# mini PCIe wifi card for FreeBSD with 5GHz band support?



## aimeec1995 (Feb 2, 2020)

I am looking for a mini PCI half height wifi card for FreeBSD.
One that has decent support for its various modes and bands such as 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and being able to handle their max speeds.
I have dug up every wifi card in my house and been through a few but I cannot seem to enable 5GHz on any of them. 

Would someone share with me some? Perhaps you are using one that works well. 

I do not have an M.2 slot and I would really rather avoid USB wifi cards.

A few of the cards I recall trying would be ...

- Atheros qcwb335 (currently in use)
- Atheros AR5B95
- Atheros AR9485/DW1506

- Intel Wireless-N 7260

I do not think the others are worth listing because they were Broadcom chips and were very buggy.


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## Phishfry (Feb 2, 2020)

This is what I use for clients:
AR5BHB112 featuring AR9380 chipset.
This is half length MiniPCIE card called Bigfoot Killer module. Mostly found in Dell Laptops but works with anything. Dell Part Number=Dell 7WCGT








						Dell 7WCGT Atheros AR5BHB112 Killer Wireless n 1103 DuaI MINI PCI-e Card Adapter 724172848566 | eBay
					

Dell 7WCGT Atheros AR5BHB112 Killer Wireless n 1103 DuaI MINI PCI-e Card Adapter Brand: Dell Manufacturer: Atheros Part Number: 7WCGT MPN: 07WCGT, CN-07WCGT Model: AR5BHB112 Type: Network Wireless Card Compatible Port/Slot: Mini PCI Express COMPATIBILITY: Compatible Product Line: Alienware, XPS...



					www.ebay.com
				



It offers 3X MIMO and is the best half length slot card for FreeBSD in my opinion.
Cheapest working module is the AR5BHB92 which is an AR9280 module.

Some Intel half length modules are OK too.


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## Phishfry (Feb 2, 2020)

aimeec1995 said:


> and being able to handle their max speeds


I don't think I have ever had a wireless module on FreeBSD reach their advertised speed.
The 3X MIMO cards advertise 480Mb/sec or 60 Megabytes/sec.
The most I see is 12 Megabytes a second.


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## aimeec1995 (Feb 3, 2020)

Phishfry said:


> This is what I use for clients:
> AR5BHB112 featuring AR9380 chipset.
> This is half length MiniPCIE card called Bigfoot Killer module. Mostly found in Dell Laptops but works with anything. Dell Part Number=Dell 7WCGT
> 
> ...


Thanks! this is perfect


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## aimeec1995 (Feb 3, 2020)

Phishfry said:


> I don't think I have ever had a wireless module on FreeBSD reach their advertised speed.
> The 3X MIMO cards advertise 480Mb/sec or 60 Megabytes/sec.
> The most I see is 12 Megabytes a second.



Oh, that sucks. 
My ISP wants to prevent us from using 2.4ghz in the near future so I guess i can ignore the speed issue


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## aragats (Feb 3, 2020)

aimeec1995 said:


> My ISP wants to prevent us from using 2.4ghz in the near future so I guess i can ignore the speed issue


Just a couple of days ago I noticed that my Asus RT-N66U WiFi router performs better at 2.4Ghz, and I have no explanation yet. First I thought it's just my computer with FreeBSD, then I checked a smartphone, a laptop with Ubuntu and a MacBook Air ― the network speed is significantly higher (2x+) with 2.4GHz...


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## aimeec1995 (Feb 3, 2020)

aragats said:


> Just a couple of days ago I noticed that my Asus RT-N66U WiFi router performs better at 2.4Ghz, and I have no explanation yet. First I thought it's just my computer with FreeBSD, then I checked a smartphone, a laptop with Ubuntu and a MacBook Air ― the network speed is significantly higher (2x+) with 2.4GHz...



Ah, ironic. I don't even ,like 5ghz, the poor penetration and range defeats the purpose of wifi imo


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## aimeec1995 (Feb 3, 2020)

Phishfry said:


> This is what I use for clients:
> AR5BHB112 featuring AR9380 chipset.
> This is half length MiniPCIE card called Bigfoot Killer module. Mostly found in Dell Laptops but works with anything. Dell Part Number=Dell 7WCGT
> 
> ...




To clarify, these will work with 5GHz on FreeBSD? 

btw unrelated question do you know off hte top of your head if the one you linked is supported in OpenBSD?


