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    Wireless usb adapter no longer seen by pfsense ?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
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    • F
      Fevan
      last edited by

      Hi bit of a strange one, I was playing around with my usb wireless adaptor (Ralink ) and once plugged into usb port of my pfsense system was able to goto interface and wireless and see my Wlan, and I was able to select it but now its vanished. I tried rebooting the machine but its like it does not see usb anymore or wireless adaptors….

      Is it since my wireless adaptor is not fully supported by the current pfsense build ?

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      • F
        Fevan
        last edited by

        strange occurrence tried going under interfaces>wireless and now parent interface showed my wireless adaptor.

        Was setting it up and it randomly reboot my pfsense and crashed it and lost all my settings..

        I take it I have an incompatible wireless adaptor ?  Cant see the chipset or brand showing on the compatible list.

        Would be nice to have confirmation of this, I assume a fully compatible wireless will always show under interface>parent interface?

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        • F
          Fevan
          last edited by

          Having a read around the last few pages would appear my symptoms are the same as others who tried usb wireless adaptors, if its not fully compatible random rebooting or pfsense config being wiped can occur.

          Even reading some posters comments on here some guys got compatible usb adaptors and still had stability issues with same above crashes!

          Seems using a router or access point is the safest and best way + you get full benefits of a more powerful routers, will go this route.

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          • M
            momothefox
            last edited by

            this problem is in m0n0wall and pfsense as well, i put a post here speaking this .

            https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,72413.0.html

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            • F
              Fevan
              last edited by

              Yeah I posted info regarding the symptoms of pfsense failing on wireless adapters on the sticky thread….

              Without doing much research and some proper digging one would assume a 5 year old wireless adaptor would work with pfsense...

              Obviously not, this section has many post about which wireless card/adaptor to get so it gets confusing and from what I can see on pfsense website the compatibility list is not really up to date or any good.

              That sticky thread at least is attempting to show the model and brand of ones that work I guess which is a good thing.

              I think rather then risk stability and pfsense from crashing as someone suggested an wireless N router turn it into an access point this way you get the full benefits of a powerful wireless wifi is a good alternative and won't crash.

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              • M
                momothefox
                last edited by

                Using an AP is easier that using pfsense, i agree.
                But the need custome AP by using m0n0wall or pfsense letus try this fix. because it is only a missing module. if i got it right.
                think about having 6 APs on the same machine. thats a station! and much much cheaper and more relaiable i am sure it will be.
                FreeBSD 8 improved the wireless much, and so on FreeBSD will continue supporting allot of hardware in next releases.

                i will try to post this to bug tracker and see what happen.

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