Connection Issues - Telstra Smart Model Gen 2

From: Ben Hutton <ben_at_benhutton.com.au>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2025 03:57:41 UTC
Hi,

I was recently attempting to connect to a wifi modem at a house I was 
visiting and found I couldn't connect with FreeBSD (Current 1600007). I 
was however able to connect on my GrapheneOS Pixel 9a and have in the 
past connected to the same accesspoint with several iPhones and a 
MacBook Pro. FreeBSD however couldn't connect to no matter what 
combination I was trying. I wasn't getting any errors, it just wouldn't 
connect.

Since this is an ISP branded device I'm not 100% sure exactly the 
make/model, however I did manage to get the following:

ISP Branding: Telstra Smart Model Gen 2

Model: LH1000

Manufactured by (According to Claude Haiku 3.5): Arcadyan

Firmware (According to Claude Haiku 3.5): heavily modified version of 
DD-WRT/OpenWRT - may have different firmware versions (e.g., "Blue 
Egypt" or "Champagne" versions)


Any idea on how I can debug this in future? I wasn't getting any obvious 
errors in /var/log/messages. I ended up tethering to my phone which was 
connected to the access point.


/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (relevant entries)

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=2
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
         ssid="XXXXXXXXX"
         psk="xxxxxxxxx"
         priority=5
}

/etc/rc.conf (relevant wifi entries)

wlans_iwlwifi0="wlan0"
create_args_wlan0="country AU regdomain APAC2"
ifconfig_wlan0="mode 11ac WPA SYNCDHCP powersave"
wlan0_powersave="YES"

Kind regards
Ben