ath0 + wpa/wpa2 + apple airport extreme = no joy.

[Christopher Sean Hilton]

I posted on a similar subject last year but in the end it turned out
to be irrelevant. I'm trying to get the combination of: 

     a Soekris Net4511,
     FreeBSD 8-STABLE from Dec 2011,
     an Atheros AR5BMB-44 wifi interface (identified as AR5212 in dmesg),
     an Apple Airport Extreme (about 2010 vintage) with WPA/WPA2 security,

to all play nicely. To start with I plan to look at the change logs
for the wpa_supplicant suite to see if there were changes from last
December to now. I will probably just upgrade this box to a later
vintage of 8-STABLE. Still, hit me with a cluebat if this problem got
fixed between December, 2011 and now.

Anyhow, no matter what I've done, the result is the same:

     The atheros/wlan combo associates to my wireless network; 

     The dhcp client on the soekris sends a request to the dhcp
     server. The dhcp server receives the negotiation and tries to
     offer a lease but the soekris never receives a reply;

I've confirmed this by running tcpdump on the dhcp server where I've
seen the requests arrive with the atheros' mac address and I've seen
the replies go back out of the dhcp server but either the atheros
isn't listening or the Airport Extreme isn't forwarding the traffic. I
haven't sniffed the wifi to see if the Airport Extreme just isn't
forwarding the reply or if the atheros isn't receiving it properly.

I can convince this combination of hardware to work if I change the
network security on the airport extreme from WPA/WPA2 to None.

The configuration that I feel should make the atheros work with the
Airport Extreme works just fine with my 2010 vintage Airport
Express. The Express and the Extreme are basically creating the same
network. The Extreme is on 2.4GHz channel 11, the Express on 2.4GHz 1.
The reason I have both so you are always near an access point.

I can get the atheros to work with WPA2 on my Mifi 4082.

As a new data point, the combination of an Intel 2200bg + WPA works
with the Airport Extreme.

I've posted my configs after my signature if you want to look and I
can provide more information if you need it.

My hope in posting this is to try and figure out what's up with the
atheros or the Airport Extreme that it isn't working in this
configuration. If anyone has an atheros card working with WPA/WPA2 and
an Apple Airport Extreme I'd love any assistance you'd be willing to
give me with the configuration.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

-- 

-- Chris

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      "There will be an answer, Let it be."
                                           e: chris -at- vindaloo -dot- com

 This is the hacked /etc/rc.conf to work with the Intel card:

     ...
     wpa_supplicant_enable="YES"
     ## wlans_ath0="wlan0"
     wlans_iwi0="wlan0"
     ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
     ...


Here's my abridged /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

     ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
     ctrl_interface_group=0
     
     ## Airport Extreme

     network={
         ssid="FooBarBaz"
         bssid=f8:1e:df:xx:xx:xx
         psk="************"
         proto=RSN
         key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
         pairwise=CCMP TKIP
         group=CCMP TKIP
         priority=12
     }

     ## Airport Express

     network={
         ssid="FooBarBaz"
         bssid=00:1f:f3:xx:xx:xx
         psk="************"
         proto=RSN
         key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
         pairwise=CCMP TKIP
         group=CCMP TKIP
         priority=10
     }

     ## Mifi 4082

     network={
         ssid="FooBarBaz-Mobile"
         psk="************"
         priority=0
     }

Finally, here's the result of ifconfig on wlan0/iwi0 associated and
working with the Airport Extreme:

     ryloth chris $ ifconfig iwi0
     iwi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 2290
             ether 00:15:00:xx:xx:xx
             media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g
             status: associated
     ryloth chris $ ifconfig wlan0
     wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
             ether 00:15:00:xx:xx:xx
             inet 10.59.145.87 netmask 0xfffffe00 broadcast 10.59.145.255
             media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g
             status: associated
             ssid FooBarBaz channel 11 (2462 MHz 11g) bssid f8:1e:df:xx:xx:xx
             country US authmode WPA2/802.11i privacy ON deftxkey UNDEF
             TKIP 3:128-bit txpower 0 bmiss 24 scanvalid 60 protmode CTS wme
             roaming MANUAL