#698: madwifi-ng not associating with some access-points
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Reporter: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Owner:
Type: defect | Status: new
Priority: major | Milestone:
Component: madwifi: driver | Version:
Keywords: roamabout associate | Patch_attached: 0
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I noticed that madwifi-ng (all versions, I tried up to r1645) does not
associate with some access-points at my university. It seems that all non-
working APs are "Entrasys RoamAbout"-devices (fairly old models, 802.11b).
All other APs used here are Cisco models and madwifi-ng connects without
any problems. This bug did not exist in madwifi(-old) (using the old
version I can connect to all APs, even the RoamAbout-APs).
My card is a TPLINK TL-WN510G. The university's WLAN uses hidden SSID
(only on some APs) and no encryption.
Symptoms when trying to connect to the university's WLAN at a place where
only RoamAbout-APs are in range:
{{{
#iwconfig ath0 essid wlan
#iwlist ath0 scan
ath0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:E0:63:50:20:3A
ESSID:"wlan"
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=28/94 Signal level=-67 dBm Noise level=-95
dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Cell 02 - Address: 00:E0:63:50:1D:E6
ESSID:"wlan"
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.417 GHz (Channel 2)
Quality=23/94 Signal level=-72 dBm Noise level=-95
dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
}}}
The card/driver starts "searching", both LEDs on my card are blinking
alternately. After some seconds both LEDs are blinking synchroneously.
iwconfig then reports:
{{{
#iwconfig ath0
ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"wlan"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Tx-Power:19 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=25/94 Signal level=-70 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
}}}
It looks like the card is associated but no AP-address is reported. After
7-8 seconds the card starts scanning again. This process repeats forever.
Notice that "Access Point" reads "Not-Associated" but there is a link-
quality and a signal-level...
With madwifi(-old) it was possible to use the raw-device (athXraw) to see
"what's going on in the air" i.e. which frames are transmitted and
received by the driver. Using one VAP in sta-mode and another VAP in
monitor-mode I don't see any frames on the monitor-VAP during scanning. I
can, however, supply a pcap-file with some beacon-frames from a RoamAbout-
AP.
--
Ticket URL: <http://madwifi.org/ticket/698>
MadWifi <http://madwifi.org/>
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