# [FreeNAS] Installing 802.11b wifi



## matt73 (Jun 28, 2011)

I have some old USB Actiontec 802.11b cards lying around and I want to use them with my FreeNAS boxes (which run on FreeBSD) allowing me to use them anywhere in the house. They need PRISM drivers. I have checked hardware compatibility and it says they should work and I have also read that nearly all 802.11b drivers are supported under FreeBSD. I understand that I need to load the driver wi(4) as a module at startup which involves altering my loader.conf file to include the following statement: 
	
	



```
if_wi_load="YES"
```

When I plug the card into a USB port and boot up I get this in my FreeNAS logs: 
	
	



```
ugen0: <vendor 0x1668 product 0x0421, class 0/0, rev 1.10/1.32, addr 2> on uhub1
```
 which tells me that the device is there and plugged into the hardware. I have searched this forum and googled for solutions but I am stumped. The device is plugged in but does not light up. 

Since I am totally new to FreeBSD I don't know what to do next.  Should I attempt to configure anyway? I have typed *ifconfig -a* and it does not show any wireless devices. Does anybody know how I conclusively prove that the device is recognised and installed into the OS? 

Thanks.


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## SirDice (Jun 28, 2011)

First: [thread=7290]Topics about PC-BSD | FreeNAS | DesktopBSD | m0N0WALL | pfSense | Debian GNU/kFreeBSD[/thread]

Second: Handbook: 31.3 Wireless Networking


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## matt73 (Jun 28, 2011)

Thank you.  I will have a look at the documentation you have provided.


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## richardpl (Jun 29, 2011)

if_wi does not support USB devices. Same information can be read from wi(4).


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## matt73 (Jun 29, 2011)

Do you know if it is worth trying NDIS?  Would USB be supported?


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## richardpl (Jun 30, 2011)

Well USB support was somehow fine with one of FreeBSD CURRENTs, the first one introducing support for USB in NDISulator.

The current state is almost unusable, timeout errors all the time releated to USB (have not found time to debug this), and do not expect to be able to do wild detach of device - you will get instant panic, this one was introduced from start.

You can try it anyway but you will not get it in usable state because of above mentioned timeouts.

If you want you can be tester once I managed to find proper solution for this outstanding problem.


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## matt73 (Jun 30, 2011)

I have since searched for a possible solution but to no avail.  There was a guy who posted to a forum a couple of years ago with exactly the same problem as me but he never managed to solve it.  

It looks like I will have to either buy a switch or get a PCI wireless card.  I was hoping I could utilise old hardware like the rest of my stuff.


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