Solved A reliable WiFi adapter for a FreeBSD host

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free-and-bsd

After having realized how highly unreliable USB wifi dongles are under FreeBSD, given that there's no guarantee this or that one will stably work, I've found what seems to me to be a far better solution to be used with both notebooks and even desktops: a mini wireless bridge with Ethernet connection to the computer. Something like NetGear WNCE2001.

Even though it may look like overkill, but it doesn't seem to me so, after I've had enough trouble with my Lenovo notebook's WiFi card and iwn driver. I guess my notebook's module is broken or something (it fails to work under Linux as well), but hey, my GA-Z77N-WiFi motherboard also came with one, but it's broken in FreeBSD. With things going like this a small (3.20 x 2.44 x .70 in) device with excellent capabilities far surpassing any USB module, which is USB powered and which, above all, doesn't NEED a driver in FreeBSD, seems to me to be the best solution.

But perhaps there are better solutions you people have found for FreeBSD? I really love this OS and am not going to change it, so I'm writing all this because I haven't found anything convincing upon the topic "a wireless USB dongle that'll work under FreeBSD".
 
Re: A reliable WiFi adaptor for a FreeBSD host:

For the motherboard, replace the card. Earlier today, I found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA30R1SY1795

I have not tested this. However, it is an Atheros AR9285 wireless chipset (supported on FreeBSD) combined with a Bluetooth chipset. If the combination has not changed it somehow, it will still work. Maybe even the Bluetooth part. I think the height is correct for that motherboard, also.

For the Thinkpad, it's more difficult. There are some Lenovo-branded cards with Atheros chipsets. Some people modify the BIOS to remove or change the list of approved cards.
 
Re: A reliable WiFi adaptor for a FreeBSD host:

wblock@ said:
For the motherboard, replace the card. Earlier today, I found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA30R1SY1795

I have not tested this. However, it is an Atheros AR9285 wireless chipset (supported on FreeBSD) combined with a Bluetooth chipset. If the combination has not changed it somehow, it will still work. Maybe even the Bluetooth part. I think the height is correct for that motherboard, also.

For the Thinkpad, it's more difficult. There are some Lenovo-branded cards with Atheros chipsets. Some people modify the BIOS to remove or change the list of approved cards.
Click to expand...
Yes, this one looks exactly as the Intel module that came with the motherboard.
 
Re: A reliable WiFi adaptor for a FreeBSD host:

wblock@ said:
...
For the Thinkpad, it's more difficult. There are some Lenovo-branded cards with Atheros chipsets. Some people modify the BIOS to remove or change the list of approved cards.
Click to expand...
Well, as I looked into the BIOS modification business it occurred to me I might try to first update the stock BIOS, you know ;). So this seems to have fixed the malfunction of the WiFi card, now the FreeBSD setup with wpa_supplicant works fine and it doesn't keep losing NET as it used to.

Thanks a lot, wblock@! You're always helpful. As for the BIOS modification, I think I'll look into it when I have the time. I like such stuff , really.
 
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Well, the card still gives trouble by losing connection from time to time.
wblock@ said:
Re: A reliable WiFi adaptor for a FreeBSD host:

For the motherboard, replace the card. Earlier today, I found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA30R1SY1795

I have not tested this. However, it is an Atheros AR9285 wireless chipset (supported on FreeBSD) combined with a Bluetooth chipset. If the combination has not changed it somehow, it will still work. Maybe even the Bluetooth part. I think the height is correct for that motherboard, also.

For the Thinkpad, it's more difficult. There are some Lenovo-branded cards with Atheros chipsets. Some people modify the BIOS to remove or change the list of approved cards.
Click to expand...
Hey, wblock@, you seem to have also tested this card some time ago. Would you recommend this one? Or do you think EW2400MP is much better? At least the price is 10 times "better", while there are lots of 10$ ar9285 based cards at amazon, some new...
 
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As for that @ in wblock@'s username, it because it _is_ part of his username.



I know that the OP spoke against USB dongles, however, when I got a refurbished Thinkpad, I wound up using a very small Edimax USB. $9.00 and free shipping and it works quite well for me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091&cm_re=edimax-_-33-315-091-_-Product

One does have to add a line to /boot/loader.conf to accept the licence for Realtek. (I'm sorry I don't have the machine with me so don't remember the exact line, but if you go through the steps to create a wlan device, then bring it up, it will say set legal.realtek.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf or something similar. So, (assuming that's the message) you would add to /boot/loader.conf
Code: 
legal.realtek.license_ack=1
or whatever the message says, but don't use the word "set". :)


==
 
scottro said:
As for that @ in wblock@'s username, it because it _is_ part of his username.



