wireless channel selection not 'sticking'

[morgan]

Hello Folk

Kit:
Fonera model FON2100A/B/C with Gargoyle v1.4.7
Atheros AR2315A (183 MHz)

I have set it up as a 'non-bridge' W-LAN (Client) to an AP (AP1) thus:
https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/clie ... asqueraded
With another wireless AP (AP2) hanging off the back of the Fonera's lan port.

So that devices can move between the two wireless networks, I've set them to the same SSID and pwords, then set each AP to different channels (AP1: ch3; AP2: ch9). Then, I've set the Fonera 'non-bridge' client to ch3.

This work fine for a while (perhaps 1/2 hour) but then the Fonera seems to change channels to ch9, presumably because it's next to AP2 and the signal is much stronger.

Is there anyway to nail the Fonera 'non-bridge' client to ch3?

Thanks
Morgan

[Lantis]

Are you saying you want the client to always connect to the network on channel 3?

If so, try reading this thread and see if it applies to you.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9267&hilit=BSSID#p40937

That version of Gargoyle is very old and I'm unsure if this configuration was applicable back then.

[morgan]

Thanks Lantis - that was precisely what I wanted!

I don't have iw, but I do have iwconfig which gives the info needed. I've done what's recommended in the thread you reference - we'll have to wait and see if 'option bssid' is supported and how long it 'sticks' for. I'll report back.

For reference, this is what I did:
root@Gargoyle:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

br-lan no wireless extensions.

imq0 no wireless extensions.

imq1 no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

br-wan no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"OpenWrt0"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.422 GHz Access Point: 00:08:F5:AE:CD:F4
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:17 dBm
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=32/70 Signal level=-64 dBm Noise level=-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:12264209 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

root@Gargoyle:~# iw ath0 scan
-ash: iw: not found
root@Gargoyle:~# cat /etc/config/wireless

config 'wifi-device' 'wifi0'
option 'type' 'atheros'
option 'channel' '3'

config 'wifi-iface' 'stacfg'
option 'device' 'wifi0'
option 'mode' 'sta'
option 'network' 'wan'
option 'key' '**********'
option 'ssid' 'OpenWrt0'
option 'encryption' 'psk2'

root@Gargoyle:~# vi /etc/config/wireless

config 'wifi-device' 'wifi0'
option 'type' 'atheros'
option 'channel' '3'

config 'wifi-iface' 'stacfg'
option 'device' 'wifi0'
option 'mode' 'sta'
option 'network' 'wan'
option 'key' '**********'
option 'ssid' 'OpenWrt0'
option 'bssid' '00:08:F5:AE:CD:F4'
option 'encryption' 'psk2'

~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
root@Gargoyle:~# cat /etc/config/wireless

config 'wifi-device' 'wifi0'
option 'type' 'atheros'
option 'channel' '3'

config 'wifi-iface' 'stacfg'
option 'device' 'wifi0'
option 'mode' 'sta'
option 'network' 'wan'
option 'key' '**********'
option 'ssid' 'OpenWrt0'
option 'bssid' '00:08:F5:AE:CD:F4'
option 'encryption' 'psk2'

root@Gargoyle:~# wifi
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1B) :
GET failed on device ath0 ; Argument list too long.
root@Gargoyle:~# wifi
root@Gargoyle:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

br-lan no wireless extensions.

imq0 no wireless extensions.

imq1 no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

br-wan no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"OpenWrt0"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.422 GHz Access Point: 00:08:F5:AE:CD:F4
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:18 dBm
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=31/70 Signal level=-65 dBm Noise level=-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:3687 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

root@Gargoyle:~# ping google.co.uk
PING google.co.uk (216.58.204.35): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.58.204.35: seq=0 ttl=54 time=13.388 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.204.35: seq=1 ttl=54 time=13.471 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.204.35: seq=2 ttl=54 time=13.394 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.204.35: seq=3 ttl=54 time=15.235 ms
^C
--- google.co.uk ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 13.388/13.872/15.235 ms
root@Gargoyle:~#

[Lantis]

Cool. Let us know!

[morgan]

Well, I've had a bit of weirdness - sometime during the day, it seemed to loose the
option 'bssid' '00:08:F5:AE:CD:F4'
setting

I'm not sure if that was something I did during the course of various restarts and config changes that caused it to be over written - or, it over wrote itself somehow...

But, I did notice a setting in the web interface -
Wireless MAC Filter:
To which I added the same hardware address. It produced
option 'maclist' '00:08:F5:AE:CD:F4'
in /etc/config/wireless. I guessed it'd do no harm and perhaps some good; it didn't force the hardware address association so I had to add back the bssid option - what does it do?

Also, created a back up of /etc/config/wireless to make life a little quicker in future.

Thanks

[Lantis]

Once you have manually added a config line like you have, any changes done in the GUI can potentially wipe it out (as the interface does not recognise it).

The mac filter list is about restricting clients to the AP, so not helpful for what is being done here.

[ispyisail]

Note: Some of those very old versions were buggy

So long ago I can remember which one's