Clarification: Is Motherboard WiFi mPCIe?

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parityboy

Limp Gawd
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I'm planning out a pfSense router and I am aware that pfSense is picky about WiFi hardware and best supports Atheros chipsets. If I buy a motherboard whose built-in WiFi is Realtek or some other not-so-well-supported/unsupported brand, can I remove the WiFi module and swap in a different one?

Is the slot on the motherboard standard mPCIe?

Many thanks. :)
 
I'm going to say that it's rare to have a mini PCIe slot. Some of the boards more fitted to embedded (non-socketed CPUs) might have this. I'd definitely do your research on this one. Hope you can find a board that works for you.

Edit: Apparently there are adapters out there to allow use of a mini PCIe in a PCIe slot.
 
@thread

Many thanks for the replies. :)

cjcox said:
I'm going to say that it's rare to have a mini PCIe slot. Some of the boards more fitted to embedded (non-socketed CPUs) might have this. I'd definitely do your research on this one. Hope you can find a board that works for you.

Edit: Apparently there are adapters out there to allow use of a mini PCIe in a PCIe slot.
Click to expand...

Apologies for the large image but I can't get spoiler tags to work. Anyway, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about (top right). Is that an mPCIe slot that the WiFi card is plugged into?

20150826155128_src.png


EDIT:
I just noticed that to the right of the device it says M2_WIFI. I assume then that the card is an M.2 PCIe WiFi card.
 
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parityboy said:
I just noticed that to the right of the device it says M2_WIFI. I assume then that the card is an M.2 PCIe WiFi card.
Click to expand...

Yes.

Now stop thinking about using it, because you're going to get headaches and worse performance, and go get a real AP with real host radios and real antennas.
 
*BSD still doesn't have proper AC support, yet the next gen standard parts are already shipping. Some of this is vendors not playing along with the *BSDs needing low level documentation to do real drivers (along with FCC attention and similar involvements into software radio recently) but there is not a lot of interest on the dev side either.

Great stable server and router platform, absolutely terrible modern wifi platform.

Just get an AP.

Note: specifically excluding closed systems that functionally use BSD at their core and have their own paid-for/in-house-developed drivers/libraries/binaries, some of these are doing fine with wifi.
 
You know, so many cheapy wifi router/gateway things are out there that support 3rd party flashing (DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc).... maybe that's a better option? I've run some of those, and they really allow you to do a lot.
 
Aluminum said:
*BSD still doesn't have proper AC support, yet the next gen standard parts are already shipping. Some of this is vendors not playing along with the *BSDs needing low level documentation to do real drivers (along with FCC attention and similar involvements into software radio recently) but there is not a lot of interest on the dev side either.

Great stable server and router platform, absolutely terrible modern wifi platform.

Just get an AP.

Note: specifically excluding closed systems that functionally use BSD at their core and have their own paid-for/in-house-developed drivers/libraries/binaries, some of these are doing fine with wifi.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this, now I have a better understanding of the situation. :) What's so special about BSD that the situation is so poor compared to Linux?


cjcox said:
You know, so many cheapy wifi router/gateway things are out there that support 3rd party flashing (DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc).... maybe that's a better option? I've run some of those, and they really allow you to do a lot.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've seen those. Are there any of those kinds of distros which are AP-only and don't have all the extra crap (modem support, VPN etc)?


IdiotInCharge said:
Yes.

Now stop thinking about using it, because you're going to get headaches and worse performance, and go get a real AP with real host radios and real antennas.
Click to expand...

Yes dear. :p

Actually, I have a question for you (and the thread). I want to put a 4-port Ethernet card in this box as well...does any PCIe Ethernet card support PoE, or is that limited to switches?
 
parityboy said:
Thank you for this, now I have a better understanding of the situation. :) What's so special about BSD that the situation is so poor compared to Linux?
Click to expand...

Drivers are ass. Plain and simple, the development effort for radios on BSD approaches nil, unless say you're Apple- and then you're not sharing that work, because you don't have to.

parityboy said:
Yeah I've seen those. Are there any of those kinds of distros which are AP-only and don't have all the extra crap (modem support, VPN etc)?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about the 'extra crap', just turn it off. Or, get a real AP that only has what you need.

parityboy said:
Actually, I have a question for you (and the thread). I want to put a 4-port Ethernet card in this box as well...does any PCIe Ethernet card support PoE, or is that limited to switches?
Click to expand...

Get a PoE switch. Or get PoE injectors. I have never seen a PoE NIC, and I'm not sure I would trust one.
 
IdiotInCharge

I found this (I'm with you on the "trust" part) and this . Also this and this.


@thread

Since I already have a pair of WiFi Powerline Adapters I may just buy another pair for the perimeter network. Before anyone says anything, I'm well aware that PLAs are held in contempt on forums like these, but for me they're the best option for the environment I'm working in and the current use case (web access and media streaming)

Anyway, I have another question. I know APs like UniFi have a central management console for all APs on a network - is there anything like that for Powerline Adapters?
 
parityboy said:
Before anyone says anything, I'm well aware that PLAs are held in contempt on forums like these
Click to expand...

I'm using one right now. Works great. Actually have my dedicated access point, a Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Pro, attached to it off of a Unifi Switch-8 60W. The switch feeds my centrally-located home theater setup, and the access point on the powerline adapter runs as a backup.

But the general consensus, which I share, is that this is on a use-case basis only. You won't know whether powerline will work until you try it.

parityboy said:
is there anything like that for Powerline Adapters?
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Possibly, but you'll need to research that yourself. I know TP-Link was doing a portal thing that they were hosting, but just as a heads up, they're a Chinese company (unlike Netgear, for example).
 
PLA's are ok, but I would go with coax adapters, like MoCA, if possible. Although I have heard that the newer generation of PLA's are actually pretty fast.
 
IdiotInCharge

Yeah, that's the main issue with powerline - it's impossible to deploy into a consistent environment, unlike Ethernet. In that regard it's got more in common with WiFi than with any wired networking technology. Re; TP-Link portal, I'd be much more inclined to run something locally on a VM or a Pi - I have no interest in cloud-based administration of a local network.


extide

MoCA looks OK but tbh if I was going to run cables (which I'm not), I'd just run Cat 5e and be done with it. :)
 
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