ath0 issue

Sun Nov 12 04:35:46 UTC 2006

i've got an ath0 issue similar to this one:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2006-July/027050.html

this is on 6.2-PRERELEASE from Nov 3

FreeBSD warez.scriptkiddie.org 6.2-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 6.2-PRERELEASE #0: Fri Nov  3 09:00:14 PST 2006     lamont at warez.scriptkiddie.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/WAREZ  i386

my ath0 dmesg looks like:

> dmesg | egrep ath0
ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xef100000-0xef10ffff irq 21 at device 9.0 on pci2
ath0: Ethernet address: 00:09:5b:c8:78:9c
ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 5ghz radio 1.7 2ghz radio 2.3

and my ath0 ifconfig:

> ifconfig ath0
ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
          inet 192.168.70.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.70.255
          ether 00:09:5b:c8:78:9c
          media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g <hostap>
          status: associated
          ssid lamontnet channel 1 bssid 00:09:5b:c8:78:9c
          authmode OPEN privacy OFF deftxkey 1 txpowmax 30 bmiss 7 protmode CTS
          burst dtimperiod 1 bintval 100

the freebsd ath0 device is running in hostap mode acting as a router. 
i've tried turning off pf on the machine and that doesn't help, and i 
don't see the issue on the internet ethernet network it is also acting as 
a nat gateway for.  the other side of the wireless connection is an intel 
3945ABG running the latest 10.5.1.68 version of the WinXP driver with 
ad hoc power management disabled.

what i've seen on tcpdump on the ath0 is that outbound packets seem to 
buffer up, often until it receives a packet on the interface.  below is a 
tcpdump of an ssh session which is just while(1) { echo "foo" ; sleep 1 } 
which should be producing output every second.  the 192.168.70.1 side is 
the server with the ath0 connection, and you can see in the tcpdump that 
where there are large jumps in time that its followed by 192.168.70.1 
pushing out a lot of buffered up output.  i can also make the buffers 
transmit on one tcp connection like this just by having another session 
going across the interface that i'm typing on.

if there are any better ways to debug this please let me know, i don't 
know anything about how to debug wireless...

here's the tcpdump:

19:05:51.659703 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 3007149784 win 16244
19:05:55.080365 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1:117(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:05:55.080374 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 117:233(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:05:55.080377 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1:233(232) ack 0 win 65535
19:05:55.080380 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 233:349(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:05:55.084195 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 233 win 17520
19:05:55.085769 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 233 win 17520
19:05:55.281034 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 349 win 17404
19:05:55.333330 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 349:465(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:05:55.482215 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 465 win 17288
19:05:58.097585 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 465:581(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:05:58.097593 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 581:697(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:05:58.099547 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 697 win 17056
19:06:01.466165 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 697:813(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:01.466173 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 813:929(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:01.466175 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 929:1045(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:01.466177 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1045:1161(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:01.466179 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 697:1161(464) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:01.470001 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 929 win 16824
19:06:01.470818 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 1161 win 16592
19:06:01.471968 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 1161 win 16592
19:06:04.030770 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1161:1277(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:04.030775 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1277:1393(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:04.033830 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 1393 win 16360
19:06:16.103948 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1393:1509(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103955 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1509:1625(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103957 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1625:1741(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103959 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1741:1857(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103962 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1393:1857(464) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103964 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1857:1973(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103966 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1973:2089(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103968 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2089:2205(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103971 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2205:2321(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103972 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2321:2437(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103975 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2437:2553(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103977 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2553:2669(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103979 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2669:2785(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.103981 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 1393:2785(1392) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:16.107073 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 1625 win 16128
19:06:16.107812 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 1857 win 17520
19:06:16.108272 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 1857 win 17520
19:06:16.113934 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 2089 win 17288
19:06:16.114733 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 2321 win 17056
19:06:16.116361 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 2553 win 16824
19:06:16.116729 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 2785 win 16592
19:06:16.117807 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 2785 win 16592
19:06:19.131458 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2785:2901(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:19.131463 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 2901:3017(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:19.131465 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 3017:3133(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:19.134734 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 3017 win 16360
19:06:19.331775 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 3133 win 16244
19:06:19.359317 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 3133:3249(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:19.531435 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 3249 win 16128
19:06:20.843763 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 3249:3365(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:21.031443 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 3365 win 17520
19:06:25.055172 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 3365:3481(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:25.055179 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 3481:3597(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:25.055182 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 3597:3713(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:25.055184 IP 192.168.70.1.ssh > 192.168.70.5.1063: P 3713:3829(116) ack 0 win 65535
19:06:25.058306 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 3597 win 17288
19:06:25.059205 IP 192.168.70.5.1063 > 192.168.70.1.ssh: . ack 3829 win 17056