# Problems with Ralink RT5370 USB WiFi Wireless Adapters



## vstemen (Dec 8, 2017)

Hi.

Problems with Ralink wifi dongles using as access points (AP mode) on FreeBSD.

```
Vendor = 0x148f
Product = 0x5370
Chipsets:
    MAC/BBP RT5390 (rev 0x0502)
    RF RT5370 (MIMO 1T1R)
```
I have tried three different models with this chipset.

Devices randomly quit communicating with the FreeBSD AP.  Sometimes while wireless devices are still connected and sometimes they just start failing to connect.  In these cases, destroying and re-configuring the wlan interface on FreeBSD often makes it start working again, but doing this also randomly causes FreeBSD 10.3 on desktop machines to crash.  I have the same problem on three different machines, two of them with AMD64 on ASUS motherboards and one with an Intel processor.

I also have one running on a Raspberry Pi running FreeBSD 11.1-PRERELEASE and have the same problem.  Except, so far, it at least has not crashed the Pi when resetting the interface.  USB on the Pi's seems to be more stable than the desktops.

I also get lots of

```
run0: device timeout
```
errors in the system log.

The sys log says

```
run0: firmware RT3071 ver. 0.33 loaded
```
I don't know if it is a hardware, firmware, or a FreeBSD driver problem.

Does anybody have any suggestions or perhaps recommendations on a low cost wireless USB adapter with a chipset that is more stable as an Access Point on FreeBSD?

We bought these at different times as some of the few USB dongles that we could find that listed a chipset that FreeBSD shows as supported in AP mode.  So many of them wont even tell you the chipset.

One of them is a Rosewill brand from Newegg, which is no longer available, and the other two models are generics that were ordered from ebay.

It would sure be nice if we could get these to work, since we have a number of them in stock.  I hate to just waste them.


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