Can't connect some devices

[davidp]

Hi

I have 30 Litestation2 ready to deploy a wifi network. They all are configured as AP. Same SSID, and alternating channels to avoid interference...

I'm having problems to connect some devices to the APs. The AP "appears in the networks list", but the device can't connect. It happens with some laptops (toshiba) and wifi phones. Other devices don't have any problem (a different laptop)

I've tried WEP, WPA and even disabling any wireless security. Restoring default config... same problem. Upgrading to the airos.v3.4beta.4329.090417.1704 didn't help.

In these tests, I only was working with 1 AP powered on. All others were not powered. I've tried with different LS2 and I Always get the same problem.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[WHT]

Partial solution here:
http://www.ubnt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11074&sid=b330090553c3f0efac2782d9953dd027

I don't recall the link, but some PDA connection problems were resolved by updating the UNBT firmware.

[davidp]

No luck. I've disabled extra reporting features, and can't connect.

I' doing some network (wired) capture: The phone associates with the AP, sends DHCP requests to the server in the lan, and the server offers an IP address, but it doesn't reach the phone.

In this moment I can't do a wireless capture.

I'm using the last beta firmware, but previously it didn't work with "stable" 3.2. or with factory installed 2.x.

[skyhook]

Hi David,

can you list model of devices not working?

[davidp]

Nokia E65 GSM/Wifi phone

AASTRA 312 wifi phone

Toshiba satellite laptop (sorry, don't have it in my hands now, but it has intel chipset)

All of them are working fine with many other "home" APs (Linksys, dlink, etc)

I have enabled SSH access to the LS2. Can I launch any program to check any stats?


XS2.ar2316.v3.4beta.4329.090417.1704# wlanstats
1 rx discard 'cuz dup
25 rx w/o wep and privacy on
552 rx discard ctrl frames
1499 rx element unknown
1499 rx frame chan mismatch
2 rx disassociation
4 rx bad authentication request
XS2.ar2316.v3.4beta.4329.090417.1704#



XS2.ar2316.v3.4beta.4329.090417.1704# iwconfig
ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"MYESSID"
Mode:Master Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:15:6D:A7:7C:70
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power=10 dBm Sensitivity=0/1
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:1111-1111-11 Security mode:restricted
Power Management:off
Link Quality=61/94 Signal level=-35 dBm Noise level=-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

[davidp]

More info on this issue:

I've configured the AP in router mode and activated its DHCP server, so I could discard any bridging problem or other devices in the LAN-related problems.

Now the devices associate to the AP and request an IP address, but the AP doesn't send any packet via the wifi interface ( ???? )

In the AP's UI, in the "Main" tab -> Extra Info -> Show log, there are many lines like this:

Apr 17 23:40:09 AP10-1 daemon.info dnsmasq[3149]: DHCPDISCOVER(ath0) 00:30:42:0e:5a:e7
Apr 17 23:40:09 AP10-1 daemon.info dnsmasq[3149]: DHCPOFFER(ath0) 10.1.1.11 00:30:42:0e:5a:e7
Apr 17 23:40:10 AP10-1 daemon.info dnsmasq[3149]: DHCPDISCOVER(ath0) 00:30:42:0e:5a:e7
Apr 17 23:40:10 AP10-1 daemon.info dnsmasq[3149]: DHCPOFFER(ath0) 10.1.1.11 00:30:42:0e:5a:e7


Apparently, the AP is sending DHCP offers via the ath0 interface, but in the "Main tab"->Extra Info->Show Stations-><the client MAC>, the AP shows this statistic information:


Station 00:30:42:0E:5A:E7 [ 1 ]
Uptime: 00:01:29
Signal Strength: -33 dBm
CCQ: 1%
Tx/Rx Rate: 1/1
Tx/Rx Packets: 0/6
Tx/Rx Packet Rate (pps): 0/0
Bytes Transmitted: 0
Bytes Received: 3540


So... 0 bytes transmitted via ath0 to this client... Where did the DHCPOFFERs go????

[davidp]

Well, some more information on this issue:

I've unchecked the "Extra Reporting" feature in AirOS. It didn't make any difference with the phones. The laptop now works ok.

I've been trying to enable/disable every other option in the UI. But I can only get some sporadic connections.

I'm thinking if it may be a "power saving" problem,as it seems that the AP is "keeping" and not sending any frames to the phone, maybe waiting for the phone to send a polling request... ???

Is there a way to disable the WMM power saving features in AirOS?

[davidp]

Definitivelly, it's a power saving related problem.

I've enabled debugging in the AirOS and see how the AP equeues the frames for the phone and discards them once they are "old".

I've tried to disable power saving in the wifi phone, but it still sends some "ps-poll" frames, and then, the AP begins to equeue frames.

If I select QoS->Voice/Video in AirOS, then the wifi phone (aastra) connects OK and I can send and receive calls.

But the Nokia E65 still refuses to connect. I've find some information about nokia wifi phones not connecting to atheros based APs, but it seems that it has a solution, as DD-WRT seems to solve this (but I haven't found which solution is that).

[UBNT-Mike.Ford]

Hello David,

I have forwarded all of this info to my software engineers.

Thanks

Mike

[semakka]

have you tried to play with the ACK timeout?

if the same SSID is assigned to different APs, with different BSSIDs, it might be a problem when trying to connect to a second AP