On Wednesday 25 December 2013 21:25:56 electronmuontau neutrino wrote: > > Sorry for late answer - had some problems with my ISP. > > > > On Sunday 22 December 2013 01:42:09 electronmuontau neutrino wrote: > > > I have two machines configured as wifi access points that use > > > the > > > athn(4) driver. One is an Acer Aspire One D250 and the other is > > > an > > > ALIX.2D13 with a Compex WLM200NX Atheros 802.11 a/b/g/n miniPCI > > > card. Both have OpenBSD 5.4 release installed. I've been able > > > to > > > reproduce the problem reliably on both. The following is one > > > procedure I used to test the problem: > > > > > > -boot machine with athn down > > > > > > $ ifconfig athn0 > > > athn0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 > > > > > > lladdr: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx > > > priority: 4 > > > groups: wlan > > > media: IEEE802.11 autoselect > > > status: no network > > > ieee80211: nwid "" > > > > > > $ sudo ifconfig athn0 inet 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0 nwid > > > > > > 1234567890 wpakey keykeykey mediaopt hostap > > > > > > $ ifconfig athn0 > > > athn0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> > > > mtu > > > > > > 1500 lladdr: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx > > > > > > priority: 4 > > > groups: wlan > > > media: IEEE802.11 autoselect (autoselect hostap) > > > status: active > > > > > > ieee80211: nwid 1234567890 chan 3 bssi xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:x: It is working on channel 3 = 2422MHz Sorry - I overlooked this.
Is channel 3 in the range of your client machines? Depending on the area it may not be. If your setup works fine with channel 7 then why not leaving it at that? > > > wpakey <not displayed> wpaprotos wpa1, wpa2 wpaakms psk > > > wpaciphers > > > tkip, ccmp wpagroupcipher tkip > > > > > > inet 192.168.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast > > > 192.168.2.255 > > > inet6 xxxx::xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx%athn0 pfrefixlen 64 > > > scopeid > > > > > > 0x1 > > > > > > -edit dhcpd.conf and run dhcpd daemon > > > > > > $ sudo /usr/sbin/dhcpd athn0 > > > > > > -attempt to associate from MacOSX and WinXP machines > > > > > > -not able to see nwid on WinXP after refreshing list > > > multiple > > > > > > times -can see nwid on MacOSX, but connection times out when > > > trying > > > to associate > > > > Down to here you are sending on 5120MHz, right? > > I don't know. How would you determine that? ifconfig athn0 tells among other info on which channel it is But you did that already. ifconfig athn0 chan tells which channels are available and the corresponding frequencies > > > > -change channel on access point > > > > > > $ sudo ifconfig athn0 chan 7 > > > > Now you switch to 2.4GHz - right? Yes, because channel 7 is on 2442MHz > > > > > -association with AP is successful from MacOSX and WinXP > > > machines > > > now and IP addresses are assigned > > > > WinXP machine might not work with 5GHz? > > > > Are the antennas suitable for 5GHz? What about signal strength? > > On the MAC it might be useful to install a WiFi scanner which will > > tell you all about signal strength. > > There is a free program called "Wifi Scanner" in the AppleStore. > > It is very useful. Please do install this program unless you want to go on "fishing in the dark". It is very useful to see which channels are less crowded and thus being more likely to allow good reception. On my Android phone I installed "Wifi Analyzer" which is excellent to always being able to see what's going on in the area where you want to use wifi. > > The antennas I used were from PCEngines - listed as antsma on their > website. antsma - Antenna for 2.4 GHz band, 5 dBi nominal gain. > Reverse SMA connector. > > They do have another antenna, antsmadb, that is dual band which I > don't have. antsmadb - Antenna for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band, 5 dBi > peak gain in 2.4 GHz band. Reverse SMA connector. This antenna is definitely needed if the 5GHz band is used. PCengines is fine but their shipping flunked with the antenna question before. They delivered the wrong antennas to me at least ... Field strength is -79dBm or worse right next to the transmitter using the wrong antenna. That is barely above the noise. But this is moot now. >From their website: "antsma = light colored coax cable inside (look near hinge), antsmadb = black coax cable." > > I don't think signal strength was an issue because I tested with > each AP next to the Mac and Windows machines and still had the same > result. A 2.4GHz antenna used on the 5GHz band is nothing but an energy sink also called a dummy load. Also the transmitter will reduce its output power greatly because the reflected wave might damage its final stage. I don't think that this problem is anything special to do with OpenBSD but I may be wrong. For the time being I'd just make the channel 7 permanent in /etc/rc.local and live with it, unless the 2.4GHz band is really crowded at your site. 5GHz is from channel 36 up. I wish you success Eike
