Wifi Logilink WL0084B - Ralink hardware - Use as WAN?

[chemlud]

Hi again!

Yessss, I know, I should use an access point for wifi, BUT :-)

I want to have a small (!) device for traveling, working as an opnsense firewall for wifi access. So I would like to use a wifi stick as the WAN interface. Have one here, plugged it into a Linux PC to get some details on the hardware (see below).

My question: Is there a remote chance to make this work with opnsense 16.1 with reasonable effort or is this a no-go?

Kind regards

chemlud

[chemlud]

OK, simply tried it, assigned it to WAN (run), I can see the wifi networks, but don't know where to enter the password to access the network.

Any help?

[chemlud]

At "Interfaces" -> "Overview" I see the correct interface for WAN (run0), but at "Assignments" WAN has "re0", which is the LAN interface.

Reboot didn't help. Still can't find a page to enter the wifi password...

[chemlud]

Just if someone is interested: Got another USB-stick (realtek driver) running, connects to the access point, but looses contact frequently, no traffic going back or forth... Reading some things on the interweb thing, USB wifi and BSD is overall a very frustrating story.

No idea where to find a small wifi device that could work reliably with some kind of sense firewall...

[chemlud]

Got the Logilink WL0084B up and running on opnsense 16.1.8 64bit full, but after 1-2 min disconnect with constant

run0: firmware RT3071 ver. 033 loaded

messages in the console...

Later on it re-connects and wifi as WAN is doing fine for some (short) time, before going down again...


On pfsense 2.3.1 nano i386 I get into a reboot-loop

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4175

No idea

[chemlud]

Update: did the updates for opnsense up to 16.1.15 via wifi as WAN, including some reboots and now the WAN wifi is stable for about 1 h... :-D

cool! Wait'n see...

[chemlud]

After some hours or so the stick looses connection, disable/enable the WAN interface re-establishes the connection reliably. But even if connected, about one out of three webpages doesn't load (can't find server), but after a minute or so it will go through.

The "Overview" for Interfaces shows multiple errors both IN and OUT. Is this a sign for bad hardware (USB ports?) on the Gigabyte n3150 board (firmware V3, as V4 can only be installed from UEFI Windows installation, which I haven't done...) running the 64bit opnsense?

[chemlud]

Switched back to the  Openvox 110 with 386 nano 16.1.14 and the Logilink WL0084B stick. Was kind of stable, with some hickups. Found in the log some "deleting route to" with IPs of my DNS servers set in the opnsense, however, the pfsense downstream, behind the wifi accesspoint did allow only itself as DNS server :-)

I allowed now (firewall rule) in the pfsense access for the wifi clients to the DNS severs set in opnsense. Now it has been stable for some hours, no reload of driver, no interruption of internet, nothing in the opnsense log. :-D

Looks good now!

[franco]

Hi chemlud,

Those errors are bad as they are related to the physical transmit layer. Could be anything from failing signal strength on G3 to USB glitches. Impossible to know for sure.

Glad the new setup works as expected.

Although I admit that upgrading to 16.1.15 over this WIFI-ONLY-WAN setup is pretty awesome. Never tried that before.


Cheers,
Franco

[chemlud]

Hi Franco!

Did the firmware update via wifi on both the 32 and the 64 bit hardware without problems. But when putting some load on the wifi WAN (openvpn tunnels with streaming) the wifi gave up (disconnect) yesterday quite frequently. Came back only on reboot.

I now use a powered USB-hub and the connection is quite stable under load for about an hour... let's see where this leads us to ;-)

[chemlud]

Little update:

Tried with more power, i.e. changed from 12V power supply for the openvox IPC 110 board to 18V, but the wifi was only really stable with the powered USB-hub. But in this config (18V + powered USB hub) it had no kernel issues/connection losses for over 2 days. Continuing... :-D