Odd error messages on wireless 11a connection

[Sam Leffler]

Kevin Oberman wrote:
>> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:20:09 -0700
>> From: Sam Leffler <sam at errno.com>
>>
>> Sam Leffler wrote:
>>     
>>> Kevin Oberman wrote:
>>>       
>>>> I am at a major networking conference and my wireless, while working, is
>>>> logging lots of errors that I don't understand at all.
>>>>
>>>> +update_stats: bogus ndx0 7, max 7, mode 1
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone explain what these are? Do I need to be concerned?
>>>>
>>>> Atheros 5212 on FreeBSD current as of Oct. 5, i386, single processor
>>>> system. ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xb4000000-0xb400ffff irq 11 at 
>>>> device 2.0 on pci11
>>>> ath0: [ITHREAD]
>>>> ath0: using obsoleted if_watchdog interface
>>>> ath0: Ethernet address: 00:14:a4:60:f2:e3
>>>> ath0: mac 5.9 phy 4.3 radio 3.6
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> Update your ath driver.  You've found an ap that is beaconing a 
>>> "pureg" rate set and a recent change to the sample rate code broke that.
>>>       
>> Actually your interface is marked "pureb" and the ap is sending an 11g 
>> rate set but the answer is the same--update ath_rate/sample.c.
>>     
>
> OK. I updated and no longer am seeing the messages. Thanks!
>
> One issue...I booted with WPA DHCP and the system skipped the higher
> priority 11a net and associated with the b/g net. I did a 'list aps' and
> only saw 2 APs, both 11g. I know that there should have been more, so I
> did a 'scan' and all the rest appeared, including the 11a APs. (Total of
> 8 APs, 4 11b/g and 4 11a.) The supplicant now associated with the 11a
> net and my system is running MUCH better!
>
> Any idea if this is a timing issue? Any way to improve the initial scan?
>
> Thanks again for the very fast responses.
>   
Scanning is always a balancing act between speed and accuracy.  The 
usual way to improve the latter is to dwell longer on a channel.  I 
don't recall if the dwell time is a sysctl knob; it's not settable via 
ifconfig.

OTOH w/ bgscan and roaming you should quickly find a good ap to use.

    Sam