Apple Connection Problems Still Exists ng354

[Chip]

Hi guys, we are still having major problems with apple devices connecting to OM2P's so far the problem affects;

New 27" Imac (802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking;2 IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible card)

New Apple Ipad2 (Wi-Fi + 3G model) Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)

New Apple Macbook air (802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking;5 IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible Card)

from cold boot all of the Apple devices will find and connect to the mesh wireless (SSID2) but after a few minutes the device will drop the network and not be able to find it until the device is rebooted.

also once it has connected to and lost the mesh network it will not find any other networks that are in range

[deniz]

I can also see the "can't find any networks that are in range" issue as well on the iPad2 from time to time when connecting through SSID1. SSID2 seems more stable for us.

Sometimes the loading the WI-FI section in the Settings just stays blank and doesn't even indicate the scanning networks logo. Other times, the scanning networks logo simply turns forever. Restarting the iPad2 allows scanning for networks again.

I was wondering how a WiFi? driver on a remote access point could cause such behaviour on the client - and was rather thinking that the iPad was playing up. But seeing that other people have similar issues, that might not be the case.

Also, I've seen this behaviour only when in vicinity to repeater nodes so far - gateways seem fine. Unfortunately, I'm not on site, however I can get feedback from people on site.

[Chip]

I replicated the problem network (6x OM2P's) in my office but I have updated firmware to r357 and am currently trying my new iPad (same spec as above)

Been connected now for over 48 hours without problem?!? Did r357 have any apple fix's in it?

[marek]

No, there has been no change in the wifi driver whatsoever.

I rather suspect that it needs the right chain of events to trigger this new(?) problem and you haven't triggered it yet.

[itogav]

Hi guys I have just post a ticket about this apple problem. Have a look at ticket #194. Maybe Marek can use it for a solution. BR. Villy

[marek]

Since you replied on ticket #194 as well I suppose it is not working for you ? ng357 did not really fix it (which would not surprise me) ?

Does it matter to which SSID you connect ? Did you try playing with the settings ? Disable/enable SSID#2, disable/enable encryption, etc ?

[Chip]

No it is not fixed unfortunately,

This network needs "bridge mode" so I can only connect on SSID 2? how would I disable encryption? cant see that option on cloudtrax

[marek]

You can simply empty the WPA password field to disable encryption.

I understand that these settings are not what you are ultimately interested in but we need to narrow down the suspects. So, do you see the same problem on SSID#1 ? What about without bridging ?

[wifiqos]

I have been able to reproduce the problem reliably. I have an iPod touch from 1997 that I put next to an iPhone 4s. Run WiFiFoFum? on the iPod touch. Set it next to the iPhone. Both should see any broadcast SSID networks.

Configure SSID 1 with a password, configure SSID 2 with or without a password. iPod touch will show both networks, and will show neighbor's WiFi? networks. iPhone will spin and spin and spin and show no WiFi? Networks at all. The OM2P acts as a wifi killer. Now, disable the password on SSID 1, wait until the next checkin, both devices will show both your SSID's and all nearby SSID's.

With an SSID 1 password enabled, the iPhone stop being able to use WiFi?. Even a strong nearby WiFi? network become invisible. Since we want to use SSID 2 in NG bridge mode, and really don't use SSID 1 - we thought we could block SSID 1 access with a password, apparently not. No problems with the MR500, only the OM2P shows this bug.

[wifiqos]

iPod touch from 2007 of course.

[mike]

Do you know if this happen with other iPhones (not 4s) or iPads? I am unable to duplicate this here with my iPad or iPhone.

[mike]

I added a test OM2P to your network just to verify the problem wasn't due to some setting. At least here, I can connect and browse just fine on SSID#2 with my macbook, iPad and iPhone 4 (SSID#1 does have a password). I don't have an iPhone 4s to test yet. But the issue isn't due to your settings (I didn't touch them). All devices show all SSIDs when trying to connect.

[deniz]

We had been seeing the "wifi killer" issues as well with the OM2P and iPads - however SSID1 was open with restricted voucher access and SSID2 was password protected.

