State of support for RT2860/2850 based WLAN cards
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Hi,
I use several ALIX-boxes with pfsense here. Now I like to put WLAN in some, but I need miniPCI- cards (I don't like to use USB-sticks for this) with 300Mbit/s support (I have installed Gbit/s- LAN- cards, too). I found one from TP Link, that is supported by pfsense "out-of-the-box". Unfortunatally these TP Link TL-WN861N- cards are obsolete. So I searched for an replacement. I found this one:This is an RaLink RT2860/2850 based WLAN card. I searched here in forum for information about support of this chipset, but no topic has an real result.
Can anybody tell me, if this chipsets are supported and how I can get it working? I tried it with pfsense v2.1, but this card seems not to be recognized by pfsense/FreeBSD and is not displayed as network device (Interfaces->Assign)….. :'(
Regards
SNR
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The driver you would be using is the ral(4) driver but I don't think that supports anything newer than RT2600 in FreeBSD 8.3. All the newer supported Ralink cards are USB only.
The most current list of supported cards is here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AojFUXcbH0ROdHgwYkFHbkRUdV9hVWljVWl5SXkxbFE&hl=enThe FreeBSD 10 driver supports more cards though. pfSense 2.2 will be built on that when it's released but it's not yet even alpha.
Steve
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Thanks for Your reply, Steve
I found some threads here in forum:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,26410.msg137469.html
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,23994.msg131022.html#msg131022and others, including Your spreadsheet…
So I hoped for driver support in pfsense 2.1..... :-X
Is there any chance for driver support in 2.2? When it will be relased? Is there a suggested date?
Is this http://repo.or.cz/w/ralink_drivers.git under active devel?Regards
SNR
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The spreadsheet isn't mine, JimP put that together.
The driver should support that card in 2.2 because it will be built on FreeBSD 10. If you look at the man page for that:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ral&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+10.0-RELEASE&arch=default&format=html
It already supports the RT2800 and RT3090.pfSense 2.2 will be released when it's ready. ;) The best guess from people in the know seems to be this:
http://lists.pfsense.org/pipermail/list/2014-February/005469.html
Obviously that's not binding!That repo doesn't look very active but there may be backports of the ral driver to FreeBSD 8.3 if you look.
Steve
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Ok, thanks for this info.
Maybe I found an distributor for the TP-Link card…..... ;D
So I hope I can build up my 3 AP's with these cards.
As soon as the new pfsense 2.2 is available, I will test it..... 8)Oh, "it is ready, when it is ready" is much more better, than beeing "fast". Mozilla and others accepted this, too. Some others not, but this is an different topic. ..... ;)
Regards
SNR
