Getting wireless network up and running

Aleksander Alekseev afiskon at devzen.ru
Tue Mar 15 15:30:11 UTC 2016


Hello, Carmel

Indeed wireless network configuration could be tricky in FreeBSD, been
there. Here are a few hints that may help (not only in your but in
general case).

0. Use stable FreeBSD version, e.g. not CURRENT

1. Make sure your hardware is supported by FreeBSD:
https://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/CURRENT/hardware/support.html If not
consider buying USB wireless adapter which is supported by FreeBSD. I
personally use TP-LINK TL-WN725N. Edimax EW-7811Un also looks good.

2. Make sure corresponding driver is successfully loaded, see `dmesg`,
`man kldload`.

3. Read https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-wireless.html
carefully. Here is very least you have to do:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev (device name here)
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up scan

/etc/rc.conf:

```
wlans_(device name here)="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
```

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

```
network = {
  ssid="tp-link"
  psk="ololotrololo"
}
```

sudo service netif restart
netstat -nr

4. Also consider using wifimgr - GUI tool for configuring Wi-Fi:

sudo pkg install wifimgr

Good luck!

-- 
Best regards,
Aleksander Alekseev
http://eax.me/


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