Wireless AP

[cochi30]

I switch off the Netgate router every night. I have a Verizon router as my AP connected to my Netgate SG1100.
It works fine, but when I boot up the Netgate and AP in the mornings, at the same time, I can see I’m connected to the Wi-Fi from my phone, but not really. There is no internet connection via Wi-Fi.
I always have to reboot the Verizon router to connect.

Is there a way I can boot them up at the same time without having to reboot the AP for my devices to have Wi-Fi???

Thanks
Don|-left aligned paragraph|-left aligned paragraph

[johnpoz]

@cochi30 said in Wireless AP:

I switch off the Netgate router every night.

The question that comes to my mind is why? Why would you do that? What does it use 5w maybe, lets call it 10w..

Even if you have it of for like 12 hours a day your talking about what maybe 1.5 cents average 12cents per khw..

Your not just pulling the power I hope, your going in and doing a halt?

Are you running it on some pc hardware sucking 100w idle? Now your talking 14 cents..

Turning off infrastructure hardware, routers, home switches, AP all of which should be sucking like less than 10w normally your talking pennies in savings at best.

I looked up my sg4860, it draws like 7w, my APs are 6.5, my core switch 20w.. Add that all up, 3 AP etc and your talking like 7 cents if turned it all off for 12 hours a day.. Just doesn't make any sense to me..

Tell you my time just waiting for it to boot all back up is worth 1000x more than the 7 cents could save per day ;)

[cochi30]

Jonpoz, it’s not like that. I mean saving power etc, we do have our reasons for shutting down during the night though.
If this damages the system we’ll maybe leave on and just shut down the AP.

Thank you for your response.

Don|-|-left aligned paragraph

[SteveITS]

@cochi30 said in Wireless AP:

If this damages the system

It can corrupt the file system, yes. (true for basically anything with a writable file system)
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/diagnostics/system-halt.html

[Gertjan]

@cochi30 said in Wireless AP:

Jonpoz, it’s not like that. I mean saving power etc, we do have our reasons for shutting down during the night though.
If this damages the system we’ll maybe leave on and just shut down the AP.

You can switch it down.
But, exactly like your Phone, PC etc : you can't pull the plug (remove the battery). Not with paying eventually the heavy price : loosing the file system : you're good for a total re install.
pfSense is not some small mostly ROM based dumb device that can be powered of like that.
pfSense is using FreeBSD as its OS, and like MAC OS, Linux, Windows etc, it uses a complex file system. It needs to be informed when to shut down.
You do so using the console or the GUI : login, and select halt, confirm.

@cochi30 said in Wireless AP:

I can see I’m connected to the Wi-Fi from my phone, but not really

You are really connected to the wifi. And mixing up two things :
The radio 'Wifi' connection is one thing.
A working IP connection that let you access the local network and even the Internet is completely different.

With your AP activated, and pfSense de activated : connect to you wifi. And then do what admin do : inspect your Wifi : did it obtain an IP, gateway, DNS etc ?
Of course not : pfSense isn't there to answer to the DHCP requests.

Typically, you should measure the time it takes for pfSense to fully boot.
Add 10 seconds margin.
Then you have the delay to wait for your Wifi to actually 'work'.

Btw : I give my AP (just dumb devices) a static IP setting, not DHCP.
For example : my pfSense LAN is 192.168.1.1/24
My AP uses 192.168.1.2/24, gateway 192.168.1.1 DNS 192.168.1.1 and I have its DHCP server shut down - DNS shut down.

[johnpoz]

@cochi30 said in Wireless AP:

we do have our reasons for shutting down during the night though.

You think the wifi messing with your brain? Giving you cancer? You have aversion to wifi? Electromagnetic hypersensitivity? Its in your bedroom and the blinking light keeps you up?

Are you just wanting to keep your kids of the interwebs? Just setup a schedule to prevent internet access be easier. While stuff like AP can normally just pull the plug on for power - I sure wouldn't do it every single day without it having repercussions on the life of that device.

[stephenw10]

If you have the Verizon router still in router mode so it's pulling a DHCP lease from pfSense it may boot and fail before pfSense has booted. If that is the case you could try setting it as a static IP or setting it a a true AP mode (if it has one). Or just use a real AP which would almost certainly not have this issue.

Steve

[cochi30]

Thank you all for your responses...

I am making some changes to ensure I don't just shut off the Netgate, but Halt it instead - the thing we didn't like were extremely bright leds, not only from the Netgate, but from Verizon's equipment. Of course, these are in an adjoining room. So yes, we shut everything off.
I just performed a "Halt" on the system, thanks for that info.
I had my Verizon router assigned the static and IP and to act as an AP. I didn't know about the delay for the wifi to work.
And yes we thought about the wifi messing with our brain from the next room, during the night.
We are probably going to acquire a real AP very soon.
Again, thank you all!
Don

[johnpoz]

@cochi30 best fix for bright led lights is little electrical tape.. Or google led covers, they sell little preformed stickers that fit over led lights on equipment.

As to the wifi messing with your brains while you sleep.. Do you turn off your phones, or they sitting next to you on the nightstand?

Funny thing about people worried about that sort of thing, they don't think about carrying their phone right next to the private parts all day long ;)

Pretty sure taking a call on your cell phone is going to be more exposure in a few minutes on the phone than all night with a AP in another room.. Some of them also have the ability to just turn off the wifi radio on a schedule..This would be a better option then pulling its power plug when it comes to life of the device..

Depending on the device even its gui or admin interface doesn't allow for it, it could be possible to script just going in and downing the wireless interface..

If the LEDs are a problem, the unifi ones have a way of turning off the LED, etc.

There are normally multiple ways to skin a cat, while pulling the power plug is drop dead easy, its normally not the most elegant of solutions, and to be honest a pita and going to take its toll on hardware, even if its designed to not loose any settings on a power loss.

[JKnott]

@cochi30 said in Wireless AP:

And yes we thought about the wifi messing with our brain from the next room, during the night.

You might consider getting a tinfoil hat.

[stephenw10]

EM radiation questions aside I would consider trying to pin down what's actually failing when you boot both at the same time. Then you can far more easily avoid hitting it again.

So if the Verizon device is still acting as a router check what IP it ends up with.

Steve

[bavcon22]

@cochi30 The best practice is to start or stop all your network equipment in sequence.
When stopping: Disconnect phone from wifi --> shutdown the AP --> halt the pfSense appliance
When starting: Start the pfSense appliance --> turn on AP --> connect phone to WiFi
In all stages you have to wait the previous stage to come to life.

[cochi30]

@bavcon22 thanks for your response. It was very helpful.
Don