WiFi Access point recommendations?

[Generic George]

My old netgear router is starting to get flaky. The WiFi 6/Ax stuff does not seem to be ready for prime time yet, but I suspect will be here in another year or so, so I don't want to get anything terribly expensive.

I have a dedicated PFsense box I was planning to use as firewall in any case. I can move the local network DCHP stuff to either a FreeNAS or an old synology NAS box. So I figure that an access point should fill in just fine, but I'm not familiar with those. So I was curious as to what people would recommend. I don't need a mesh set up as I use a hardwired connection when possible, about the only thing I use it for is the inherently mobile stuff, such as my laptop or phone and that's mostly in the same room as the AP would be in.

 

[Rand__]

How about these - https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...maybe-an-offer-for-3x-r500-for-40-each.27441/
or non US based?

 

[Stephan]

I'm a die-hard fan of ath9k compatible PCIe cards using a recent hostapd daemon with 10 lines of config. Like a T-Link TL-WDN4800. Only 802.11n but will do 22 MByte/s net TCP rate to my Acer Swift 1 laptop (Intel Wifi 6 something card). Hostapd if recent enough will include all workarounds for WPA2 weaknesses discovered over the years. With dedicated wifi hardware you will be guessing. My guess would be "no".

Why ath9k? No firmware blob. Super-audited driver, much harder to exploit than some stupidly chinese-written firmware that will crash the moment it gets a maliciously oversized field somewhere. Also you can override the EEPROM region using driver reg.c patches if some mini PCIe card you got will only do 11 US-channels but you are in Europe or Japan that allows more.

 

[Generic George]

The ath9k is interesting, but 802.11 n is just too dammed slow and it was slow when I replaced my N router 7 years ago. If it ever supports at least AC then I'd give it a more serious look.

I'll consider the Ruckus though.

Anyone have experience using a mSATA wifi card in a unit like this?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XPGFG2W/ref=pe_171570_260301670_em_1p_0_ti

Poking around on amazon, most AC cards are only $20 and I've seen some ax for about $40.

Or is it a bad idea to run something like this on a PFsense firewall?

 

[LodeRunner]

If you're trying to turn pfSense into your AP, the first hurdle will be whether or not FreeBSD (what pfSense runs on) has a driver for that card. Look into used Ruckus APs with Unleashed firmware or go with Unifi UAC-AP-Pros; I have those and they are decent though the geometry of my house and some really noisy neighboring APs have me eyeing Ruckus as R500 or R510 units as replacements. Unifi's beam forming and noise rejection is marginal. Maybe newer units are better about it.

pfSense WiFi information: 802.11 Wireless — Supported Wireless Cards | pfSense Documentation

Reddit:
Wireless card recommendations : PFSENSE
PFSense WiFi card : PFSENSE

Seems like the answer to turning pfSense into your AP is "Don't bother."

 

[spanky34]

The ath9k is interesting, but 802.11 n is just too dammed slow and it was slow when I replaced my N router 7 years ago. If it ever supports at least AC then I'd give it a more serious look.

I'll consider the Ruckus though.

Anyone have experience using a mSATA wifi card in a unit like this?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XPGFG2W/ref=pe_171570_260301670_em_1p_0_ti

Poking around on amazon, most AC cards are only $20 and I've seen some ax for about $40.

Or is it a bad idea to run something like this on a PFsense firewall?

Almost everyone at pfsense forums will tell you don't use it to provide WiFi. Spend $50 and get the ruckus 500 (or $120and get 3 of them). It'll be stable and much easier to troubleshoot down the road.

 

[Generic George]

pfSense WiFi information: 802.11 Wireless — Supported Wireless Cards | pfSense Documentation

Reddit:
Wireless card recommendations : PFSENSE
PFSense WiFi card : PFSENSE

Seems like the answer to turning pfSense into your AP is "Don't bother."

Yeah, I'd initially figured "Well most stuff has linux drivers these days", but PFSense is FreeBSD, which is apparently supported by virtually nothing current as far as wifi goes. Probably mostly due to proprietary/patented/licensed/whatever... encryption.

Apparently the complexity of OFDMA (a major driver of the improvements in WiFi 6) is one of the things stalling a lot of the gear.

I may also just try an open source firmware on the netgear as well. That might improve things.