High volume WAP build.. any NIC advise?

BeerHat

So…. I'm eyeballing the Intel 7260HMWDTX1 Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 PCIe plus Bluetooth 4.0 AC1200 Wireless adapter
Here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106192

Haven't seen much if/any posts on the web regarding pfsense or general freebsd support for this specific NIC, but I figured, hey - it's Intel, so it's probably supported. Strong emphasis on 'probably'. Anyone have any experience with this thing and pfSense? I'm looking to build a stable Captive Portal locked unit that will see between 30 and 50 concurrent connections on average, mixed environment and fairly high throughput.

Also, generally speaking, do these types of desktop/laptop dual band wifi adapters handle simultaneous 802.11b/g/n/ac mixed mode operation very well? I'm accustomed to deploying dual radio cisco WAPs, where global performance degradation is not really a concern. This particular customer is more budget conscious however, but also does not want to sacrifice stability and flexibility. I will be buying parts soon and doing some testing on my own.

If I'm barking up the wrong tree with this plan, I'd like to know now. I don't like the idea of multiple external WAPs for this project, but I suppose if that's the way I need to go then so be it.

Thanks!

Dan

BeerHat

Ah.. I just read a few posts below.. NO PCIe cards really work well. They're cheap enough I guess, maybe I'll just buy one anyway and test against the 2.2 beta for grins.

Dan

jasonlitka

That card won't work. In fact, only a few 802.11n cards work and even those will only run at "g" speeds.

I'd strongly suggest ditching pfSense for your wireless needs and use external access points.

BeerHat

DRAT! Well I bought it on Amazon before I read this reply. Oh well. This the case even on ver 2.2?

jasonlitka

@BeerHat:

DRAT! Well I bought it on Amazon before I read this reply. Oh well. This the case even on ver 2.2?

802.11n support should be much better but I believe ac is still out. Support for wireless is always going to lag the hardware by a lot. You're better off with an external access point.

Atlantisman

pfsense has really poor support for wifi, even with 2.2. If you want something that does wifi really well and has AC support try out MikroTik RouterOS, or just buy a stand-alone wireless AP.