Best Firmware for wi(4)? (Re: wi(4) Problems with FreeBSD AP to WinXP)

[Crist J. Clark]

I thought upgrading the firmware might be the answer, so
I went to the latest primary and station revisions that
I could find, 1.01.01 and 1.08.04, repectively. This turned
out to not be a great idea. Now things are pretty much totally
borked. Even the stuff that worked before now doesn't work
at all. It doesn't even really function well in non-hostap
mode.

Anyone have recommendations for the best firmware version
for a Netgear MA311,

  wi0: <Intersil Prism2.5> mem 0xfffbf000-0xfffbffff irq 10 at device 19.0 on pci0
  wi0: 802.11 address: 00:09:5b:69:95:74
  wi0: using RF:PRISM2.5 MAC:ISL3874A(Mini-PCI)
  wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary 1.01.01, Station 1.08.04


  wi0 at pci0:19:0:  class=0x028000 card=0x41051385 chip=0x38731260 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
      vendor   = 'Intersil Americas Inc (Was: Harris Semiconductor)'
      device   = 'PRISM 2.5 802.11b 11Mbps Wireless Controller'
      class    = network

Running on a 4.11-RELEASE-p13 system? I am aware of the CAVEAT
section of wi(4), but the info in there is about three years
old.

(While we're at it, how about the best revision for a Netgear
MA401RA on RELENG_5?)

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 06:20:27PM -0800, Crist J. Clark wrote:
> I am having some really weird problems with home WLAN setup.
> The AP is a FreeBSD 4.11 system with a Netgear MA311. It has
> been a functioning AP for more than a year. It has worked fine
> with various FreeBSD flavors using a Netgear MA401 (I'm writing
> this over connection with this card now). It has worked fine
> with Windows 2000 using a Linksys WPC11. It has, well, had[0],
> worked fine with Windows XP on a ThinkPad with its builtin Intel
> PRO/Wireless 2200BG.
> 
> Now enter a new Compaq notebook with Windows XP and a Broadcom
> 802.11b/g WLAN integrated NIC. It doesn't want to work with the
> existing AP. It "sees" the WLAN, but will not associate. The
> problem looks like what I would expect if the WEP keys were bad.
> However, I've added the keys a few dozen times, and one other
> thing makes me sure the keys are good. If I do,
> 
> 	# ifconfig wi0 -mediaopt hostap
> 
> On the MA311 AP, and switch the AP to this PC with the MA401,
> 
> 	# ifconfig wi0 mediaopt hostap
> 
> Suddenly the Windows XP machine will associate. Since I didn't
> touch any keys, I think they are all correct. Also, the signal
> is strong; I don't think that plays any role.
> 
> Any ideas? Here's more info on the MA311 AP,
> 
>   wi0: <Intersil Prism2.5> mem 0xfffbf000-0xfffbffff irq 10 at device 19.0 on pci0
>   wi0: 802.11 address: 00:09:5b:69:95:74
>   wi0: using RF:PRISM2.5 MAC:ISL3874A(Mini-PCI)
>   wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary 1.00.07, Station 1.03.06
> 
> [0] Now, as for the ThinkPad that used to work. All of a sudden,
> it won't pick up an IP address via DHCP. If I snoop the WLAN on
> other hosts, I see the DHCP DISCOVER messages go out and the
> DHCP server respond, but it's like it doesn't see the responses.
> The little AP switch trick outlined above doesn't help. I thought
> it might be firewall software on the XP machine or it doesn't
> understand the DHCP responses, but if I plug it into the wired
> network, where the same machine that is the AP is also the DHCP
> server, it works fine. So, it can understand the DHCP server,
> and a firewall would have to treat the two interfaces or 
> networks (both RFC1918 ranges) differently.
> 
> Anyone have suggestions there too?
> 
> Oh yeah. What happens when I turn WEP off? The ThinkPad problem
> goes away, but the Compaq problem stays.
> -- 
> Crist J. Clark                     |     cjclark at alum.mit.edu
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-net at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"

-- 
Crist J. Clark                     |     cjclark at alum.mit.edu