Atheros and SIS bridging problem

[Ben Becker]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 14:50:03 +0800, Clive Lin <clive at tongi.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 09:23:08AM -0800, Ben Becker wrote:
> > [Laptop]--------(sis0)-[FreeBSD Bridge]-(ath0)--------[FreeBSD AP]
> >
> > There seems to be a problem with bridging ath0 and sis0.  I have 1 IP
> > assigned to ath0 which is 192.168.1.3, and I've sysctl'd
> > 'net.link.ether.bridge.enable=1' and
> > 'net.link.ether.bridge.config=ath0,sis0'.  From the bridge, I can ping
> > the AP (192.168.1.1) and the laptop (192.168.1.5).  However I can't
> > ping from the laptop to the AP or from the AP to the laptop.
> 
> Hi,
> 
>    Have you tried ng_bridge(4)? My own experience is similar with
> yours, and the problem like yours is sovled via ng_bridge(4).  Example
> scripts to setup ng_bridge(4) is at
> /usr/share/examples/netgraph/ether.bridge.
> 

Thank you for the idea, but there are still problems that appear to be
related to net80211 or the ath driver.  I did get a little further in
debugging this with ng_bridge, though.  Packets from the remote
computer actually go through the bridge and get to the AP.   I enabled
debug mode for ath0 on the AP(ifconfig ath0 debug), and here's what I
get when I try to send a packet from a remote computer that goes
through the bridge (hand transcribed):

ath0: station 00:0c:6e:a7:47:3b deauthenticate (reason 6)
ath0: sending deauth to 00:0c:6e:a7:47:3b on channel 11
ath0: station 00:0c:6e:a7:47:3b disassociate (reason 7)
ath0: sending disassoc to 00:0c:6e:a7:47:3b on channel 11
ath0: received auth from 00:0b:6b:33:08:1a rssi 22
ath0: sending auth to 00:0b:6b:33:08:1a on channel 11
ath0: station already 00:0b:6b:33:08:1a authenticated
ath0: received assoc_req from 00:0b:6b:33:08:1a rssi 24
ath0: sending assoc_resp to 00:0b:6b:33:08:1a on channel 11
ath0: station already 00:0b:6b:33:08:1a associated

00:0c:6e:a7:47:3b is the MAC address of the remote computer's rl0 interface.
00:0b:6b:33:08:1a is the MAC address of the bridge's ath0 interface.

It appears as though ath0 on the AP sees the packet, but thinks the
remote computer is actually a station that isn't associated.  Am I
correct here?  I'm not very familiar with the net80211 code, but would
it be possible to simply allow the AP to receive and transmit packets
to/from layer 2 address that aren't necessarily associated?

I know Sam recommended tunneling, but I'd like to essentially have a
system that works like those Ethernet-to-Wireless bridge devices (i.e.
D-Link DWL-810, newer Linksys WAP11).  Am I dreaming -- is this even
possible?  The more I look into it there doesn't seem to be any
standard way of creating an 'Ethernet-to-Wireless' bridge.  I'd like
to hear from the net80211 pros what the best (if any) solution would
be for 'Ethernet-to-Wireless' bridging.

Thanks for taking the time to hash through all of this!