PCI-E Card for WiFi AP
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@stephenw10 the Compex has 2 radios but FreeBSD and pfSense software only allow use of one of the channels at a time. Also auto mode does not function however PfSense has an option to use auto. Maybe it will work in a future version.
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WLE200NX is dual band but it only has one radio. It can only use one band at a time in any OS.
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Thank you guys.
It seems that using 2 Cards is the only solution at this point.Regards,
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It shows 2 rx 2 tx and 2 radios. . . I just think the software doesn't have code yet to enable both at the same time.
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@JonathanLee said in PCI-E Card for WiFi AP:
It shows 2 rx 2 tx and 2 radios. . . I just think the software doesn't have code yet to enable both at the same time.
Sorry, do you mean also with 2 different devices (e.g. 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz)?
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@MasterLog that's my Compex card just one. I only can get one radio to run with PfSense FreeBSD. I have a external AP for most of the secure traffic.
Use 2 cards, I didn't know PfSense could do that.
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Hmm, interesting. Looking at the data sheet for the chip it does indeed contain two radios. However I think either part of that is shared or it's restricted some way in hardware because Ive never seen one of those chipsets that could use both simultaneously.
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@stephenw10 Maybe we need to configure 2 interfaces?
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Creating two virtual interfaces like that share one parent NIC, ath0, and can only use one set of wifi values. They always use the same channel.
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@stephenw10 it's weird I thought it was a ath0 driver issue with FreeBSD. The card clearly has two radios. Again it just only runs one. Have you ever seen a 2100 running 2 radios on one card?
https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=athn&sektion=4&manpath=OpenBSD+5.0
Per FreeBSD the 9280 has 2 radios.
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Nope and I've never seen it in any OS. If you look at an AP running similar hardware those that support dual band simultaneously have multiple radio chipsets. I don't believe it's possible to run both on that or any similar card.
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Hello guys,
Thank you for your messages.
Summarizing, even using pfsense with a single wifi device featuring dual radio will end using only one radio, despite set the configuration for both.
At this point we didn't confirm if it will work with 2 different separate devices (e.g. 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz).
Is it my understanding correct up to this point?Regards,
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I think Stephenw10 suggested to use two separate cards to achieve your requirements. I have never attempted it. Please yet me know how it turns out with two drivers running.
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@JonathanLee said in PCI-E Card for WiFi AP:
Please yet me know how it turns out with two drivers running.
I don't think I can try this, as I have only 1 PCI-E slot available.
I may try to see if I can find a compatible USB Wifi adapter to use together, but at this point I may need to find a different device where to run pfsense.
Hopefully someone can try this!Regards,
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@MasterLog Yes, it works with 2 physical cards. I have 2 ATH cards, 9280 and 9380, operating at 2.4 and 5.
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Exactly. To do it with one card you would need to find a card that had two complete sets of hardware on it. I'm not sure such a card exists but if it does it's probably far far more expensive. Hence my '100x' guess. Regular single radio cards can be had for <$5.
