# How to Wi-Fi



## vince66 (Sep 11, 2018)

Hello guys,

wi-fi in FreeBSD is not so hard.

To wireless network, a wireless networking card is needed and the kernel needs to be configured with the appropriate wireless networking support.

*What is the installed wireless adapter ?*

Generally I use ifconfig and dmesg.

In this case ifconfig returns me these info:







and dmesg these info:






QUESTION 1.

Is re0 the real wifi card inserted in the PCI slot ? Or, in other words: *does FreeBSD see my wifi card inserted in the PCI slot ?*


QUESTION 2.

/boot/loader.conf is empty.

What I need to write inside it ? Or, in other words: how can I determine the correct driver for the wi-fi card ?

___________________________________

Thanks in advance.


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## Minbari (Sep 11, 2018)

First you need to identify your wifi card, re0 it's the ethernet interface not wifi. Run `pciconf -lv` to see if FreeBSD it's detectiong your wifi card. If it find one then you need to load a module into kernel for it with `kldload` or for that module to be loaded at every boot you need to add it in /boot/loader.conf


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## vince66 (Sep 11, 2018)

Minbari said:


> pciconf -lv



A brand new Desktop computer has not installed by default a wi-fi card.
If someone want a wi-fi connection, it's necessary install a wi-fi card connecting it to the motherboard's PCI interface.

What happen for a wi-fi card installed in a laptop ? Is the wi-fi chip connected by a PCI interface ?

In other word, if I use FreeBSD on a laptop, can I again use the command:


`pciconf -lv`


to detect the wi-fi card ?


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## Minbari (Sep 11, 2018)

That command does not detect only the wifi cards, but all the components in your pc, and to answer your question: yes you can use that command on a laptop who has FreeBSD as OS. This command `pciconf -lv` does exactly what `lspci`do on GNU/Linux system: prints all your hardware components.


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