If you want to connect a ClearOS WAN by WiFi then I am not sure how to do it. For a start you will want the testing version of app-network. It is incomplete and will not give you external VLANs. Please do a:

yum update app-network --enablerepo=clearos-updates-testing

The next problem is WiFI. nmcli (Networkmanager) does not work well with ClearOS and may be too well integrated to other functions to use and I think would take control of all your interfaces from the ClearOS webconfig.

To use extenally, I think you need wpa_supplicant which can be installed from the command line. You will then need to configure it manually.

If you want to use ClearOS as an AP a third party was developing an app, app-wireless-ap, but it never got finished so you can, for example, only use bands 1-9. I have a copy of it on my server:

wget https://www.howitts.co.uk/clearos/ClearOS_7.x/app-wireless-ap-1.1.0-1.devel.noarch.rpm

wget https://www.howitts.co.uk/clearos/ClearOS_7.x/app-wireless-ap-core-1.1.0-1.devel.noarch.rpm

yum install app-wireless-ap*

You may need to install wget to do this. Alternatively use curl to fetch the packages.

I think there's a problem between what I meant to say and what you heard. Everything is on my LAN.

I've never used ClearOS before. So, I want to get everything set up, do testing in LAN... Right now, the only place I have to do testing is on the table. That means I'm using WiFi LAN, then when I'm happy with it, I'll pull the WiFi card. Make it headless in the workshop, plug LAN ethernet in, and open a port in my gateway.

Ive been having problems with VSFTP in other Linux, and I think it's messing with Samba <shrug> So, until I can get into the web interface of ClearOS and do some testing, I don't want to just open a port and hope for the best.


P.S. How do I "update" and/or "wget" anything if I can't get the WiFi connected to my LAN (and therefor internet)?

This is going to be difficult. When ClearOS is connected to a LAN you must configure the interface closest to the internet as External.

You can download the two packages from my website on any browser on another PC but you probably don't need them for the moment.

wpa_supplicant is going to be harder. You can get all the files from different repos wpa_supplicant comes from Centos. Search from centos repos or google "wpa_supplicant el7 rpm". As you can't have updated, try the Centos 7.7 packages. I can't link you to our repos as you can't get the packages directly. Copy the the downloaded packages to your server by USB, but you'll have to google that. If you need any support packages, they will normally come from the Centos/EPEL repos. Then install them with yum or using "rpm -ivh {package1} {package2} etc". Install wpa_supplicant and its dependencies (if any) first.

App-wireless beta is available from http://mirror1-newyork.clearos.com/clearos/7/updates-testing/x86_64/RPMS/. You'll need app-network and app-network-core and you'll have to install them together. It will probably need hostapd, but at that point you should be online with your WAN set up.

Another gotcha with wireless is the drivers for the wireless NIC. ClearOS/Centos is not too hot with them. If you have an on-board NIC or a PCI wireless NIC, what do you get from:

lspci -knn | egrep -i '(eth|wire|wifi)' -A 3

Then, if it does not show a "kernel driver in use", what is its PCI ID and name? If it is USB, what is the output of "lsusb", but just give the result for the USB NIC.

There is a 7.9 iso now available for testing in https://mirrorlist.clearos.com/clearos/testing/7.9.1.325269/iso/x86_64/.

[edit]
Sorry wrong thread.
[/edit]

Bought one of these for 15 $US in a sale. Gives you 4 ethernet ports connected by WiFi anywhere WiFi is available. Need not be a TV - anything that requires an ethernet connection. Very useful and does both 2.4 and 5G.

https://www.belkin.com/support/dl/F7D4550_8820nt00867uk.pdf

Nice toys. I have a Netgear PR2000/N300 which is a bit older and only supports 802.11n, but allowed me to share a single captive portal connection between the family when on holiday.