Association Problem with Multiple APs

[Hauan, David]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ta168000 at oak.cats.ohiou.edu 
> [mailto:ta168000 at oak.cats.ohiou.edu] 
> Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 2:47 PM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Association Problem with Multiple APs
> 
> 
> 
> Hello list,
> 
> I am running the 4.9 release of FreeBSD on an embedded 
> net4521 box and my problem is:
> 
> Recently a wireless ISP put up an antenna in our apartment 
> complex. Now for some reason, my 4521 (and my iBook with 
> regular AirPort, also BSD based??) favor the wireless ISP's 
> connection over my own LinkSys access point.  The ISP's 
> antenna runs on channel 1 and consistently has a stronger 
> signal than my own AP (channel 6).  I have tried changing my 
> own AP's channel to no avail.
> 
> Each time I issue the commands to associate with my AP the 
> 4521 merely connects to the ISP rather than my specified 
> SSID.  If I check wicontrol or ifconfig it reports that the 
> desired netname is my AP, but the current netname always ends 
> up to be the ISP's AP.  This is extremely irritating.
> 
> I recently got a wireless card (NL-2511CD Plus EXT2 802.11b 
> PCMCIA by SENAO) w/ the prism 2.5 chipset, and the 
> aforementioned problem is only with this card.  My older card 
> (a 3com 3CRWE737A PCMCIA) works
> *relatively* well, but I wanted to upgrade so...
> 
> 
> Has anyone had this problem, and does anyone have a 
> suggestion to fix it? Any insight into the BSD or the OS X 
> problem would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Thanks.. Tyler
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Below is specific info if anyone cares to peruse it:
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ---> The Senao Card Initalizes:
> 
> pccard: card inserted, slot 0
> Mar 15 22:30:14 soekrismini1 pccardd[58]: Card 
> "INTERSIL"("HFA384x/IEEE") [Version 01.02] [] matched 
> "INTERSIL" ("HFA384x/IEEE") [(null)] [(null)] wi0 at port 
> 0x240-0x27f irq 10 slot 0 on pccard0
> wi0: 802.11 address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
> wi0: using RF:PRISM2.5 MAC:ISL3873
> wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary 1.01.00, Station 1.04.09
> Mar 15 22:30:19 soekrismini1 pccardd[58]: wi0: INTERSIL 
> (HFA384x/IEEE) inserted
> 
> ---> I try to join my desired access point:
> 
> ifconfig wi0 inet ssid "My Access Point" media DS/11Mbps
> 
> ---> and the card joins the access point of the wireless ISP 
> (Which has 
> ---> a
> stronger signal) instead...
> 
> wi0: flags=8842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>         ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
>         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet DS/11Mbps
>         status: associated
>         ssid StupidAssISP 1:"My Access Point"
>         stationname "FreeBSD WaveLAN/IEEE node"
>         channel 1 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
>         wepmode OFF weptxkey 1
> 
> ---> wicontrol -L lists:
> 
> NIC serial number:                      [ ]
> Station name:                           [ FreeBSD WaveLAN/IEEE node ]
> SSID for IBSS creation:                 [ My Access Point ]
> Current netname (SSID):                 [ StupidAssISP ]
> Desired netname (SSID):                 [ My Access Point ]
> Current BSSID:                          [ xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xy ]
> Channel list:                           [ 2047 ]
> IBSS channel:                           [ 3 ]
> Current channel:                        [ 1 ]
> Comms quality/signal/noise:             [ 92 154 11 ]
> Promiscuous mode:                       [ Off ]
> Process 802.11b Frame:                  [ Off ]
> Intersil-Prism2 based card:             [ 1 ]
> Port type (1=BSS, 3=ad-hoc):            [ 1 ]
> MAC address:                            [ xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx ]
> TX rate (selection):                    [ 11 ]
> TX rate (actual speed):                 [ 2 ]
> RTS/CTS handshake threshold:            [ 2347 ]
> Create IBSS:                            [ Off ]
> Access point density:                   [ 1 ]
> Power Mgmt (1=on, 0=off):               [ 0 ]
> Max sleep time:                         [ 100 ]
> WEP encryption:                         [ Off ]
> TX encryption key:                      [ 1 ]
> Encryption keys:                        [  ][  ][  ][  ]
> Available APs:
>     StupidAssISP  [ xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xy ]  [ 1  ]  [ 46 60 14 ]  100
> [ ess ]   [ 1.0 2.0 5.5 11.0 ]  * 11.0 *
>     My Access Point  [ xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xz ]  [ 6  ]  [ 31 42 
> 11 ]  100  [ ess ]  [ 1.0 2.0 5.5 11.0 ]  * 1.0 *
> 
> ---> Incidentally, it works correctly with the above process with the 
> ---> card
> below:
> 
> soekrismini1 pccardd[58]: Card "3Com"("3CRWE737A AirConnect 
> Wireless LAN PC
>  Card") [1.00] [[none]] matched "3Com" ("3CRWE737A AirConnect 
> Wireless LAN  PC Card") [(null)] [(null)] wi0 at port 
> 0x280-0x2c7 iomem 0xd5000-0xd53ff irq 10 slot 0 on pccard0
> wi0: 802.11 address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
> wi0: using RF:PRISM2 MAC:HFA3841
> wi0: Symbol Firmware: Primary 2.01.02, Station 2.51.04
> Mar 15 22:41:21 soekrismini1 pccardd[58]: wi0: 3Com 
> (3CRWE737A AirConnect Wireless LAN PC Card) inserted.

Have you tried forcing the channel?

ifconfig wi0 inet ssid "My Access Point" media DS/11Mbps channel 6

dave