I'm looking into upgrading my current Tomato ap to a 802.11n compliant access point initially using DD-WRT x86 until pfsense 2.2 alpha is out because pfsense 2.1 doesn't have 802.11n support. I'm currently using a gigabit pfsense machine that connects to PPPoE and acts as firewall, DHCP server etc. with a TL-SG1016 gigabit switch and a WRT54GL acting as a access point.
I'm thinking about a Pentium4 or a Celeron MicroATX machine with a gigabit card and a 802.11a/b/g/n PCI wireless card that supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz (simultaneously!).
The question is: How can I achieve 2.4 & 5 simultaneously on the same SSID that support at least b/g/n at the same time without dropping all on 2.4 from 5 if a 2.4 client is connected?
Can it be done with a single PCI card, or even two without costing a small fortune. Are there PCI 802.11n cards? Because I only seem to be finding PCIe ones.
To clarify, I'm talking about having the wireless card inside the mentioned wireless access point machine I'm building and acting as a access point for BOTH 2.4GHz and 5GHz 11n and legacy 11a/b/g.
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(WAN)
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[PFSENSE FIREWALL DHCP ETC]
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[SWITCH]---[PFSENSE ACCESS POINT WIRELESS]
| | |
(LAN) (2.4GHz client) (5GHz client)
^ ^ ^
(multiple pcs) (multiple clients both 2.4GHz and 5GHz connected on same SSID)
Sorry if some variation of this question has already been asked, I have been looking for answers for a few days but I get lost in the many terms such as dual band/simultaneity/dual radio etc.