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    MacBook lost connection, signal strenghs issue

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
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    • F
      frankygth
      last edited by

      Hy guys! I do have some strange problems with my newly build pfsense Box. I use an embedded mainboard with 4GB Ports and 1 Atheros WiFi Card connected to 2 WiFi Antennas.
      I'm using WPA2 Encryption with AES. Mostly it works fine but on my MacBook Pro I have strange problems.
      The Connectivity seems fine, full reception but right after there's only one bar left or the airprort starts to search again (the SSID is visible, I tried WPA as well, same result). The funny thing - the iPhone stays connected, no problem there.
      The problems are related to 1.2.3 but also on the BETA 2.0 - no change there, I guess.
      Does anyone have any idea?
      My idea was to use this great energy saving box as Firewall and AP… I would be rather disapointed, if I had to put another router just for wlan there.
      any help would be great..... Thanx in advance

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      • E
        Efonnes
        last edited by

        It could be some kind of antenna auto-selection problem and maybe one of the antennas isn't working.  If you still have a 2.0 beta build on there, try turning antenna diversity off in the wireless settings and selecting a specific antenna to see what it does to your signal.

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        • F
          frankygth
          last edited by

          ok, I'll try that…

          But as I remember I had the problem on the 1.2.3 build as well.
          Strange...

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          • E
            Efonnes
            last edited by

            What I suggested isn't something that 1.2.3 lets you do, though. :)  At least not from the web GUI.

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            • F
              frankygth
              last edited by

              Yes, I know…

              what I meant was, that I did have these strange problems before upgrading to 2.0 as well.

              Which means, since there was no WebGUI Option to change diversity an specify which Antenna would handle rx or fx.... this could not be the problem. The only thing I did was to first set up 1.2.3 and then upgrade via the online update... maybe that's caused something?

              Anyways, it would be nice if it would work properly. First I thought it might be the hidden SSID then I thougt probably because of WPA2....
              My Linksys Router could handle this just fine (DD-WRT)... but I would like to use pfsense as an AP as well. No need for another AP....

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              • E
                Efonnes
                last edited by

                @frankygth:

                what I meant was, that I did have these strange problems before upgrading to 2.0 as well.

                Which means, since there was no WebGUI Option to change diversity an specify which Antenna would handle rx or fx…. this could not be the problem.

                Having the problem with both 1.2.3 and 2.0 means nothing at all related to that setting, since the defaults in 2.0 are the same as not having the setting on 1.2.3.  The default was ON for 1.2.3, because that is a driver default.  Try turning diversity off and manually selecting one antenna or the other.  This way you can see if one of your antennas or antenna connectors is possibly at fault.

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                • F
                  frankygth
                  last edited by

                  OK, I'll try that… Thanx

                  Does the AUTO Channel Setting work well? Or is it better to choose the channel manually?

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                  • E
                    Efonnes
                    last edited by

                    I don't really know.  It might work well for some, but for me it doesn't because it ends up picking channel 1 for 802.11g, while the middle channels work best on the hardware I have.

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