Re: Wpa_gui and multiple access points

["Julian H. Stacey" <jhs%berklix.com@localhost>]

Ottavio Caruso wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm running Netbsd 6.1.2 and wpa_supplicant v0.7.3. I can't determine
> which version of wpa_gui.
> 
> I've only used wpa-* since using Netbsd, as i was using NM and
> NM-Applet on Linux and the standard wi-fi connectoid on Windows.
> 
> I am right now at the Birmingham (UK) public library, a massive
> building on 8 floors. When I scan for access points through wpa_gui I
> can see at least 25 of them, all pointing to the same network but with
> different BSSID. When I use Windows I can only see one.
> 
> Every now and again the connection drops and I have to manually rescan
> and add a different AP and reconnect, while my fellow users will be
> reconnected automatically.
> 
> Is this intended behaviour or is it a bug or something wrong with my
> installation?
> 
> bash-4.2$ which wpa_gui
> /usr/pkg/sbin/wpa_gui
> 
> bash-4.2$ file /usr/pkg/sbin/wpa_gui
> /usr/pkg/sbin/wpa_gui: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1
> (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for NetBSD 6.0,
> stripped
> 
> bash-4.2$ cat /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
> ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
> ctrl_interface_group=wheel
> update_config=1
> 
> network={
>         ssid="Visitors_XXXXXXXXX"
>         key_mgmt=NONE
>         auth_alg=OPEN

Hi,
( Blind leading the blind here ;-) as I've only recently been getting
into wpa_supplicant myself, I'm on FreeBSD-10.0-BETA3 not NetBSD
but I assume similar & eg FreeBSD-10 urtwn comes from NetBSD :-)

I see uou are only specifying 
        ssid="Visitors_XXXXXXXXX"
& you are not specifying bssid, so whatever is selecting a bssid
is perhaps picking up an access point at random perhaps at low
signal strength far away ?  Or perhaps highest signal strength is
periodically obscured by a steel doored filing cabinet or overheating
or otherwise failing ?

I suggest you do 
        ifconfig wlan0 scan
then manually select a high power signal (They are the ones with
the smaller numbers in the S of the S:N columns). Then eg
        ifconfig wlan0 bssid 00:11:22:aa:bb:cc ; dhclient wlan0
PS as you mentioned wpa_gui I built it, but not tried it as a lib qt problem.

Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultant, Munich http://berklix.com
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