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List:       freebsd-wireless
Subject:    Best supported WiFi adapter
From:       CiPHER nl <cipher_nl () hotmail ! com>
Date:       2014-08-12 21:23:37
Message-ID: DUB129-W823FB36FCE3E30577AB53A97EA0 () phx ! gbl
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Dear BSD users,

I am looking for the 'best supported WiFi adapter' for use with FreeBSD. I've \
searched a bit, but could use some help.

My requirements would be:
- use with hostapd (to act as access point; not as client)
- reliable operation without packet loss with a variety of clients in a home network \
                (i.e. not many clients)
- WPA2 security

Nice extra's would be:
- support power saving mode (low power consumption)
- 802.11n support (up to 300Mbps)

At the moment i am using a USB WiFi adapter that uses the 'rum' driver. Though it \
works in hostap mode, it does not support client power saving. This causes some \
clients to work while others can only connect to the WiFi but not communicate or ping \
or do anything. Obviously this is not desirable; i need something that works! \
Additionally, as someone who is very keen on lowering power consumption especially \
for 24/7 equipment, i would love the power consumption to be lowered of both the \
server and the clients connecting via WiFi. Thus power saving mode is highly desired. \
Having a more modern 'n' 300Mbps network is a nice extra, but no hard requirement. \
Note that i am in Europe, and 5GHz is not available/allowed as far as i know. 2.4GHz \
is the norm here.

Now i did some homework, like looking at the Wiki and reading manpages. Also looked \
at the hardware notes of 10.0-RELEASE. But what i am missing is a list of 'best \
supported' network adapters, and product names which are known to work properly. \
Perhaps this should be added to the Wiki, since i can't believe i am the only one \
looking for a well supported WiFi adapter for use with FreeBSD.

Any suggestion or help is highly appreciated!

Links:

Manpage of rum(4), describing the bug/issue that client power saving has to be \
                disabled; but not all clients offer this option - like Android \
                phones.
- http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rum&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+10.0-RELEASE&arch=default&format=html


Wiki on WiFi with many links:
- https://wiki.freebsd.org/WiFi

Wiki listing support for newer chips like Atheros AR9287, but no products mentioned \
                which use these chips
- https://wiki.freebsd.org/WiFi80211n
- https://wiki.freebsd.org/dev/ath%284%29

Manpage of Atheros ath(4) driver, listing limitations with power saving, \
incompatbility with WPA with one chipset and even worse, the newer chips like AR9287 \
                are not mentioned:
- http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ath&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+10.0-RELEASE&arch=default&format=html
  
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