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## Phishfry (Feb 3, 2020)

aimeec1995 said:


> To clarify, these will work with 5ghz on freebsd?


Yes

```
wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    ether 60:d8:19:76:e2:xx
    hwaddr 60:d8:19:76:e2:xx
    inet 192.168.100.22 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.100.255
    nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
    media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet MCS mode 11na
    status: associated
    ssid APU channel 157 (5785 MHz 11a ht/40+) bssid 4c:5e:0c:11:65:38
    regdomain 106 indoor ecm authmode WPA2/802.11i privacy ON
    deftxkey UNDEF TKIP 2:128-bit TKIP 3:128-bit txpower 30 bmiss 7
    mcastrate 6 mgmtrate 6 scanvalid 60 ampdulimit 64k ampdudensity 8
    shortgi wme burst roaming MANUAL
    groups: wlan
```


```
ath0@pci0:37:0:0:    class=0x028000 card=0x20011a56 chip=0x0030168c rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Qualcomm Atheros'
    device     = 'AR93xx Wireless Network Adapter'
    class      = network
```



aimeec1995 said:


> is supported in openbsd?


Not for sure but Atheros 9K series is very widely supported.


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## aimeec1995 (Feb 3, 2020)

Phishfry said:


> Yes
> 
> ```
> wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
> ...



Thanks I ordered one. Will turn my qcwb335 into a keychain


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## Martin Paredes (Feb 5, 2020)

Phishfry said:


> media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet MCS mode 11na



This card it's Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) 3x3 MIMO

Any mini PCIe Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)?


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## Phishfry (Feb 5, 2020)

One point I forgot to make is that you want antennas that support both 2.4/5GHZ as well. Some older machines might only have 2.4GHZ antennas.


Martin Paredes said:


> Any mini PCIe Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)?


I believe there is support in FreeBSD 13 -CURRENT for some Intel AC modules. I have not investigated.
Perhaps it was the 7xxx series. I don't remember. Someone posted details here on the forum.


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## free-and-bsd (Feb 6, 2020)

Phishfry said:


> This is what I use for clients:
> AR5BHB112 featuring AR9380 chipset.
> This is half length MiniPCIE card called Bigfoot Killer module. Mostly found in Dell Laptops but works with anything. Dell Part Number=Dell 7WCGT
> 
> ...


Can you check, please, if it supports hostapd and 802.1X Eap-TLS ?


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## Phishfry (Feb 6, 2020)

```
ifconfig wlan0 list caps
drivercaps=4f8def41<STA,FF,IBSS,PMGT,HOSTAP,AHDEMO,TXPMGT,SHSLOT,SHPREAMBLE,MONITOR,MBSS,WPA1,WPA2,BURST,WME,WDS,TXFRAG>
cryptocaps=1f<WEP,TKIP,AES,AES_CCM,TKIPMIC>
htcaps=20701ef<LDPC,CHWIDTH40,SHORTGI20,SHORTGI40,TXSTBC>
```


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## free-and-bsd (Feb 7, 2020)

Phishfry said:


> ```
> ifconfig wlan0 list caps
> drivercaps=4f8def41<STA,FF,IBSS,PMGT,HOSTAP,AHDEMO,TXPMGT,SHSLOT,SHPREAMBLE,MONITOR,MBSS,WPA1,WPA2,BURST,WME,WDS,TXFRAG>
> cryptocaps=1f<WEP,TKIP,AES,AES_CCM,TKIPMIC>
> ...


OK, thank you very much. Seems to support these things.


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## Martin Paredes (May 2, 2020)

In FreeBSD we have 2 drivers for Intel wireless devices, iwn(4) and iwm(4), in the DESCRIPTION section come the specific models that are supported, Inquiring more about the specifications in the Intel wireless products page I found some that have FormFactor HMC (Half Mini Card)

First the ones that are 802.11ac supported by iwm(4)

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160

Next, the ones that are 802.11n supported by iwn(4)

Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300, Dual Band
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 (This is *NOT listed as supported* by iwn(4), but may work)

You can compare the specifications of the 4 devices in this page

The devices that are listed as supported by iwn(4) are in the page Legacy Intel Wireless Products

*aimeec1995, *Did you try Intel Wireless-N 7260?



aimeec1995 said:


> A few of the cards i recall trying would be ...
> 
> - Atheros qcwb335 (currently in use)
> - Atheros AR5B95
> ...


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