Hp T620 Wifi

[Paulette Dzurilla]

Iam looking to move away from HomeSeer 4 to Home Assistant. I downloaded the latest version of the INTEL NUC version, and booted the t620 with an Ubuntu 20.04 LIVE CD to allow me to use ETCHER to flash the internal m.2 SSD (120GB) with the HA image [ haos_generic-x86-64-7.4.img.xz ]. I reboot, and it boots all the way to the text based Home Assistant (CLI) screen.

I can then go to another computer and access the HA Webpage ( :8123) with no issues and complete setup (username, password, etc.). Next I installed and configured the SSH & Terminal add-on, and I can access the terminal screens from remote computer. I was following the steps in another article to adding WiFi, but I am lost. On this this box, if I install a full-blown Ubuntu 20.04 installation to the m.2 SSD, and check the option for 3rd party drivers - I get WiFi and Bluetooth available to me after the final reboot.

I've installed the official ChromeOS Flex, and it works fine (the HP T620 is on the list of certified things). The problem is that my HP T620 lacks an internal wifi card, and it seems that there is no list of USB wifi adapters that work. I've tried three of them on my box, with mixed results.

- An unbranded chinese adapter: Based on Realtek 8176 chipset, with a very big antenna. It doesn't work. Looking into dmesg, there is a message that says that the driver is a "staging" one... maybe it's not fully loading?

- A "nano" adapter: Based on Realtek 8192 chipset. It works, but being a "nano" thing (it only sticks out about 3 or 4 mm) the antenna is not good and the connection is unstable (unless you're very near to the AP).

- A TP-Link TL-722 (newer variant): Also based on Realtek 8192, with big antenna... but for some strange reason refuses to work. TP-Link changed the USB IDs to reflect their brand, so maybe they did other changes that prevent it from working (the adapter works fine on Windows laptops).

After having messed around with the webgui of Sophos XG (Home) on the HP T620 Plus & Intel I340-T4 NIC for a while, I have came to the conclusion that Sophos XG's VLAN feature set lacks the ability to assign PVID on the ports of the I340-T4. Having looked through some network maps of the troubleshooting posts here on the Sophos XG Forum, I found that most if not all of the working layouts consist of at least 1 802.1Q-compatible managed switch being connected to a VLAN interface of the XG via an RJ45 port. Only then that endpoint devices can be recognised and connected to the XG's network. Some example layouts can look like this :

Hence the conclusion. If this is true, then I believe that this is an Achilles Heel of the XG when compared to other router solutions, e.g. Ubiquiti's EdgeOS, which allows assigning PVID on every one of the router's LAN port:

Assigning a VLAN to a Port is likely a Switch Job. This would be likely interesting for smaller deployments, if they want to mix VLAN with LAN (bridging). But even smaller deployments which starts VLAN get a Switch in such terms. To do PVID on a firewall, this is actually something rarely requested.

I believe that once the XG software has been added with PVID functionality, this will make the XG OS much more appealing to professional IT and homelab users alike, because now theXG can work with both 802.1Q & non-802.1Q devices.

So: In case you have multiple devices in one location and you want to do VLAN, you actually do not need VLAN. You can plug in all devices into the firewall and do a Layer 2 bridge, as all devices are in the same network, i does not matter, if VLAN or not. They are connected.

The point is: VLAN is to segment a network. You do not have to segment a network, which only exists in your head. If you have for example 3 devices directly connected, a Layer 2 Bridge will do the same job. The devices do not care if there is a VLAN or not. In the end you have a own subnet. That is the result of a Layer 2 bridge as well.

Due to the I340-T4 nic on the HP t620 plus having so few lan ports, I plan to use this layout when moving from the Ubiquiti one to Sophos XG. But then, my Linksys Velop on VLAN11 will not work because the Sophos XG does not have PVID functionality built into it.

Actually what Locar is saying make sense. Create VLAN 11 on Netgear switch and connect wireless mesh network to same switch. Then you can create a LAG interface on FW (Port3 + Port4) and config required settings on switch for LACP. This way you will have 2Gbps bandwidth between switch and FW to handle all networks and devices traffic. Under LAG interface on FW, you will need to create 3 vlan interface 9,11,17. Unless there is physical limitation on connecting wireless mesh network to switch, this is your best bet.

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