Accesspoint configuration
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@johnpoz
Yes I only want ot have Wifi on my LAN
I already have an AP (linksys under openwrt) the goal was to limit hardware and have everything on the pfsense appliance.
I am trying to set up the AP on pfsense but if it's too complicated, I'll keep tha acutal AP. -
Unless your AP is some old G model, your speed via your actual AP is going to be better option for sure. freebsd has no support for AC that is for sure.
Use of AP other then in your pfsense device also allows for better placement, so you get better coverage.
Its almost always going to be a better option to use dedicated AP vs internal - almost ALWAYS!!!
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@johnpoz said in Accesspoint configuration:
Atheros 9287
That should work OK in pfSense but yeah positioning issues will apply.
This is old now but still applies:
https://youtu.be/EprxEKcYVfUSteve
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Gotta add, the best money I've spent in recent years was for some Ubiquiti access points. Moved all the household WiFi over to them and haven't looked back.
The pfsense router has handled everything else. The only wrinkle is if you want all their admin features you need to run a java app somewhere. I have mine running on the same VM that handles pi-hole and other small networking features (ipp printing queues, etc). This frees up my pfsense (Q3554G) box to be a very reliable router and VPN server. Load never escapes single digits, and it's fanless with SSD drive... no moving parts at all.
So before you bang your head against freebsd and wifi issues... seriously consider separate access points.
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Yup. Though since the OP already has the card in their box they might as well set it up. They can always add a separate AP later.
Steve
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@stephenw10 I'd argue that's an example of chasing good (money/time) after bad. Just because it's there doesn't require using it. I can't tell you how many times in my 35+ years of wrangling with IT gear I've run into situations exactly like that. "It ought to work" versus "screw it, buy the RIGHT thing that's KNOWN to work from the get-go".
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Yeah I won't argue there. If you want what would be considered 'good' wifi use external access point(s). I use Ubiquiti myself.
I would still enable the card in the firewall though if only to test it. But I accept my usage is atypical!
Steve
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If you have the wifi interface there, then guess it could be used as a backup wifi connection in a pinch.. Or it could be used as say a out of band connection to pfsense if say wired network went down, ie your switch died or lost power or something.
Or guess it could be used as wan interface to some other wifi network as failover thing I guess.
If I had one I would prob play with it as well ;) Pfsense/Netgate use to offer an option of adding wifi card when you ordered an appliance.. This is no longer the case is it? I would think that tells you something ;)
If you want good wifi get an AP, if you want wifi that might work, that will be slow and have a shitty coverage area.. And just in general be PITA. Then yeah have fun with the internal wifi card in your pfsense box - just saying ;)
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@johnpoz said in Accesspoint configuration:
Pfsense/Netgate use to offer an option of adding wifi card when you ordered an appliance.. This is no longer the case is it? I would think that tells you something
If you follow efforts like OpenWRT you start to learn just how crappy a lot of (most?) WiFi chipsets and their drivers truly are. It's a wonder that some of them work at all.
At least with external WiFi gear you're getting the efforts of that product's vendor putting their efforts behind it, not just as noise lost between open source efforts and arrogant chipset makes that publish only black-box binaries.
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Mmm, some maybe. A lot are using exactly same drivers OpenWRT uses. Some are just using OpenWRT directly!
