OPNsense Forum

English Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: fraenki on December 02, 2015, 12:11:11 am

Title: Wireless hardware recommendation?
Post by: fraenki on December 02, 2015, 12:11:11 am: Hi,

I was thinking about extending the functionality of my OPNsense firewall to act as a wireless access point too. I know wireless on FreeBSD may require a specific wireless chipset to perform well... any recommendations?

Thanks
- Frank
Title: Re: Wireless hardware recommendation?
Post by: franco on December 04, 2015, 06:08:56 pm: It's tricky... I have this one and it works fine, just not the latest WiFi tech:

http://www.amazon.de/Allnet-ALL0233Mini-Mini-Wireless-LAN-Mbit/dp/B0042RRTBU

It's a run(4) device I think.

https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?run(4)
Title: Re: Wireless hardware recommendation?
Post by: fraenki on December 05, 2015, 12:32:56 am: Quote from: franco on December 04, 2015, 06:08:56 pm
It's tricky... I have this one and it works fine, just not the latest WiFi tech:

http://www.amazon.de/Allnet-ALL0233Mini-Mini-Wireless-LAN-Mbit/dp/B0042RRTBU

Hm, I was thinking about a device with (support for) external antennas... I've found some matching devices with the Realtek RTL8812AU, but apparently this chipset isn't support on FreeBSD yet.

Does anybody know of working alternatives/solutions? Maybe with an Atheros chipset?

Regards
- Frank
Title: Re: Wireless hardware recommendation?
Post by: franco on December 05, 2015, 09:18:35 am: Ah, sorry, I misread. ath(4) is tricky currently, especially for newer ones. It has a "beacon stuck" panic on FreeBSD 10 that is supposedly fixes in 11, but I haven't seen go back to 10 yet. Maybe that changed, but not for 10.2, so 10.3, who knows?!
Title: Re: Wireless hardware recommendation?
Post by: Zeitkind on December 21, 2015, 12:36:54 pm: I always recommend against using any wifi-hardware directly attached to a firewall. The imho best way is to add a NIC and use any of those shiny new access points out there. Why? Because wifi hardware changes so fast, that it's already old the moment you buy it. With all that mumimo-stuff around, it's easier to replace the dedicated access point(s) that are connected to a restricted dedicated opt-interface (for wifi guests with a cp etc.) or the access point(s) for LAN - and you can place them where you want and not around the firewall itself. There a cheap access points with 2,4/5MHz for about 50 bucks, but it's also possible to (mis-)use a dumb and cheap plastic dsl-router which are often leftover anyway.
Just my 2 cents.