Connection to specific BSSID

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Fido568
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 5:42 pm

Connection to specific BSSID

Post by Fido568 »

Hello!

I would like to connect to a wireless network. All I have is SSID, username and password. This is usually enough for me to connect.

Around me there are 4 access points of this network, all with the same SSID and different BSSIDs. I do not have control over these access points (I cannot acces them neither physically nor I cannot perform any setup on them), all I can do is to connect to them with my credentials to get internet access.

And here is my problem. One of those access points, unfortunatelly the one with the strongest signal, is somehow misconfigured or something, so I can connect to it with my cell phone, but there is no internet access. So the result is that my (Android) phone is most of time without the internet, because it is connected to that broken access point.

I have tried everything to tell my phone to connect to any of those three good access points, but to no avail.

I have unused TP-Link TL-WR741N/ND v1 running Gargoyle 1.9.2, so I thought I can setup as some bridge or repeater or something, connect it to one of the good access points and make my cell phone to connect through it? What do you think, is it possible? Could any of you show me how to do it? I am really amateur in this area.

Thank you very much for any ideas.

Lantis
Moderator
Posts: 6735
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:33 am
Location: Australia

Re: Connection to specific BSSID

Post by Lantis »

You can setup the connection as normal through Gargoyle, then you will need to add the BSSID parameter manually on the command line.

https://www.gargoyle-router.com/wiki/do ... _same_ssid
http://lantisproject.com/downloads/gargoyle_ispyisail.php for the latest releases
Please be respectful when posting. I do this in my free time on a volunteer basis.

Fido568
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 5:42 pm

Re: Connection to specific BSSID

Post by Fido568 »

Hello Lantis,

thank you very much for the reply.

I have tried to set up /etc/config/wireless using the resource you provided + phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=11858

That resulted in this:

Code: Select all

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11g'
        option path 'pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0'
        option htmode 'HT20'
        option channel '6'

config wifi-iface 'cfg2'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'wwan'
        option mode 'sta'
        option client_bridge '1'
        option ssid 'OUTERSSID'
        option bssid 'XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX'
        option encryption 'wpa2+ccmp'
        option eap_type 'peap'
        option auth 'EAP-MSCHAPV2'
        option identity 'XXXXXXXX'
        option password 'XXXXXXXX'

config wifi-iface 'cfg3'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'MYSSID'
        option encryption 'psk2'
        option key 'XXXXXXXX'
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working, as I don't see any WiFi network with MYSSID running.

Do you maybe see some discreapancy in my setup?

Lantis
Moderator
Posts: 6735
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:33 am
Location: Australia

Re: Connection to specific BSSID

Post by Lantis »

Nothing seems wrong, but if you the STA interface does not connect, then the AP will not come online. This is likely the problem.

The logs may show why the STA is not connecting.

I have no experience with enterprise connections.
http://lantisproject.com/downloads/gargoyle_ispyisail.php for the latest releases
Please be respectful when posting. I do this in my free time on a volunteer basis.

Fido568
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 5:42 pm

Re: Connection to specific BSSID

Post by Fido568 »

Here is the relevant part from the log, but I am not sure, what does it mean or how to solve it.

Code: Select all

Wed Oct 25 18:48:08 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): wlan0-1: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
Wed Oct 25 18:48:08 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): wlan0-1: AP-ENABLED
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Line 6: unknown network field 'identity'.
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Line 7: unknown network field 'phase2'.
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Line 8: unknown network field 'password'.
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Line 9: unknown network field 'eap'.
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Line 12: failed to parse network block.
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Failed to read or parse configuration '/var/run/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf'.
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): cat: can't open '/var/run/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.pid': No such file or directory
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Command failed: Invalid argument
Wed Oct 25 18:48:09 2017 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (1048): Interface 0 setup failed: WPA_SUPPLICANT_FAILED
I just copied some settings from this post hpbb/viewtopic.php?t=11858, so maybe I am missing something.

Lantis
Moderator
Posts: 6735
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:33 am
Location: Australia

Re: Connection to specific BSSID

Post by Lantis »

Looking back at the config files for 1.9.2, your router is listed as a small variant and therefore only gets wpad-mini installed (not the full wpad package), so it is not capable of connecting to enterprise wifi. It doesn't know how.

You can try removing wpad-mini and installing wpad, but you may not have enough space to do so.
With 4MB of flash, we can't offer future support of this device either.
http://lantisproject.com/downloads/gargoyle_ispyisail.php for the latest releases
Please be respectful when posting. I do this in my free time on a volunteer basis.

Fido568
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 5:42 pm

Re: Connection to specific BSSID

Post by Fido568 »

Yes Lantis, you are exactly right. Before even reading your last message I was trying to install wpad, but failed on not enough space message.

(I actually bricked one router meanwhile, who would think that 'rm' means 'remove for good' and that '/lib/libgcc_s.so.1' is so popular, that every command needs it, lol. At least that lesson was cheap)

Ok, I will try to get some device with more memory to play with, for now thank you very much for your help.

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