Linksys WMP54G & pfSense 1.0.1 vs 1.2-RC2
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Hello everyone
I just got a new Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G Adapter which I happily put into my pfSense router (v 1.0.1 at the time), thinking I could have the router also serve as a wlan router. However, the 1.0.1 version of pfSense is not very happy about the card - or rather, it ignores it all together.
After trying a lot of things to make it work, I finally gave in, and downloaded the RC2 image of the 1.2 line. Now, it didn't really help me much in the way of supporting the wlancard, and I suspect I have to use "Project Evil" to make it work (In fact, the very card I'm having troubles with is the one mentioned in this wiki page).
So, I figured I would have to download the developers release of the 1.2 line, and install that instead. I have some issues though. First of all, the developers image seems to be dated back to beta 1 of the 1.2 line, which means may 2007, and I'm wondering if the changes made to the software since then might be quite drastic. Second of all - I have a static ip address, and I'm running two identical network cards in the pfSense box for my wired lan and wan. The dsl modem acts as a bridge, and pfSense will happily collect my ip address from my isp using dhcp on the nic connected to the modem. Just after installation of the 1.2-rc2 everything worked just perfectly on the router, so I thought I'd give the 1.2-rc2 line a try regardless of whether I got the wlan-nic to work or not - but alas, this did not seem to be the case for me .. I set up the 1.2-rc2 box according to my former settings, and ran the traffic shaper wizard to set up some basic shaping with it. After the wizard was completed my wan link was just dead.. I thought maybe I'd done something wrong at that point, so I went back into the traffic shaper and disabled it - with absolutely no effect whatsoever on my connection .. (Do note that my wan was still registered with an IP address in the Interfaces page) At this point I thought something had decided to hang, so I rebooted the router. It came back up, but still no outgoing connection. According to the Interfaces page, I was still registered with an IP address. I tried to release, and then renew, and that seemed to be working absolutely in order - but still no connection. In the end, I had to boot up from the 1.0.1 cd I still had lying around, where I immediately received lifesigns on the wan connection. Interestingly enough, the dhcp server provided me with a new ip address I've never seen before, somehow suggesting to me that something got stuck somewhere, and that my isp's dhcp server thinks that I'm possibly connected on both the ip's now.. I did not change the nic that had the dhcp lease, so it was still the same mac address after I booted up on 1.0.1 ..
Now .. That's my problems with this so far .. I can most likely obtain more test data by reinstalling 1.2 and see if this problem reoccurs if anyone is interested - but someone might also have some ideas on what this problem might be - and also I think I need some feedback on that developer image and it's date vs. the rc-2 image date.
Thanks in advance!
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Oh .. I just remembered that I installed the 1.2 software back when it was beta 1 or 2 too .. and exactly the same problem occured in regards to the missing connection to the world. After I reinstalled 1.0.1 I was delegated a new ip address (in the same subnet) by my isp's dhcp server… Seems odd, considering I am supposed to have a static ip, and the only logical explanation I can find is that the 1.2 software has some issues with something on the hardware side of either my router, my dsl modem, or something along the way ..
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Well, I got my IP back at least tonight. And the box is bootstrapping as I write - it's probably going to take a while. I don't think that poor old P-II 400 mhz cpu is really up to the task in a speedy manner, or so to speak.
I think perhaps the HD was in a bad shape, because I couldn't get the machine to start the bootstrapping .. I swapped out the HD with another one, and off it went. So, obviously I am on a 1.2 router right now. Let's hope the connection stays up. I probably won't fiddle around with the traffic shaper this time, since that was when my problems started the last time I was on a 1.2 system… Hopefully I can use Project Evil and get the WLAN card up and running as well, following the guide I posted a link to above.
Oh, and obviously I didn't consider the fact that the bootstrap process would also update the software of the router ... So sorry for my confusion about the BETA-1 developer image. ;)