Sanity check/hardware for pfSense as 3G WiFi Hotspot
-
Hi,
I'm wanting to create a portable appliance that I can take with me and plug in to essentially act as a WiFi hotspot that users can connect their device to, and once connected they will be taken to a captive portal page and then provided with internet access. I have used the captive portal aspect of pfSense before, but I am less familiar with the WiFi/Access Point and 3G/4G WAN capability.
From what I have read, I can use one of the ALIX or APU boxes with a PCI-E WiFi card and USB or PCI-E 3G dongle. I can then create the WAN interface (actually PPP?) on the 3G dongle to provide internet access, and create a LAN interface on the WiFi card to create a wireless access point. Then configure captive portal, etc. Does this sound correct?
Finally, I want to attach a Raspberry Pi running apache to one of the ethernet ports and have this on the same LAN/subnet as the WiFi card. I would serve some local content from here. I can't see this being a problem?
Does anyone have any hardware recommendations in terms of the device, WiFi card, and 3G card or stick?
I was thinking along the lines of this for the box:
http://linitx.com/product/linitx-alix-2d3-lx800-3nicusb-pfsense-firewall-kit-black/14132
or
http://linitx.com/product/linitx-apu-1c-3nicusbrtc-pfsense-embed-firewall-kit-blue/14228with this WiFi card:
http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=10989and then a Huawei E1550 for 3G since I already have one and it is listed on this page as known working:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Known_Working_3G-4G_ModemsMany thanks for any guidance or thoughts.
Chris