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    Link aggregating a wired and wifi connectiion

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • A
      ack
      last edited by

      In my area, we have Comcast, and generally on residential class will see 50/10.  The supply a modem/gateway/router/wifi/all-in-one and claim there are two radios in it, one for my use that I pay for, wired or wireless, and a second wifi only connection called xfinitywifi that any Comcast user can use.

      I believe you need a login and password to get in, same as you use on your account.  This feature of free wifi mesh thingy for everyone is on by default, disabled in your web admin, and seems to pop back on no matter if I toggle it on or off.

      Out of curiosity, since all my neighbors also have Comcast, how come I don't see 10 xfinitywifi listings in my wifi connections?  From a network setup perspective, how would you set that up?  They are all set up as repeaters and the device gets the signal from the CMTS?  So everyone is essentially on the closest one?

      Anyway, I want to prove of the supposed second wifi channel inside this thing is real or not, if it can affect your network etc.  Can someone who has this set up bond the two together in pfsense and see if the before and after speed tests are any different?

      How does aggregating a connection work?  If I call via http GET a 4GB file, I would assume, even though the connections are bonded, that file is only going to be downloaded at the fastest speed of one of the connections.  It would only have real value in many small connections opening and closing all the time, like a web page.  Of course, there are other modes like failover, but in this case, just bonding the two data lines together, wold it even be possible to download part of the file through one connection and part through another?

      I have seen youtube videos of people doing so, and the firs thing they do is a speed test, and they are faster.  How?  Speed test is grabbing one large file, how can this be possible?

      Thanks

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      • DerelictD
        Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
        last edited by

        You probably don't see 10 because they are all advertising the same SSID.  You'd need something capable of looking at a lower level of Wi-Fi.  I have a Fluke Wi-Fi tester and also use NetSpot Pro on the Macbook to see what's really going on.

        I would turn that nonsense off.  You say it keeps turning itself back on.  I doubt it, but maybe.

        That or trash their shit, get a doc3 modem, and plug it into pfSense WAN.

        Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
        A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
        DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
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        • A
          ack
          last edited by

          @Derelict:

          You probably don't see 10 because they are all advertising the same SSID.  You'd need something capable of looking at a lower level of Wi-Fi.  I have a Fluke Wi-Fi tester and also use NetSpot Pro on the Macbook to see what's really going on.

          I would turn that nonsense off.  You say it keeps turning itself back on.  I doubt it, but maybe.

          That or trash their shit, get a doc3 modem, and plug it into pfSense WAN.

          The setting is online in your account, not in the router web admin, so I think they reset their system for "maintenance" and the setting to advertise my router as a shared router gets set back to default.  I turn it off, it sticks for a few months.

          Any data on the aggregation stuff in general?
          Thank you!

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            you want to bound 2 different wifi connections with different ssids?  If you want to see if effects you speed, why don't you connect a device to it and download something large and then connect to your normal wifi and download, do you see any difference if the other wifi is being used?

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