Bugzilla – Bug 2288
Can't associate with network if SSID isn't broadcasted with WRT54G
Last modified: 2008-12-18 11:38:58 UTC
Forum report that if SSID broadcasting is turned off, SB2 can't associate with the network. Turn on broadcasting and it works fine. My belkin pre-N works fine, so it's likely an issue with this specific access point.
must be recent. i had one of these and had no trouble. guess I should dust it off and try again :) Which firmware are you using, stock or third party?
Kevin, please try to reproduce. Thanks!
can not reproduce with wrt54g fw 4.20.07 -- it works fine. scbash, what firmware version and hardware revision are you using? can you tell me about any/all of the other settings on your router re:wireless?
I'm not sure what hardware revision of the WRT54G I have (Linksys's site references 1.0 through 5.0, mines probably 1.0 or 2.0 - is there an easy way to check? It does have the Cisco logo on the front), but I upgraded to fw 4.20.07 before reporting this issue. I have fw 23 on the SB2. Wireless setup was MAC filtering, WEP 128-bit encryption (Shared key authentication), and no broadcast. I'm now using WPA-PSK with a MAC filter, and I believe problem still exists, but I'll have to double check (I'm currently broadcasting SSID to avoid issue).
The label on the bottom of the router should note the revision alongside the model number.
Checked router, it is hardware version 2.0
I have the same problem with my Asus WL_500g WiFi access point
Just upgraded to Slimserver 6.2 and FW 26, still have the same problem.
i think dean has our wrt54g right now because he's looking in to an unrelated issue...so i'm not sure which hardware revision we have...
scbash, when you turn this feature off are you doing anything different in the sb2's setup? or are you not going back through setup--just trying to re-use the old settings?
As far as changing the setup, I have and I haven't. When I was initially fighting the problem (SB2 straight out of the box), I would turn off SSID broadcast on the router, and then redo the setup procedure. When it came time for the SB2 to connect to the router, it would timeout. In more recent testing, I allow the SB2 to connect with SSID broadcast on, then go to the router and turn broadcast off, watch the SB2 lose the connection, turn broadcast back on, and the SB2 regains the connection (neither of these processes are instantaneous - there is a little lag in signal loss and reacquire, but less than 30 seconds). Also, it was my experience that even when I did completely redo the setup with broadcast off, if I entered the SSID manually, the SB2 would already have the right SSID entered (though in the process of debugging I did retype it several times just to make sure there weren't hidden characters or something).
I'm not sure what else to do here. Couldn't reproduce the problem with the wrt54g we have here... But I just got a call this morning from someone having the same problem with a wrt54g (unknown hardware rev or firmware)... maddening. where are you located scbash? are you possibly in the bay area?
Well, I'm in A bay area, but not the one you're thinking of :-) Just north of Boston. I'm currently attempting to get an Ethereal setup that might yield more information about where the link is breaking. But I agree, if you can't reproduce it, I'm not sure what we can do. If I get any more information on this end, I'll let you know. I'll also see if anyone I know has a different HW rev on the WRT54G to see if Linksys fixed the problem in later versions.
Just took the SB2 to a friend's place who has a WRT54G v1.1. Same problem. Perhaps Linksys solved the problem in one of the later HW revisions? From http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12772 it looks like versions 2.2 and 4.0 changed the ethernet chipset, so there is at least more variable in the mix.
Looked into the Asus router mentioned by Mr. Hudson, in hopes of finding a similar chipset. Asus also uses Broadcom chips, but different chip number than any of the WRT54Gs that I can find.
trying to negotiate the purchase of a v2 on ebay as ours is v3, heh.
Mine is a v2 and doesn't work (tested with a friend's v1.1), so I'd have to find a v3 or higher I think, but that is definitely an option.
Same happen here with Sqeezebox firmware 28 and a Linksys WRT54GS V2 running OpenWRT RC4 with "nas" 3.90.37-13
Can you please try firmware 41 available in the nightly releases. In this version most of the wireless connectivity problems have been fixed. If you still are having problems please reopen this bug. Thanks.
Recently upgraded Slimserver to rev 7160 and upgrade SqueezeBox to firmware 48. Still see instant connection loss when SSID broadcast is turned off.
We have a WRT54G v2 here, and I also see connection loss when SSID is turned off. However, if I reconnect to it, typing in the SSID, it works fine. The firmware on this unit is 4.20.7.
Recently upgraded SqueezeBox with firmware version 48 The squeezeBox now works with my Asus WL_500g WiFi access point when SSID broadcast is turned off.
Crud. I can't seem to reproduce this problem any more. I tried Firmware 48, 41, and 28. Are people still having this problem?
Chris - Still occurs with my SB2 with firmware 48 and WRT54Gv2 on 4.20.7. I also tried retyping the SSID, but it won't associate with broadcast off.
Out of curiousity, what is your SSID? Email it to me at chris@slimdevices.com. I'd just like to make sure it's not a problem with the Squeezebox not being able to work with certain characters in an SSID.
Okay I'm ready for this to be gone from the bug database. :) Still can't reproduce it even with your exact SSID, Stephen. These are the settings I'm testing with: As I mentioned, router FW 4.20.7 Wireless Network Mode : Mixed Wireless Network Name (SSID) : whatever1 Wireless Channel : 2 - 2.417GHz Wireless SSID Broadcast : Disable Securty Mode: Disable Are your settings any different? Does it work with a really, really simple SSID (such as '99999999', easy to type in on the sb3 by hitting downarrow, rightarrow eight times).
Someone drop me some crumbs to follow here! :) If you use the same settings to test do you still have the problem? Or is it specific to some other router settings?
I don't want this bug to hold up the imminent 6.3 release, but I'll leave it open for me to look at more thoroughly.
I can't reproduce this with FW59. Please reopen if anyone has some more details for me to try to reproduce.
Sorry for the slow update. I just upgraded to server 6.5 and firmware 64. Problem appears to be fixed. Thanks!
I don't know if this merits reopening the bug, but I have found an interesting behavior in the SB2. The other day, for some unknown reason, my SB2 lost it's network connection (we live in an aparment complex with all kinds of electromagnetic interference from other 2.4GHz sources), and it couldn't reacquire. I eventually turned broadcast back on, and the SB2 connected. The SB2 remained connected when I turned broadcast off a few minutes later, and remained connected for several days until again for some unknown reason it lost the connection and couldn't reacquire (and hasn't for the past two days since I haven't gotten around to playing with it). From previous experience (with both the SB2 and laptops) the EM interference tends to be short lived (a couple seconds to several minutes), and can even cause laptops to drop the connection, but doesn't last long enough to kill the network for any real length of time (days). We have about 5-8 other wireless networks viewable at various times, most (all?) of them on channel 6, so before testing this bug I had moved my network to channel 1 and saw greatly improved performance. Just for reference, this is a SB2 connecting to Slimserver 6.5 on a Gentoo Linux box over a 802.11g network via a Linksys WRT54G v2.0 using WPA PSK encryption. Let me know if there are any additional tests I could do that might help in diagnosing this problem. I expect the easiest work around is to simply turn broadcast back on.