Wifi will stop handshaking after a day or so

Bi0

Hey all!

Just got into the PFSense world about 2 weeks ago or so and setup a new router with PF sense. I'm currently using a TP-Link Wireless N300 PCI Adapter for the wifi card. It is setup as an access point under it's own DHCP. It will work for 12+ hours no issues, then suddenly decide that it doesn't want to allow any connections. It's still broadcasting as I can see it on a wifi channel scan and see it on the wifi list. However, if you try to connect it will mention that it's connecting then drop back as though it never started a handshake.

My only ideas are something with DHCP not playing nice and allowing new connections or the drivers possibly using up the card resources and not releasing them? Any ideas on what to test or where to got from here would be amazing. This card is a spare I had and being used as a test as it looks to use the Atheros drivers which is mentioned that a LOT of them work fine.

This is also before buying a higher transfer rate card. If you have any input on like a AC1900 card that would work with PFSense as well that would be amazing as well!

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback. :)

jimp

There isn't any support for AC cards in pfSense yet (though perhaps there are some drivers on 2.4 snapshots, we haven't tested them if there are…)

Do you see any errors in your system log or wireless log when it stops working?

It's not a problem in general as there are some of us (like me) using pfSense as an AP that works indefinitely without problems.

There's a chance it's something specific to your card as well. The name brand doesn't matter, what chipset is it using? It should show in the boot log (/var/log/dmesg.boot)

Bi0

So in the wireless log activity:

Dec 12 16:50:28 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA rekeying GTK
Dec 12 16:49:28 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA rekeying GTK
Dec 12 16:48:28 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA rekeying GTK
Dec 12 16:47:28 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA rekeying GTK
Dec 12 16:47:12 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA GMK rekeyd
Dec 12 16:46:28 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA rekeying GTK
Dec 12 16:45:28 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA rekeying GTK
Dec 12 16:44:28 hostapd ath0_wlan1: WPA rekeying GTK

In the general log there is no activity at all even if I try to connect a device. As for the wireless chip, I'll have to check that here in the morning. Could it be an issue with the rekeying interval?

jimp

If the client is trying it should at least show some STA lines as it tries to negotiate. The keying/rekeying would not be related.

Bi0

Yeah, nothing like that in the last 50 at least. Can you see past that via the GUI?

jimp

You can view the entire log from the command line using:

clog /var/log/wireless.log

Bi0

I was finally able to capture everything that happens from when I refresh until it ultimately stops. Here's the pastebin since it was too long to post in code brackets here: http://pastebin.com/88AF9AiA

Bi0

Just as an update, the chipset that I had was a AR9227. After lots of research, I found that I had to set the Group Key Rotation to 300 and standard of 802.11g rather than being able to use ng at all. :'(