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    Limited WiFi Range on PFSENSE

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
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    • B
      biomecanoid81 @johnpoz
      last edited by

      @johnpoz My internet is 100mbps, My Phone is the LGK10 (2017), The access point is Cisco WAP4410N.

      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @biomecanoid81
        last edited by

        And your getting 100mbps over wireless with N? Not really possible with 2.4 and 20mhz channels but yeah with a 5ghz 40 VHT and seeing a PHY of 300 - yeah 100 would be doable.

        Modern AC which have to assume a phone from even 2017 should be able to do is very common to see 200+ mbps.. I see 400mbps over wifi easy on pretty much all my modern devices.

        My internet is 500mbps, but I guess if you only have 100 doesn't really matter all that much.

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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        • B
          biomecanoid81 @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz The important devices are hardwired to get the full internet speed so the WiFi is just for phones and tablets In reality you don't do much with mobile devices

          johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @biomecanoid81
            last edited by johnpoz

            @biomecanoid81 said in Limited WiFi Range on PFSENSE:

            phones and tablets In reality you don't do much with mobile devices

            Very true.. Very true.. Unless your streaming high bitrate media. But if you have limited wifi devices that do not require this.. Then you make a valid point.. The problem many users fall into is the wifi is shared, and they have lots of wifi devices.. So the need to up the overall available shared bandwidth is more important. Or they have devices that can use more bandwidth that are wifi, their tvs, their media sticks, etc. Multiple ones in different parts of the house that could be streaming at the same time HD media, etc.

            Also users seem to hate having a high speed internet connection, but when they test on their wifi device they only see a fraction of this.

            But yes your point is very valid that mobile devices - depending on use don't need all that much to make a phone call, or check their email or surf the web, or even make a facetime call, etc.

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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            • B
              biomecanoid81 @johnpoz
              last edited by biomecanoid81

              pfSense.localdomain - Status_ Dashboard-page-001.jpg pfSense.localdomain - Interfaces_ WIFI (ath0_wlan0)-page-002.jpg pfSense.localdomain - Interfaces_ WIFI (ath0_wlan0)-page-001.jpg

              More details

              GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • GertjanG
                Gertjan @biomecanoid81
                last edited by

                @biomecanoid81

                f874057d-fce0-4998-af7b-6cb37dd69e83-image.png

                You really want to give your private DNS traffic to all these guys ?

                No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                Edit : and where are the logs ??

                johnpozJ B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Gertjan
                  last edited by

                  Yeah makes no sense to point to so many dns. For starters if some filter and others don't - you can not be sure if your going to be filtered or not.. I see some opendns in there. And quad9 filters, etc.

                  Also once you point to an anycast service - its pretty pointless to have more than 1 entry for the service.

                  And your not using local at all - guess you don't want to resolve any local stuff?

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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                  • Cool_CoronaC
                    Cool_Corona
                    last edited by

                    I use this as AP and it works flawlessly and covers just about every inch of the house.

                    https://www.asus.com/dk/Networking-IoT-Servers/Range-Extenders-/All-series/RP-AX56/

                    AP mode and DHCP and then you plug it in the wall socket and connect a cable to LAN. Boom and be done with it.

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                    • B
                      biomecanoid81 @Gertjan
                      last edited by

                      @gertjan Well I guess its a little bit better than giving it to my provider LOL

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • B
                        biomecanoid81 @johnpoz
                        last edited by

                        @johnpoz said in Limited WiFi Range on PFSENSE:

                        Yeah makes no sense to point to so many dns. For starters if some filter and others don't - you can not be sure if your going to be filtered or not.. I see some opendns in there. And quad9 filters, etc.

                        Also once you point to an anycast service - its pretty pointless to have more than 1 entry for the service.

                        And your not using local at all - guess you don't want to resolve any local stuff?

                        I have the habit of using IPs instead of DNS for my local stuff

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                        • B
                          biomecanoid81
                          last edited by

                          Well I may have too many DNS entries, I can take them off., but really its not harming the performance of the internet.

                          The only problem I have with my PFSENSE is the WiFi other than that I am happy

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                            biomecanoid81 @Cool_Corona
                            last edited by

                            @cool_corona said in Limited WiFi Range on PFSENSE:

                            https://www.asus.com/dk/Networking-IoT-Servers/Range-Extenders-/All-series/RP-AX56/

                            Looks like a nice AP but I already have several APs I can use, I have a Cisco, Miktrotik, Netgear.
                            I just wanted and all in one solution, a solution to integrate the AP into my PFSENSE.

                            johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • johnpozJ
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @biomecanoid81
                              last edited by johnpoz

                              @biomecanoid81 said in Limited WiFi Range on PFSENSE:

                              I just wanted and all in one solution

                              No point to that - just use an AP.. Which you can properly place or have multiple ones. I have 3 AP properly mounted in the ceiling in my small house. Have ZERO wifi issues no matter what room I am in, or even out on the patio, etc.

                              As to using IP vs fqdn - that works - but why? When properly setup you could use either.

                              As to coverage and features for wifi, your not going to get that with some card you place in pfsense vs an actual device designed to be an AP. or wifi router your using as an AP.

                              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                @biomecanoid81 said in Limited WiFi Range on PFSENSE:

                                AR9285

                                Is that a 1x1 device? Do you have a single antenna? Is the driver configured to use the correct antenna if it has more than one socket? That will destroy the range if set wrong, I have seen it first hand.

                                Currently about the best card you can get for pfSense directly is something AR938X based. That's a 3x3 N card. Coverage should be OK with decent antennas and the device itself mounted high up. Speed will never be anything special but should be 'enough' on a 100Mbps WAN.

                                Steve

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                                • B
                                  biomecanoid81 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10 Only one socket for antenna, I don't know if any driver settings are wrong but based on limited Wi-Fi range it works like it does not use the antenna

                                  JKnottJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JKnottJ
                                    JKnott @biomecanoid81
                                    last edited by

                                    @biomecanoid81

                                    WiFi devices often use multiple antennas for MIMO. A single antenna can't do that and so wouldn't be as effective as a multiple antenna system that does.

                                    PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                                    i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                                    UniFi AC-Lite access point

                                    I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      Check the sysctls in dev.ath:

                                      dev.ath.0.diversity: 0
                                      dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1
                                      dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0
                                      

                                      You may need to set them both to 0 (or both to 1). I have hit that before with a really old card.
                                      But really you should just get a 2x2 card that can use antenna diversity correctly. Or a 3x3 card as I listed above.

                                      Steve

                                      B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • B
                                        biomecanoid81 @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 said in Limited WiFi Range on PFSENSE:

                                        Check the sysctls in dev.ath:

                                        dev.ath.0.diversity: 0
                                        dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1
                                        dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0
                                        

                                        You may need to set them both to 0 (or both to 1). I have hit that before with a really old card.
                                        But really you should just get a 2x2 card that can use antenna diversity correctly. Or a 3x3 card as I listed above.

                                        Steve

                                        Thanks for you help, Can you find one on eBay for me ? I have looked and found lots and lots. I just want one that you know works for sure out of experience.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          The Compex WLE200NX is a 2x2 miniPCIe card. We used to sell that so I know that works relatively well. Look for that if you really want to use a wifi card in the firewall.

                                          To be clear I agree with the others though, you will get better just about everything with a separate access point.

                                          Steve

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