Advice for integrating WiFi AP with OPNsense router

[geo]

Hi,

I've installed OPNsense 17.1 on a pcengines APU2. The APU2 has 3x NICs.

My question:
I'd like to connect a WiFi AP to a spare NIC (NIC #2) on the router to allow wireless clients to connect to the internet. To do this do I need to bridge the internal NIC's together (i.e. NIC 1&2) or do I simply assign NIC #2 a valid internal network ip address (e.g. 192.168.1.100)?

My setup:
The physical setup I'm envisioning is shown in the attached diagram.
NIC #1 (192.168.1.1/24) - connects computers in the basement to the router
NIC #3 (DHCP) - connects the WAN modem to the router

Thank you,
geo

[bartjsmit]

Silly question; why not attach the WiFi AP to the switch?

Bart...

[geo]

Hi Bart,

Thanks for your reply, I did try putting the AP in the basement and it worked, but the connection quality wasn't good in the upper level of our home. The office room is centrally located would offer good coverage throughout the home.

[Noctur]

I have a similar setup to what you're seeking - WiFi upstairs, box in basement.

You can create a bridge (br0) with just NIC2 on it, make the br0 your LAN port, reboot from the console. Then connect to the new LAN point and add NIC1 to br0, then reboot. You should then have LAN on both NIC1&2 and your box acting as a switch. There are discussion points on why it isn't good to have your box acting as a switch, but it will work. Alternatively, it is simple to just add an inexpensive 5 port gigabit switch to the upstairs system on the Lan NIC and plug your basement line and WiFi AP into the switch.

Note, when you create the br0, neither of the NICs should have an IP address. The br0 should have your LAN address, i.e. IP Config type "Static IPV4" and address "192.168.1.1/24". The NICs should be left blank, with IP Configuration type of "None".

[s4rs]

 Just be aware that creating a wireless bridge hurts performance a lot. At least it did in 16.7.x