Wireless stoped working

zbuzanic · Mar 24, 2007, 11:43 AM

Well, all I can say that for some unknown reason pfsense stops wireless, why, I don't know, I'm used to this, so restart will bring things up again. Why is that, dunno, I have atheros cards and the problem is still there if you change some settings on pfsense board.
If you don't mess with aynthing then it will work until you change something on pfsense VIA WIRELESS.

Jonb · Mar 26, 2007, 8:54 AM

It just drops out without me doing anything and I have to switch the wirless off on the lapop. I then get pfsense to refresh the setting on the card and that will bring it up.

I have noticed that it is normaly ultravnc or somthing along those line that tends to kill it.

Slam · Mar 26, 2007, 10:47 AM

Hi all,

First off, I thank the development team for putting together a really great piece of software! I have been using it for the past 2 months, initially I had problems installing, because of corrupt config.xml and loads of other issues, stupid me, I was using a 40 wire ide cable instead of 80!!! Duh.

I also had this problem with wireless disconnecting me EVERY 15 mins (very annoying when working in ssh to remote server), infact I googled everywhere trying to find a solution but unfortunetly I could not find anything.

I have been trying to investigate this as best I can, trying all sorts of configs with wlconfig, wiconfig and ifconfig…........to cut a long story short...........setting WPA Mode to "WPA" as opposed to "Both" fixed the problem for me, I have not had a disconnect in the past hour.

Hope this solves your problems, please let me know if this works, I'll report back if this solution hasnt worked.

Regards

EDIT: I am running 1.0.1-SNAPSHOT-03-15-2007 built on Fri Mar 23 05:07:13 EDT 2007, I am using an atheros based pci card.

Jonb · Mar 26, 2007, 1:30 PM

I have already tryed setting everything to basic settings. I think it is more of a routing problem because somtimes I can conect to pfsense box very slowly but nothing to the internet. I have tryed no encription sometimes but have tested it proply as I am in a crowded area but it didn't seem to help.

Slam · Mar 26, 2007, 6:12 PM

Just to give you an update, I still have not been disconnected with the change I made, also I'm running in routing mode as opposed to bridge.

Ill come back to this thread if anything changes or I find out more information.

Regards

jeroen234 · Mar 26, 2007, 7:52 PM

you got a problem with a pc with a static ip that is in youre dhcp server range

Mar 21 19:39:16 pfsense dhcpd: uid lease 10.255.0.97 for client 00:19:d2:4e:9a:5c is duplicate on 10.255.0/24

Jonb · Mar 27, 2007, 8:26 PM

Well I have changed that because I saw that and I have it set to a static ip the is outside of the DHCP range.

sullrich · Mar 27, 2007, 8:28 PM

By chance did you reboot after making that last change?

Show us any logging information related to this.

Jonb · Mar 28, 2007, 5:46 AM

OK guys I think we are onto something here. in the system logs it says this.

Mar 28 05:38:11 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:19:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 05:37:55 dnsmasq[746]: using nameserver 194.106.56.6#53
Mar 28 05:37:55 dnsmasq[746]: using nameserver 194.106.33.42#53
Mar 28 05:37:55 dnsmasq[746]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
Mar 28 05:37:55 dhcpd: uid lease 10.255.0.97 for client 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c is duplicate on 10.255.0/24
Mar 28 05:37:55 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:19:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 05:37:55 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:19:d2:4e:9a:5c IEEE 802.11: associated

But in the DHCP sevrer I have

00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c 10.255.0.7

The IP address I get assigned is 10.255.0.7. I have rebooted the system a few times but same thing.

Jonb · Mar 28, 2007, 4:49 PM

The wireless is now working after laptop being connected to anouther wireless and now it seems to be working again. I have this in my system logs.

Mar 28 16:39:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:38:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:37:29 PingMonitor[84158]: 10.2.1.14 is DOWN, previous state was UP .. Running /usr/local/pkg/tinydns_down.php
Mar 28 16:37:12 last message repeated 2 times
Mar 28 16:35:12 last message repeated 2 times
Mar 28 16:33:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:32:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:31:58 PingMonitor[82613]: 10.2.1.14 is DOWN, previous state was UP .. Running /usr/local/pkg/tinydns_down.php
Mar 28 16:31:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:30:12 last message repeated 2 times
Mar 28 16:28:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:27:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:26:27 PingMonitor[81157]: 10.2.1.14 is DOWN, previous state was UP .. Running /usr/local/pkg/tinydns_down.php
Mar 28 16:26:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:25:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:24:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:24:05 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:24:05 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c IEEE 802.11: associated

So I am wondering if it is having truble with the DHCP.

majost · Apr 6, 2007, 9:50 PM

I have a very similar issue. I have found that I am forced to login to the web configurator, then disable save, then re-enable and save. After that it works again for a while.

@Jonb:

The wireless is now working after laptop being connected to anouther wireless and now it seems to be working again. I have this in my system logs.

Mar 28 16:39:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:38:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:37:29 PingMonitor[84158]: 10.2.1.14 is DOWN, previous state was UP .. Running /usr/local/pkg/tinydns_down.php
Mar 28 16:37:12 last message repeated 2 times
Mar 28 16:35:12 last message repeated 2 times
Mar 28 16:33:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:32:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:31:58 PingMonitor[82613]: 10.2.1.14 is DOWN, previous state was UP .. Running /usr/local/pkg/tinydns_down.php
Mar 28 16:31:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:30:12 last message repeated 2 times
Mar 28 16:28:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:27:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:26:27 PingMonitor[81157]: 10.2.1.14 is DOWN, previous state was UP .. Running /usr/local/pkg/tinydns_down.php
Mar 28 16:26:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:25:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:24:12 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: group key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:24:05 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Mar 28 16:24:05 hostapd: ral0: STA 00:20:d2:4e:9a:5c IEEE 802.11: associated

So I am wondering if it is having truble with the DHCP.

Jonb · Apr 8, 2007, 11:35 AM

I have posted some more of my findings here.

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=4127.0

The devs have been very quiet on this problem but I think they have been very busy on other things. This is a problem that comes more aparant the more people you have on the wireless and if you have high traffic.

It seems to me it is a routing problem when in bridge mode. I had 2 devices on the wireless yesterday and the whole connection droped out. I have found that WPA2 on AES seems to be more stable. Would be nice to find out if we need a driver upgrade from the manufacture webby or if this is something that needs to be tweeked in pfsense.

sullrich · Apr 8, 2007, 6:29 PM

Either way this is a FreeBSD kernel issue, not a pfSense issue. That is why we have been quiet. We have been fixing pfSense specific bugs.

Jonb · Apr 9, 2007, 9:19 PM

no problm sullrich I had gatherd that you were very busy with this time filewall thing etc. is somthing that can be fixed??? if not or maybe somtime in distant futurencan we lock the thread and just list it as a known problem.

hoba · Apr 9, 2007, 9:25 PM

It's driver/freebsd related. We can't fix it on the pfSense end. Also this doesn't seem to happen with all the wireless interfaces/drivers that are available.

Jonb · Apr 10, 2007, 2:01 PM

so would it be worth changing the inbuilt drivers for new ones???

hoba · Apr 10, 2007, 9:15 PM

We use what freebsd provides mostly and don't add third party drivers usually.

Jonb · Apr 12, 2007, 8:29 AM

Well me and programing don't go tryed it and failed. I have found this if anyone knows what they are doing and wants to tinker.

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ural&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+6.0-RELEASE

http://damien.bergamini.free.fr/ral/

http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html

I guess we will have to see what freeBSD do or if someone devlops a more reliable driver.