Thanks for the input!
Happy New Year :)
Cheers,
Steve Williams
On 31/12/2016 2:29 PM, Eike Lantzsch wrote:
On Saturday, 31 December 2016 11:13:53 PYST Steve Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have decided to modernize my OpenBSD system from an old desktop PC to
something lower power. It seems that the PC Engines APU line is well
supported by OpenBSD and low power and the price point is rather attractive.
I've never done wireless with OpenBSD. Since some of the APU cases come
with holes for two antennae, I thought it would be a new learning
experience to implement a wireless base station (router) in OpenBSD.
I can't seem to find much information on what wireless cards people have
used in the APU system(s).
The PC Engines website lists a WLE200NX which google reveals is a
Atheros AR9280 Wireless Mini PCIe 2.4/5 Ghz Dual Band card.
I used the WLM200NX with an Alix as OpenBSD AP until the Alix was destroyed by
lightning. Since then using an APU1 as router but no WiFi yet.
According to athn.4, it should be supported and operate as a base
station (router).
It seems that the WLE200NX is electronically the same as the WLM200NX. But I
can't be sure until I get mine together with an additional APU2 sometime in
Jan 2017.
I'll make sure to report and send a dmesg.
In any case you need to decide in which band you want to operate (2.4GHz or
5GHz) and choose the right antenna respectively, unless you decide to order a
dual-band antenna. The latter is said to perform worse but I couldn't detect a
difference to the single-band antenna - at least @ 2.4GHz where the signal is
very much interfered with.
I went eventually with 5GHz because with that I'm alone in the neighbourhood.
Is this a card that people have had success with operating as a base
station (wireless router)?
Is there a better Mini PCIe card that is supported by OpenBSD?
If the WLE600VX is "better" or if it works at all w/ OpenBSD still remains to
be seen.
I'm not scrimping on money... I anticipate this running for 5+ years.
I've been on OpenBSD since the 2.7 days and have only had 2 different
sets of hardware (retired PC's). This would be the third and the only
"new" system :)
Thanks,
Steve Williams
All the best
Eike
