AP loses all it's connections? I'm baffled!

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

This has been going on a few months and I can’t pinpoint what is going on.

The ap is utilizing an RB433 with 2 XR2 cards connected to 2 sectors. I am running 20mhz channels and have 20mhz separation. There are only about 8 clients on the one sector and 5 on the other.

Not every day but on average about every other day, usually later afternoon, early evening one of the sectors loses all of it’s connections at the same time and normally they all come back online right away. Sometimes they keep disconnecting though and the issue will last a few minutes before it clears up. It can happen when very little traffic is passing through the ap or when there is a decent amount of traffic, it doesn’t seem to matter.

I’m leaning towards interference from another source but I can’t figure out where from.
Most of the time the noise floor is around -95. All of the clients have a signal in the -50 to -60 range.

I would appreciate any advice or insight that anyone could give.

Thanks

2

If you are running V4.X then browse through the forums.
There are very recent threads which describe what is required to fix broken wireless.

3

I’m running version 3.22

4

Anyone have any advice on what a good next step would be?

5

Do a logging on wireless debug, you get more info on what is going on from the log.

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Wireless_Debug_Logs

6

Here is my log. I’ve tried changing channels and it didn’t help. I’ve increased the hw retries and it didn’t seem to make a difference.

may/ 3/2010 11:33:38 by RouterOS 3.30

11:23:02 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:23:02 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:23:02 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:23:02 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:23:02 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:23:02 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:23:02 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:23:02 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: disconnected, unicast key exchange timeout
11:23:21 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:23:21 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 not in local ACL, by default accept
11:23:21 wireless,info 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2@wlan3: connected
11:23:23 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:DC:1B:A5 attempts to associate
11:23:23 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:DC:1B:A5 not in local ACL, by default accept
11:23:23 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DC:1B:A5@wlan3: connected
11:23:26 wireless,info 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2@wlan3: disconnected, unicast key exchange timeout
11:23:36 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:23:36 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E not in local ACL, by default accept
11:23:36 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: connected
11:23:39 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:23:39 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:23:45 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: disconnected, unicast key exchange timeout
11:23:45 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, sent deauth
11:23:45 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, sent deauth
11:24:09 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:09 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 not in local ACL, by default accept
11:24:09 wireless,info 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2@wlan3: connected
11:24:11 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:11 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:14 wireless,info 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2@wlan3: disconnected, unicast key exchange timeout
11:24:16 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:16 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:18 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:18 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E not in local ACL, by default accept
11:24:18 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: connected
11:24:23 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: disconnected, unicast key exchange timeout
11:24:31 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:31 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:32 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:32 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:35 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:35 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:37 wireless,debug wlan4: 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A attempts to associate
11:24:37 wireless,debug wlan4: 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A not in local ACL, by default accept
11:24:37 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: connected
11:24:37 wireless,debug wlan4: 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A attempts to associate
11:24:37 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: reassociating
11:24:37 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: disconnected, ok
11:24:37 wireless,debug wlan4: 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A not in local ACL, by default accept
11:24:37 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: connected
11:24:37 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:37 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:37 dhcp,info dhcp3 deassigned 10.3.22.200 from 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A
11:24:38 dhcp,info dhcp3 assigned 10.3.22.200 to 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A
11:24:39 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:39 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:41 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:41 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:43 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:43 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:43 wireless,info wlan3: data from unknown device 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2, sent deauth
11:24:45 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:45 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:45 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 attempts to associate
11:24:45 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2 not in local ACL, by default accept
11:24:45 wireless,info 00:15:6D:F2:EE:D2@wlan3: connected
11:24:47 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:47 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:50 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:50 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:52 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:52 wireless,debug wlan3: reject 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E, banned (last failure - unicast key exchange timeout)
11:24:58 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:24:58 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E not in local ACL, by default accept
11:24:58 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: connected
11:26:07 wireless,debug wlan4: 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A attempts to associate
11:26:07 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: reassociating
11:26:07 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: disconnected, ok
11:26:07 wireless,debug wlan4: 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A not in local ACL, by default accept
11:26:07 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: connected
11:26:12 wireless,info 00:15:6D:DA:DB:6A@wlan4: disconnected, unicast key exchange timeout
11:26:17 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:26:17 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: reassociating
11:26:17 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: disconnected, ok
11:26:17 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E not in local ACL, by default accept
11:26:17 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: connected
11:26:33 wireless,info 00:15:6D:F8:9C:A3@wlan5: disconnected, extensive data loss
11:27:22 wireless,debug wlan5: 00:15:6D:F8:9C:A3 attempts to associate
11:27:22 wireless,debug wlan5: 00:15:6D:F8:9C:A3 not in local ACL, by default accept
11:27:22 wireless,info 00:15:6D:F8:9C:A3@wlan5: connected
11:29:24 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: disconnected, extensive data loss
11:29:50 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E attempts to associate
11:29:50 wireless,debug wlan3: 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E not in local ACL, by default accept
11:29:50 wireless,info 00:15:6D:E4:9C:7E@wlan3: connected

7

You have TKIP enabled, and this device has wrong key entered, so it was banned for some while. Disable encryption and try then. Also check if key was entered correctly, and use AES instead of TKIP, AES is better .

8

It’s not a single device that disconnects and reconnects, it’s all devices on this ap. Also, this issue doesn’t happen all the time, every couple of days, so I don’t think I have the wrong key entered. I will try disabling TKIP to see if that helps.

Also, I read somewhere that it is not recommended, but I increased the disconnect timeout and that seemed to fix things. Please tell me if I made a mistake in doing so.

Thanks

9

hwretries is a balance between small latency and more disconnects, and higher latency and less disconnects.

if latency doesn’t matter, increase it.

anyway, TKIP should be changed to AES, it’s much better and is handled in hardware