Configuring a wireless access point

[Serge]

Was going to post this on BSD forums, but apparently the grass is greener here

I'm trying to turn an old desktop into a server/router/WAP (has an atheros PCI card) mostly for educational purposes and I've been following this guide: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/...RK-WIRELESS-AP

and I got all the daemons configured and running and the access point shows up on a scan but I can't get a station to connect to it.

I turned on the debug output:

# wlandebug -i ath0 +scan+auth+debug+assoc

and when I try to connect a station (MAC: 00:15:af:XX:XX:XX, OS: vista) vista provides an informative "Cannot connect to FreeBSDAP" and this gets printed on the BSD box:

...
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] recv probe req
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] recv probe req
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] recv probe req
ath0: received auth from 00:15:af:XX:XX:XX rssi 54
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] recv auth frame with algorithm 0 seq 1
[00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] send auth on channel 1
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] station authenticated (open)
ath0: received assoc_req from 00:15:af:XX:XX:XX rssi 52
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] WPA ie: mc 1/16 uc 1/13 key 2 caps 0x0
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] station associated at aid 1: short preamble, short slot time
[00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] send assoc_resp on channel 1
ath0: received disassoc from 00:15:af:XX:XX:XX rssi 52
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] recv disassociate (reason 8)
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] station with aid 1 leaves
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] recv probe req
ath0: [00:15:af:XX:XX:XX] recv probe req
...

Particularly, what is this "recv disassociate (reason 8)" deal?

I'm sure I entered the correct pass phrase, here's the interesting config stuff:

$ uname -a
FreeBSD basement.gateway.2wire.net 7.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE #0: Sun Feb 24 19:59:52 UTC 2008     root@logan.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

$ cat /etc/rc.conf
...
ifconfig_ath0="inet 192.168.111.254 netmask 255.255.255.0 ssid FreeBSDAP mode 11g mediaopt hostap"
hostapd_enable="YES"
named_enable="YES"
dhcpd_enable="YES"
dhcpd_ifaces="sis0 ath0"
...

$ cat /etc/hostapd.conf
interface=ath0
driver=bsd

# Logging and debug configs
logger_syslog=1
logger_syslog_level=0
logger_stdout=-1
logger_stdout_level=0
debug=3
dump_file=/tmp/hostapd.dump

ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

# IEEE 802.11
ssid=FreeBSDAP
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1

# IEEE 802.1X - not using
ieee8021x=0

# IEEE 802.11i (WPA)
wpa=1
wpa_passphrase=freebsdmall
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=CCMP TKIP

$ ifconfig ath0
ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 2290
        ether 00:0d:88:XX:XX:XX
        inet 192.168.111.254 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.111.255
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g <hostap>
        status: associated
        ssid FreeBSDAP channel 1 (2412 Mhz 11g) bssid 00:0d:88:XX:XX:XX
        authmode WPA privacy MIXED deftxkey 2 TKIP 2:128-bit txpower 31.5
        scanvalid 60 bgscan bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi11g 7
        roam:rate11g 5 protmode CTS burst dtimperiod 11

$ kldstat
Id Refs Address    Size     Name
 1    7 0xc0400000 906518   kernel
 2    1 0xc0d07000 1bdc     wlan_xauth.ko
 3    1 0xc0d09000 2ec0     wlan_acl.ko
 4    1 0xc0d0c000 6a32c    acpi.ko

$ cat /boot/loader.conf
wlan_xauth_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_acl_load="YES"

Any ideas?

[Malinda]

Have you optemized the kernel fore WiFi?

Put this in you /boot/loader.conf also and reboot:

wlan_tkip_load="YES"

[Serge]

Well as far as I understand (from reading the articles mainly) the GENERIC kernel should already have all the needed components to set up an AP (except pf, but I don't really care about packet filtering at this point).

I tried adding wlan_tkip_load to loader.conf but it doesn't help, I want to use CCMP instead of TKIP anyway, both modules do get loaded by the way:

]# kldstat -v | grep -E "ccmp|tkip"
                317 wlan_ccmp
                318 wlan_tkip

[Serge]

Just noticed something else, when I do a scan from a Linux station and it says the AP is using "WPA Version 1". How do I set up WPA2-PSK then?

# iwlist wlan0 scan
          Cell 03 - Address: 00:0D:88:93:07:86
                    ESSID:"FreeBSDAP"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Channel:1
                    Quality=42/64  Signal level=37/65  
                    Encryption key:on
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=0000000085822181

[richardpl]

Originally Posted by Serge

# IEEE 802.11i (WPA)
wpa=1

Does VISTA actually use DHCP for network configuration?
From output, autentification is succesfull. But VISTA after that send disassociation request -> something is incorrectly configured perhaps?

[Serge]

Yes the wireless connection is configured to use DHCP.

I managed to get the Linux client to connect to the WAP and DHCP successfully! Just the wpa_supplicant startup script needed a little massaging. =)

Vista is still being stubborn and not giving up any dough on what's happening, though the driver seems to be fully capable...

netsh wlan>show drivers

Interface name: Wireless Network Connection

    Driver                    : Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps USB 2.0
Network Adapter
    Vendor                    : Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
    Provider                  : Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
    Date                      : 2007-10-23
    Version                   : 5.1304.1023.2007
    INF file                  : C:\Windows\INF\oem1.inf
    Files                     : 1 total
                                C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\RTL8187.sys
    Type                      : Legacy Wi-Fi Driver
    Radio types supported     : DSSS 802.11g
    FIPS 140-2 mode supported : No
    Authentication and cipher supported in infrastructure mode:
                                Open            None
                                Open            WEP
                                Shared          None
                                Shared          WEP
                                WPA-Enterprise  TKIP
                                WPA-Enterprise  CCMP
                                WPA-Personal    TKIP
                                WPA-Personal    CCMP
                                WPA-None        TKIP
                                WPA-None        CCMP
                                WPA2-Enterprise TKIP
                                WPA2-Enterprise CCMP
                                WPA2-Personal   TKIP
                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP
    Authentication and cipher supported in ad-hoc mode:
                                Open            WEP
                                Shared          WEP
                                Open            None
                                Shared          None

[richardpl]

Does FreeBSD access point have DHCP server running correctly? Under Linux does anything runs fine - internet and such?

Could VISTA connect succesfully without WAP configured on AP (open access to anyone)?