Qotom Q355G4 Atheros wireless card

[andro_b]

I am using the Qotom Q355G4 very successfully with pfsense. It has a wifi card using an Atheros AR9382 chip. From the datasheet for that, 2.4 and 5 Ghz are both supported.

Does FreeBSD support the 5Ghz mode? It's working fine for 2.4, but I am not able to see any way to make it utilise 5Ghz. I tried the 802.11 settings but it makes no difference.

[viragomann]

If you can't find the wifi card in hardware compatibility list it won't be supported.

FreeBSD generally doesn't support 802.11ac mode well.

[andro_b]

The card works fine, for 2.4GHz. Many people use the Qotom hardware I understand. Perhaps FreeBSD simply does not do the 5Ghz range for the chip.

[viragomann]

Me too. However, as I bought mine, the vendor pointed out, that the wifi card is not supported by pfSense (pfSense was pre-installed). So I took the set without wifi and connected an AP to it, which is the recommended way to manage wifi on pfSense.

If you want to use your built-in card necessarily, you may install Linux on the box and run pfSense virtualized.

[andro_b]

I'm happy with the onboard 2.4. All fine. Thanks for your helpful replies.

[stephenw10]

@andro_b said in Qotom Q355G4 Atheros wireless card:

Atheros AR9382

That is not an 802.11ac card. I would have expected it to be supported and to run in either mode if it is.

What do you see listed as it's capabilities from ifconfig?

For exmaple:

[2.4.5-RELEASE][root@test.stevew.lan]/root: ifconfig ath0_wlan0 list chan
Channel   1 : 2412  MHz 11g ht       Channel  11 : 2462  MHz 11g ht       
Channel   2 : 2417  MHz 11g ht       Channel  36 : 5180  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   3 : 2422  MHz 11g ht       Channel  40 : 5200  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   4 : 2427  MHz 11g ht       Channel  44 : 5220  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   5 : 2432  MHz 11g ht       Channel  48 : 5240  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   6 : 2437  MHz 11g ht       Channel 149 : 5745  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   7 : 2442  MHz 11g ht       Channel 153 : 5765  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   8 : 2447  MHz 11g ht       Channel 157 : 5785  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   9 : 2452  MHz 11g ht       Channel 161 : 5805  MHz 11a ht       
Channel  10 : 2457  MHz 11g ht       Channel 165 : 5825* MHz 11a   

Steve

[andro_b]

Hi @stephenw10

Thanks so much for replying. My initial poor understanding was that the Atheros chip in the Qotom was an AR9382, which information I got from the Aliexpress website, but of course I should have realised that while great on price and shipping and products, technical details from vendors there are very often wrong or missing.

Using dmesg I find that it is actually an Atheros AR9285. From the Atheros datasheet:

Frequency Band 2.4 GHz
Network Standard 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n

And ifconfig confirms:

[2.4.5-RELEASE][admin@pfsense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig ath0_wlan0 list channels
Channel   1 : 2412  MHz 11g ht       Channel   7 : 2442  MHz 11g ht       
Channel   2 : 2417  MHz 11g ht       Channel   8 : 2447  MHz 11g ht       
Channel   3 : 2422  MHz 11g ht       Channel   9 : 2452  MHz 11g ht       
Channel   4 : 2427  MHz 11g ht       Channel  10 : 2457  MHz 11g ht       
Channel   5 : 2432  MHz 11g ht       Channel  11 : 2462  MHz 11g ht       
Channel   6 : 2437  MHz 11g ht

[I am so ignorant I never knew ifconfig could list the channels. I ought to read the manpages more carefully!]

So the puzzle is resolved, and thank you.

The next question is, does anybody know if there are appropriate 5Ghz cards for the Qotom Q355G4? It's just standard PCIe is it not?