can use internal mPCIe/m.2 modems and they work well enough, I use one here. Whether you would count it as '4G LTE' though..... I get ~40Mbps on good days.
Steve
