Bad connectivity in E3E, E3F

[mitar]

We got reports that WiFi is being disconnected in E3E, E3F.

[mitar]

So I see in event log on E3J AP the following when the client is disconnected:

Interface Dot11Radio0, Deauthenticating Station XXX Reason: Sending station has left the BSS 

and:

Packet to client XXX reached max retries, removing the client 

I went to /ap_network-if_802-11_c.shtml on the AP and:

• set Max. Data Retries to 128
• set RTS Max. Retries to 128
• and set for Least Congested Channel Search only channels 1, 6, and 11 (if I am already here)

[mitar]

I got report from E3J that she cannot connect anymore today after she came home. After trying restoring settings and everything possible I rebooted AP and it worked afterwards. Maybe we should go around and reboot all Cisco APs in the house.

[mitar]

(Just to be sure. Because I could connect to the AP. So it might be only some people cannot.)

[ahdinosaur]

oh the joys of network troubleshooting. i also had a few times with the Cisco WAPs where i'd be able to connect but the other person couldn't, i still don't know why. when in doubt, reboot. ;) also fuck proprietary systems. :p

[mitar]

I don't like just to reboot, because then you don't know what was wrong. But in this case that was the only thing which helped.

[mitar]

This is how you do it in OpenWrt, in /etc/hotplug.d/90-ratemask-firewall:

#!/bin/sh

. /lib/functions.sh
. /lib/functions/network.sh

# Don't set rates on mesh interface
meshif=$(uci -P /var/state get network.mesh.ifname)

# Disable low legacy 2.4GHz bitrates
if [ add = "$ACTION" -a wlan0 != "$meshif" ]; then
  case "$DEVICE" in
    br-*)
    #Bridged interfage, check for wlan0 as member
    for i in $(ls /sys/class/net/$DEVICE/brif); do
      case "$i" in
        wlan0)
          logger setting bitrate for device "$i" on interface "$INTERFACE"
          iw "$i" set bitrates legacy-2.4 5.5 6 9 11 12 18 24 36 48 54
        ;;
      esac
    done
    ;;
  esac
fi

[mitar]

It seems those rooms now have good Internet.