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    Extremely slow wireless on SG-2440

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
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    • H
      HaburGate
      last edited by

      Recently purchased a SG-2440 from the pfSense store.

      Configured Wireless network as its own subnet and enabled DHCP server for the subnet.

      Problem is that wireless throughput is extremely slow. e.g. Google.com takes over a full minute to load.

      What's going on?

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        Are you using wireless in the SG, or an external AP?

        that sort of speed seems horrific even if you were on B speeds..

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
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        • H
          HaburGate
          last edited by

          I'm using the internal wireless (it's an official pfSense store unit), set to 802.11ng only.

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            so I take it google when wired is fast, so what is a speedtest show wired vs wireless?

            Are you using dns forwarding or resolver?

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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            • H
              HaburGate
              last edited by

              @johnpoz:

              so I take it google when wired is fast, so what is a speedtest show wired vs wireless?

              Are you using dns forwarding or resolver?

              Yes, wired is expected speed.

              Did eventually get wireless working at normal speed, but the signal is very weak. So weak it doesn't even reach where my old Linksys WRT54G does.

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              • ?
                Guest
                last edited by

                Have you tried using pfSense wireless in 802.11NA mode. The 2.4 ghz band is quite crowded and you really need to jump to 5ghz/NA mode to see good results in most urban areas….
                Do a site survey with Netstumbler and find the frequency holes and use that frequency. I have no competing 5ghz in my area...So I choose somewhere in the middle around 5600mhz

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                • ?
                  Guest
                  last edited by

                  Problem is that wireless throughput is extremely slow. e.g. Google.com takes over a full minute to load.

                  • No TKIP or mixed a/b/g/n WiFi
                    set it to a or b or g or n only please
                  • Usage AES-CCM/CMP (enterprise)
                    would be the best and strongest encryption
                  • search in the used WiFI band for other APs or WiFi devices
                    would be good to know how is using which band and channel, so you can take a free one
                  • take a unique SSID to be sure for that search the bands and see what they are offering
                    likes "meandyouaretwo" this would nobody else using.

                  What's going on?

                  PCI or IRQ errors are there?
                  pfSense only with WiFi or is there Squid, Snort and others are in
                  the game that are slowing down the entire WLAN throughput?

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                  • A
                    adtruck
                    last edited by

                    @vocatus:

                    Recently purchased a SG-2440 from the pfSense store.

                    Configured Wireless network as its own subnet and enabled DHCP server for the subnet.

                    Problem is that wireless throughput is extremely slow. e.g. Google.com takes over a full minute to load.

                    What's going on?

                    I had the exact problem with two sg-2220s. same wifi card as your sg-2440.  I believe something is not right in the driver or setting. The wifi is not slow at all time but some time fast some time slow. There is some signification amount of "out errors". "in errors" is ok however. Have you found a solution yet?

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                    • A
                      adtruck
                      last edited by

                      @BlueKobold:

                      Problem is that wireless throughput is extremely slow. e.g. Google.com takes over a full minute to load.

                      • No TKIP or mixed a/b/g/n WiFi
                        set it to a or b or g or n only please
                      • Usage AES-CCM/CMP (enterprise)
                        would be the best and strongest encryption
                      • search in the used WiFI band for other APs or WiFi devices
                        would be good to know how is using which band and channel, so you can take a free one
                      • take a unique SSID to be sure for that search the bands and see what they are offering
                        likes "meandyouaretwo" this would nobody else using.

                      What's going on?

                      PCI or IRQ errors are there?
                      pfSense only with WiFi or is there Squid, Snort and others are in
                      the game that are slowing down the entire WLAN throughput?

                      I used AES and ng only. Tried either 5G or 2.4G, both has same issue. I had picked the clear channel and test the speed on exact same spot every time. No other package is running. Wireless is hard to troubleshoot. Any other suggestion? Well. May be I should just forget it and buy a access point.

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                      • johnpozJ
                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                        last edited by

                        "May be I should just forget it and buy a access point."

                        Give the man a cookie..  If you want decent wifi, then you more than likely need multiple AP properly placed to cover the area you want to cover…  The router is almost never in the best place for wifi coverage.. I really don't even understand why people attempt to do it.

                        Let pfsense do what its good at doing routing/firewall your traffic.  Its not a Switch, its not an AP.. its a routing firewall..

                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                        • H
                          HaburGate
                          last edited by

                          @johnpoz:

                          Give the man a cookie..  If you want decent wifi, then you more than likely need multiple AP properly placed to cover the area you want to cover…

                          No cookie, this is not a helpful reply. When purchasing a pre-configured router/firewall/ap combo directly from the pfSense store that advertises a/b/g/n wireless capabilities, and costs upwards of $500 USD it is not unreasonable at all to expect it to "just work."

                          Especially coverage in a 1,400 sq ft house…any crappy Linksys can (and currently does) do that. Instead of being condescending and assuming you know the configuration and environment, try seeking to understand before commenting.

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                          • D
                            doktornotor Banned
                            last edited by

                            Yeah, so get that crappy Linksys. It's made for WiFi. Seriously, all the wifi crap should be nuked from pfSense code. FreeBSD is NOT usable for WiFi, end of story.

