[ath9k-devel] Can't associate with a particular AP

[Julien Valroff <julien@kirya.net>]

Hi Alex,

Le lundi 24 oct. 2011 ? 08:27:16 (+0200 CEST), Alex Hacker a ?crit?:
> Hi guys!
> There is a two APs with the same ESSID on the same frequency. The first has a
> signal level 100000 times lower then the second one. The AR9285 equipped PC
> is more sensetive or has better antenna then others. It tries to connect
> to very weak neighboring AP with probably invalid key. I don't know why
> wpa_suppicant prefer incorrect AP but IMO it is not a driver issue.
> Simpliest solution is to select different ESSID for your AP.

No, I can confirm there is only one AP with the same ESSID.

However, the same AP has several ESSIDs on the same channel (some being
hidden), with the following MAC addresses. The first 4 cells are "mine":

% iwlist wlan0 scan | grep -e "Cell" -e "ESSID"
          Cell 01 - Address: C6:6E:27:A6:BE:A4
                    ESSID:"Kirya"
          Cell 02 - Address: C6:6E:27:A6:BE:A5
                    ESSID:""
          Cell 03 - Address: C6:6E:27:A6:BE:A7
                    ESSID:""
          Cell 04 - Address: C6:6E:27:A6:BE:A6
                    ESSID:"FreeWifi"
          Cell 05 - Address: 5C:33:8E:EE:80:F9
                    ESSID:"Livebox-7bd6"
          Cell 06 - Address: 6A:17:33:4D:E4:4D
                    ESSID:"SFR WiFi Public"
          Cell 07 - Address: 00:24:D4:62:A0:BD
                    ESSID:"FreeWifi"
          Cell 08 - Address: 00:24:D4:60:F5:09
                    ESSID:"FreeWifi"
          Cell 09 - Address: 00:19:7D:78:69:89
                    ESSID:"Livebox-A380"
          Cell 10 - Address: 00:0A:78:9F:11:16
                    ESSID:"OLITEC"
          Cell 11 - Address: 00:24:D4:60:F5:08
                    ESSID:"freebox_DIZIEN"
          Cell 12 - Address: 00:17:33:4D:E4:4C
                    ESSID:"NEUF_E448"
          Cell 13 - Address: 6A:17:33:D0:86:C5
                    ESSID:"SFR WiFi Public"
          Cell 14 - Address: 00:16:41:8C:72:BB
                    ESSID:"Livebox-f3f9"
          Cell 15 - Address: 00:24:D4:62:A0:BC
                    ESSID:"Freebox-A6F7EB"

To answer another question about the MAC address of the ethernet interface,
it is 00:24:d4:bd:43:43

Neighbours with the same internet provide (and most probably the same
AP/router) all have APs with the MAC address beginning with 00:24:D4.
This prefix belongs to Freebox SA, my internet provider. The prefix C6:6E:27
is indeed unknown. Googling it leads to my posts on other mailing-lists, but
also some other posts amongst which one bug report [0] the logs of which
shows the exact same MAC address as my AP?
It also describes a similar problem than I have with a different module
(rt61pci) - the problem seems to have been fixed by installing the
firmware needed by the wlan card.

Cheers,
Julien

[0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=563190

-- 
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