# stuck with 802.11a?



## phalange (Sep 3, 2020)

So after reviewing thread 474727 I'm still stuck. I have a T470s with the Intel-8260, which is among the supported cards (iwm(4)).

I'm aware 11ac is not ready, but the card supports 11n, which as best I can tell is supported in FreeBSD, but I can't seem to get it initialize as anything but 11a.

I tried 
	
	



```
ifconfig_wlan0="mode 11n"
```
 in rc.conf but nothing changed.

Can anyone suggest a way to get better bandwidth? I'm getting 20Mbps.


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## mark_j (Sep 3, 2020)

What's in your /boot/loader.conf as far as the firmware is concerned?
It should include

```
if_iwm_load="YES"
iwm8000Cfw_load="YES"
```

Or maybe iwm8265fw?


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## Phishfry (Sep 3, 2020)

phalange said:


> ifconfig_wlan0="mode 11n"


How about this:
ifconfig_wlan0="mode 11na"


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## phalange (Sep 3, 2020)

mark_j said:


> What's in your /boot/loader.conf as far as the firmware is concerned?
> It should include
> 
> ```
> ...



I made your suggested changes: the 8000Cfw was incompatible and the device failed to initialize. The 8265fw initialized the device, but still didn't allow 11n connection.



Phishfry said:


> How about this:
> ifconfig_wlan0="mode 11na"



I tried 11na but still got 11a. I tried "mode 11g" as a sanity check, and this did initialize the device in 11g mode, although there's no benefit to it of course.


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## phalange (Sep 3, 2020)

And based on this email exchange there is no 802.11n support with iwm. How it's possible to call iwm a "functional" driver when it delivers 802.11a -- yes as in 1999, as in 21 f******* years ago, is a truly heroic act of inventiveness.

At least the OpenBSD driver page has the courtesy to note this jaw-dropping deficiency. What a waste of time this was.

Thanks to those above for your feedback. Moving on.


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## mark_j (Sep 3, 2020)

I don't know how you do it, but if people could complain to these closed-source hardware vendor perhaps they'd change their ways. While it's a pity FreeBSD doesn't support it, it's not FreeBSD's fault; it's these closed source hardware vendors protecting their rights (apparently)


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