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                            • johnpozJ
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                              last edited by

                              Looking at the store item for the 2440 https://store.pfsense.org/SG-2440/

                              I don't see mention of any sort of wifi features, it lists that you can get a wifi card as an "option"  but I see no claims to its performance or that it even supports N.. Just that the optional card your purchasing is a/b/g/n and 2T2R

                              it also has usb ports - do you think you can connect a usb printer or disk/stick and use it a print server/nas ??

                              Even when you click on the more features of pfsense in that listing it really makes no mention of wifi supported, or claims to performance of wifi.  If you would of looked over the forums you will see that wifi is not a selling point of pfsense, if you look at the freebsd that its based up you would also see as dok points out wifi not a strong point in freebsd.

                              Not sure why you would think that wifi is a strong point here…  It has been, and prob always will be some "option" that you may get to perform ok in a pinch.  But to be honest anyone looking to spend $500 on a router/firewall - not sure why this network would have a crappy wifi card in their router/firewall as their wifi for their whole network, etc..  The only real use I could see for a wifi connection would be out of band access to pfsense itself, as a possible wan backup link, etc..

                              I agree you get no cookie for not doing some basic research before dropping $500 to what the good and bads of the device were.. I doubt you will find any post/article or anything anywhere stating the wonders of pfsense wifi support.  But a simple breeze over of the forums will find lots of caveats to its use, and limited devices and speeds supported.

                              here for example... https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Is_802.11n_wireless_supported while it does say 2.2 and freebsd10.1 which does have 802.11n support in general, but support may still vary by card and driver.  Not sure I would take that as hey you can run your locations wifi off this thing ;)  And your speeds are going to rock ;)

                              I am with dok here they should prob just remove the functionality all together, and make it clear on their documentation you should run external AP for your wifi..

                              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                              • ?
                                Guest
                                last edited by

                                When purchasing a pre-configured router/firewall/ap combo directly from the pfSense store that advertises a/b/g/n wireless capabilities, and costs upwards of $500 USD it is not unreasonable at all to expect it to "just work."

                                Could it be that the miniPCIe card was glitch out of this miniPCIe slot a bit and now you get it not solved out.

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                                • H
                                  HaburGate
                                  last edited by

                                  @doktornotor:

                                  Yeah, so get that crappy Linksys. It's made for WiFi. Seriously, all the wifi crap should be nuked from pfSense code. FreeBSD is NOT usable for WiFi, end of story.

                                  Nope.

                                  It is not unreasonable to expect an enterprise product sold with an officially offered wireless add-in card to, you know, work with wireless. Shocking concept.

                                  Your opinion of what belongs in a software distribution notwithstanding, reality is that pfSense has an entire GUI page dedicated to wireless configuration, official documentation on wireless, and an official list of supported wireless hardware. I emphasize the word supported.

                                  So, thanks for the worthless reply, but until wireless support is removed from the distribution, I'll continue to assume it's supported.

                                  @johnpoz:

                                  I am with dok here they should prob just remove the functionality all together, and make it clear on their documentation you should run external AP for your wifi..

                                  Sure, I can understand that. But if it's not "really" supported it should be removed altogether, and not expected of the customer to "just know" because it's "not emphasized."

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                                  • ?
                                    Guest
                                    last edited by

                                    It is not unreasonable to expect an enterprise product sold with an officially offered wireless add-in card to, you know, work with wireless. Shocking concept.

                                    But what is then your problem? What is not running well then for you? If all is supported and there are also
                                    DOC´s out about WiFi you could solve it and/or fine tune it right.

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                                    • johnpozJ
                                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      "Problem is that wireless throughput is extremely slow. e.g. Google.com takes over a full minute to load."

                                      From that there is a so much we can work with and help him troubleshoot..  For starters what mode is client using.. How do you know its not the client side?  Maybe its wifi is fine and dns is a problem..

                                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                                      • H
                                        HaburGate
                                        last edited by

                                        @johnpoz:

                                        "Problem is that wireless throughput is extremely slow. e.g. Google.com takes over a full minute to load."

                                        From that there is a so much we can work with and help him troubleshoot..  For starters what mode is client using.. How do you know its not the client side?  Maybe its wifi is fine and dns is a problem..

                                        I've tested with various clients, including a Lenovo ThinkPad running Mint 17.2, Nexus 5 running latest Android, and an older Mac laptop.

                                        The signal is extremely weak, to the point that it's odd, e.g. just walking down the hallway about 20 feet (with clear LoS to the router) and the signal drops off immensely.

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                                        • dennypageD
                                          dennypage
                                          last edited by

                                          Are the antennas fully connected?

                                          @vocatus:

                                          The signal is extremely weak, to the point that it's odd, e.g. just walking down the hallway about 20 feet (with clear LoS to the router) and the signal drops off immensely.

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                                          • ?
                                            Guest
                                            last edited by

                                            e.g. just walking down the hallway about 20 feet (with clear LoS to the router) and the signal
                                            drops off

                                            Could it be that there is another WLAN source that is over lapping your signal, perhaps a stronger one?
                                            Or on the same channel?

                                            Are you using AES-ccm or web encryption standard?
                                            Are the antennas internal right connected?
                                            Are you using TKIP or on standard only?

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