Problems setting up wireless

politicorific · Jul 20, 2007, 11:12 PM

So in the "best wireless card" thread I picked up an atheros 5212 card and loaded up pfsense 1.2beta.

Currently I have 3 interfaces - I only bought 1 card to make sure this would work:

fxp0 - built in nic from IBM Netfinity 3000
xl0 - 3com ethernet
ath0 - wireless card

First I'm not sure how to setup the optional interface. I have fxp0 set to 192.168.1.1, the xl0 setup for dhcp on the wan.

Here are the settings I enabled for OPT1:
Enable Optional 1 interface
General Configuration type: static
not bridged
IP configuration: 192.168.1.2
network type 802.11b
NO encyption enabled
SSID: test

After applying these settings pfsense locked up and would not respond to pings

What am I doing wrong?

The plan for this setup initially is to have the wireless network bridged with the lan - all the settings on the wan will hopefully carry over to the wireless clients.

Then I want to add another wireless nic that is completely open without any encryption, but be locked down so that only tmobile hotspot@home works. If I can limit the bandwidth available to this interface, along with a wide range of ports it will hopefully work fine. I want it open because enabling passwords/keys is a pain on most mobile devices

hoba · Jul 20, 2007, 11:34 PM

As you want a bridging setup you have to choose "bridge to wan" for the wireless interface. What you did is configuring the same subnet at fxp0 and the ath0. In your scenario the wireless interface will not get an IP at all. as it is a bridge. Also make sure you set the interface to "accesspoint" mode.

politicorific · Jul 21, 2007, 1:55 AM

strange, no matter what I try my system locks up

is there a comprehensive guide on how to set this up?

I tried it without bridging and had no luck, had both wan and lan bridging with dhcp and static addresses and had accesspoint mode on

I think now I just want to try a basic setup, then move on from there

hoba · Jul 21, 2007, 9:30 AM

Please describe the steps you do. Sounds like something is wrong.

politicorific · Jul 21, 2007, 5:08 PM

@hoba:

Please describe the steps you do. Sounds like something is wrong.

Okay, I've lost the ftp details to my webhosting so I can't provide screenshots, so I'll just do this step by step. Here is the first configuration I'll try:

I have a bone stock factory default copy of pf sense running, no additional packages or services installed.(am I missing something here?)

Set one from the web interface I assign the option 1 interface ath0.
"interface has been added"
-save-

I now select OPT1 and begin its configuration.
Down the page here's what I select indicated by a (*) and a () for deselected:

"Optional Interface Configuration"
(*) Enable Optional 1 interface
Description: OPT1

"General configuration"
DHCP
MAC address and MTU blank for defaults

"IP configuration"
Bridge with: WAN
IP address and Gateway Greyed out

"FTP Helper"
()Disable the userland FTP application

"Wireless configuration"
Standard: 802.11b
Mode: Access Point
802.11g OFDM Protection mode: Protection mode off
SSID: pfsense
802.11g only ()
Allow intra-BSS communication ()
Enable WME ()
Enable Hide SSID ()
Transmit power 99
Channel: AUTO
Distance setting : blank
WEP () enable WEP
WPA () enable WPA
WPA Mode: WPA
WPA Key Management Mode: Pre Shared Key
Authentication: Open System Authentication
WPA Pairwise: Both
Key Rotation 60
Master Key Regeneration 3600
Strict Key Regeneration ()
Enable IEEE802.1x ()
Hostname: blank

"The changes have been applied successfully. You can also monitor the filter reload progress."
I hit the monitor link and get no response
ping doesn't work

Finally when I reboot, PF sense hangs when configuring ath0

I've tried the above settings with the only differences picking static (and chosing a different network to put it on, 192.168.2.1), bridge with lan, bridge with none - all reproduce the same end forcing me to remove the card, reboot, remove the interface settings, and then reboot to retry the process.

hoba · Jul 21, 2007, 7:03 PM

Can you try with setting a channel instead of auto? I think there might be something wrong with the "auto" setting. I had issues when using auto previously as it was always setting channel 1 even if I selected 802.11a or something. Besides that your steps look valid. However you should add firewallrules at the opt1 interface to allow traffic to pass. I'm using an accesspointlike setup at the office which works just fine.

politicorific · Jul 21, 2007, 11:50 PM

@hoba:

Can you try with setting a channel instead of auto? I think there might be something wrong with the "auto" setting. I had issues when using auto previously as it was always setting channel 1 even if I selected 802.11a or something. Besides that your steps look valid. However you should add firewallrules at the opt1 interface to allow traffic to pass. I'm using an accesspointlike setup at the office which works just fine.

okay and the above should allow for wireless devices to pick up IPs and surf the via the wan/default gateway?

I'll try adding firewall rules, then enabling the port. I'll try the channel thing, but I had tried messing with that before and it still locked up

hoba · Jul 22, 2007, 5:06 PM

Yes, it should "simply" work.

politicorific · Jul 22, 2007, 5:43 PM

no luck, I tried channel 7 and had it pass everything from the wan - this is a test box behind my current PFsense box.

I have no idea what to do now, I think I'm just going to ditch this setup and use the router I'm going to get from tmobile, hopefully that'll work fine.

torrentsaint · Sep 13, 2007, 2:04 PM

Sorry to hear you gave up :(
Why are you bridging this to the WAN?? If you need wireless WAN simply make the Wireless card the WAN card.