I know that the OP spoke against USB dongles, however, when I got a refurbished Thinkpad, I wound up using a very small Edimax USB. $9.00 and free shipping and it works quite well for me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091&cm_re=edimax-_-33-315-091-_-Product

One does have to add a line to /boot/loader.conf to accept the licence for Realtek. (I'm sorry I don't have the machine with me so don't remember the exact line, but if you go through the steps to create a wlan device, then bring it up, it will say set legal.realtek.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf or something similar. So, (assuming that's the message) you would add to /boot/loader.conf
Code: 
legal.realtek.license_ack=1
or whatever the message says, but don't use the word "set". :)


==
Click to expand...
Ah, right, I've somehow overlooked this :D. I just wonder sometimes how I could ever be successful in setting things up in an OS like FreeBSD, with this attention deficit in me... It was in this post and I've read it more than once: it should be written wblock@ with two "@"s.
And thank you for your suggestion, too.

wblock@ said:
Not now, the 5008 is older. Most recently, I tried some half-size Dell cards: Thread dell-mini-pcie-atheros-wireless-cards.49249. The DW1705 is an AR5B9565 chipset. But again, it depends on which cards can be used in that Lenovo, both for physical size and BIOS restriction.
Click to expand...
Well, mine seems to be full-size. But half-size card will fit into my desktop, should I consider putting one there. I was just thinking of a card that would support AP mode among other things.

As for the BIOS restrictions I've found one of those modified BIOSes, which also enables SATA-II and removes the wifi card whitelist. Even for SATA-II it's worth trying.
 
wblock@ said:
But again, it depends on which cards can be used in that Lenovo, both for physical size and BIOS restriction.
Click to expand...
There are brackets to adopt half-size (all new) cards into older hardware. The only two quesitons are: whether the bios hack will work and what latest Atheros chip is supported in FreeBSD. At the wiki page the information is not very precise on this. The ones you've mentioned seem to have poor feedback at amazon, so I'm hesitant to use them. Would also consider the best set of security features + AP mode available. Can you, please, point me to any such? It seems you keep testing them, which is not really available to me.
 
wblock@ said:
I test them when I can. Mostly that's just by chance.
Click to expand...
OK, from the reviews and descriptions I've figured the ar5008 one above seem to fit my needs more or less closely: it has good security options and AP mode, and it fits into my laptop. The speed seems to be decent enough and it has good reviews. Besides, since the time you tested it the ath(4) driver has been developed to support this one better. Of this I can't be sure regarding the more modern chips.

So it would be interesting to know why you don't recommend it. Sure, more modern modules offer some better speed, but how can I be sure they'll be supported?

EDIT: I've found this one based on ar9283, dated 2013, which seems to be more modern. But why doesn't it say anything in the product sheet about encryption or AP functionality? Does it imply that modern modules include the necessary security options by default?
 
If the AR5008 does what you need, is the right size, and you think it will not be refused by the Lenovo BIOS, there is nothing wrong with it. The newer cards support newer modes, and the DW1705 also has Bluetooth.

Incidentally, I do not use FreeBSD as a wireless router. It can do that, but small wireless routers with third-party software are more convenient for my uses.
 
free-and-bsd said:
... after I've had enough trouble with my Lenovo notebook's WiFi card and iwn(4) driver. I guess my notebook's module is broken or something (it fails to work under Linux as well), but hey, my GA-Z77N-WiFi motherboard also came with one, but it's broken in FreeBSD...
Click to expand...
The above was posted on September 28 2014. Right now iwn(4) works FINE with my Lenovo T61 laptop, and it also works fine with Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 mentioned above. It's the driver version from HEAD copied into 10.1-STABLE, as is described elsewhere.

So, it took less than 6 months to fix things up. Great job, thanks to the WiFi drivers developer team!

But before I got this to work I ordered AR5BXB72 ar5008 PCIe module. With this I'll check the modified BIOS which I flashed into my Lenovo T61 laptop. It is supposed to get the WiFi "whitelist" erased, and that remains to be seen yet.
 
UPDATES: yes, the modified BIOS has removed the WiFi whitelist, so the Atheros AR5BXB72 is now installed and works fine. Also, the SATA restriction to v1 was removed by this BIOS mod, so the SATAII bus now works as it should and the speed is a bit higher.

However, I have a slight impression that with this new WiFi module installed the CPU fan works a little bit louder now... at least I never heard it before, but now I do.

EDIT: no, the fan works the same. Yet the difference is that with native Intel 4965agn WiFi module all the three "wireless" sings on the laptop are lighted up: radio, bluetooth and wifi. With Atheros it's only wifi and bluetooth...
 
Marked this solved, as I've got the answers I needed. On the other hand, the general answer is obvious as well: FreeBSD is improving VERY quickly. Which is very good, and great thanks to the developers and the community :).
 
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