pfSense Hardware

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In order to run pfSense I'll propably grab a 4 port NIC from ebay:

Additionally, I'd also like to have WiFi and I'd prefer to pick a PCIe card, since I'm already using my old PC (ATX) and don't want to waste more space than I already do. I was thinking about grabbing the ASUS card below, but I'm open to suggestions

However, due to the fact that many people seem to prefer an external AP (or a router, used as AP) I'd be interested what you guys think..

I'd also like to have MU-MIMO - this is only possible with an AP, isn't it?

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PfSense is very picky about wireless adapters because BSD doesn't have support for a ton of wireless adapters natively. I'm rather sure that asus pcie adapter will not work as I can't find any confirmed compatibility on the BSD supported hardware lists. I would suggest going with a dedicated Access point instead of a pcie add-in card. Something like a Ubiquiti AC Lite, LR, or Pro. If the Pro's 3x3 setup isn't good enough for you, you could look at the AC-HD, which does feature full MU-MIMO support, but at a hefty price.

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According to this question it does work with pfSense.

That being said, these Ubiquiti ACs look nice, the HD's price might be a little to much for me though :smiley:

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That's a good idea, since those Ubiquiti APs support "Fast Roaming", which enables you to expand your WiFi with more APs and roam between them freely without any interruption.

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According to Amazon comment that it might work, and through some further digging there is an old driver might work with any Broadcom based chip starting in BCM43** (this asus is using a BCM4366). The driver is named BWN(4). But, from further digging on the BSD site page for that driver, it doesn't explicitly support the BCM4366, although it does support some older models. Querying the Official FreeBSD Supported Hardware List for the BCM4366 doesn't return it anywhere, so my only guess at why it would work would be that BWN(4) driver, but even that's a guess.

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You have to have the controller software running for that feature.
The controller is written in Java so it should work under FreeBSD since you are using pfSense. It seems like it works. If not: The Raspberry Pi is your friend.

The APs work without controller, only the features like roaming and logging necessitate the controller.

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Yeah, in addition to that, if you don't have a Raspberry Pi, you can run the controller software on AWS.

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ok, so unfortunately (from a space perspective) an AP seems to be the more sensible choice.

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Another question, if a WLAN router is dicounted on Amazon I can purchase it and use it as simple access point too, can't I?

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Yes you'll have to either disable DHCP or put it in Access Point mode if it has the option but it should work.

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An Intel NIC is definitely the way to go. But, be cautious. They are so popular that counterfeit Intel NICs are rather commonplace.

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Ok thx, I assumed it should be fine, but then again, it doesn't hurt to ask xD

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Also in most cases consumer wireless routers work 10 times better if you only use them as access points, routing can be very taxing and they only barely good enough to do the job but by offloading the router to pfSense you can get decent uptime from them as an AP.

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Considering the not HD Ubiquiti devices don't feature MU-MIMO I wonder if there'd be a huge difference. Any experiences?