Message-ID: <1355138959.9857.13.camel@jlt4.sipsolutions.net> (sfid-20121210_122905_508823_CE1A195C)
Subject: Re: Wireless network problem with Access Point selection using ifup
From: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
To: dmarkh@cfl.rr.com
Cc: markh@compro.net, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:29:19 +0100
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On Mon, 2012-12-10 at 06:10 -0500, Mark Hounschell wrote:

> The driver is use has was identified in the original email. So I guess this 
> is the right place to report this issue? 

Yeah, I guess Larry should take a look.

> In each of the wpa log files I See 
> in the beginning, a section like this:
> 
> nl80211: Received scan results (4 BSSes)
> wlan0: BSS: Start scan result update 1
> wlan0: BSS: Add new id 0 BSSID c8:d7:19:7a:ab:1e SSID 'hounschell-1'
> wlan0: BSS: Add new id 1 BSSID 20:aa:4b:b2:dd:79 SSID 'hounschell-1'
> wlan0: BSS: Add new id 2 BSSID 00:18:f8:ff:72:d5 SSID 'hounschell-1'
> wlan0: BSS: Add new id 3 BSSID 00:1a:70:6d:99:50 SSID 'MACDONALD'
> 
> Every time the first one listed is the one actually selected and each time 
> is different and usually NOT the closest.

That's expected, the order is random by the order in which it was found
in scanning etc. There's no inherent order here.

> It is a Desktop in a fixed location. The AP is within 15ft of the ASUS USB 
> adapter and in direct line of sight.  There may be more than one problem 
> here. I think one of the problems is right here. Above 20:aa:4b:b2:dd:79 is 
> the closest AP. Why is it not first in the list? 

See above.

> Why, when it selects one 
> of the others and it can't figure out it selected the wrong one and 
> reselect the right one seems like a different problem. After all when it 
> does select the correct one, all is good but the actual bandwidth.

Well so I suspect the driver is also not reporting useful signal
strength so that wpa_s doesn't know which one to select. And then when
the connection fails, the driver is refusing scanning so it can't even
reconnect to a better AP ...

IOW, all driver problems, and I'm not familiar enough with that driver
to tell you what's going on.

johannes