Marek has done some modifications to our OM2Ps a couple of days ago and we have switched the SSID1 to "broadcast node names" instead of network name. Since then we haven't had any issues with wifi killings. Another change was that we have reduced the number of accessible gateways for the meshed nodes to one - but i doubt that has anything to do with the improvement.

[marek]

Replying to deniz:

Marek has done some modifications to our OM2Ps a couple of days ago

What changes are you referring to ?

[deniz]

Replying to marek:

What changes are you referring to ?

http://dev.cloudtrax.com/ticket/192#comment:3

[marek]

Replying to deniz:

Replying to marek:

What changes are you referring to ?

http://dev.cloudtrax.com/ticket/192#comment:3

Ok, thanks.

[wifiqos]

iPhone and iPod side by side with iPhone 4s showing no APs

[wifiqos]

Left the site and repeated the test back in the lab - where there are a lot of other strong 802.11 Access Points - no killing.

So the iPhone killer happens when the OM2P is the only, or primary Access Point. Where it failed for us, there were either zero or just one other non OM2P access point.

So testing in a busy lab will not exhibit the problem. Attached image shows the iPhone and the old iPod touch side by side.

[mike]

My test is also with an OM2P - only network. Sorry, but I am just not able to duplicate this result.

[wifiqos]

Hi Mike, what version and iOS of your iPhone? the device devices here are 4S and 5.0.1

[mike]

Mine are also 5.01.

Here is what I did: I simply added a node to your existing network and changed no settings. If you delete one of your nodes, and add it back, do you see the problems? Are there any steps you need to take to make the problem happen?

[bluestick]

We only have OM2Ps in our network (4x OM2P) and have a repeatable setup for this problem. As soon as an IOS 5+ device is in range its wireless connection is killed within seconds and battery drain increases significantly. Even when the device is out of range of the OM2Ps no wireless networks will be detected until the IOS device is rebooted. We have several IOS 5 devices here all showing the same behaviour. Interestingly, IOS 4 devices don't seem to be affected as badly. They maintain a connection but drop off regularly.

[mike]

Do you mind if I upgrade this network to r360?

[bluestick]

Hi Mike,

Please do and I can report back any results.

Regards, Dave

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From: dev.cloudtrax.com trac@… Sent: 27 January 2012 00:52 To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: Re: [dev.cloudtrax.com] #189: Apple Connection Problems Still Exists ng354

#189: Apple Connection Problems Still Exists ng354

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Reporter: Chip | Owner: dfl-owner

Type: bug | Status: new

Priority: major | Milestone: ng-beta

Component: firmware | Keywords: apple problem om2p

Network_name: thanki |

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Comment(by mike):

Do you mind if I upgrade this network to r360?

-- Ticket URL: <http://dev.cloudtrax.com/ticket/189#comment:> dev.cloudtrax.com <http://dev.cloudtrax.com/> dev.cloudtrax.com

[bluestick]

Sorry network is indigotech

[bluestick]

Mike are you going to the update to r360 over the air or do I need to do a manual upgrade to network indigotech?

[mike]

It is upgraded. Please let us know if the problems still exist. Thanks!

[mike]

Your network indigotech is upgrading now. Can you retest and let us know after you see it is at r360 (about 30 minutes or so). Thanks.

[bluestick]

Hi Guys,

The network has now upgraded to r360 and the IOS 5 devices are now connecting fine. Its only been a few minutes so I won't jump the gun and say its fixed but its looking positive. We did have a similar experience when we upgraded the network to r354 that everything worked for a few days and then reverted back to the disconnection behaviour. I will report back again in the next few days whether this seems to be a permanent fix. Thanks for the work Mike.

[bombo99]

I am experiencing reports of similar connection issues on a deployed mesh of 30 OM2P's. When do you anticipate r360 to be deployed ota? Thanks

[mike]

If you want me to upgrade your network, give me its name and I will do so for you. All nodes will need to be up and we would appreciate feedback on how the new build does with these issues. Thanks!

[bombo99]

Yes, I would like to upgrade to the most current firmware. The network name is eaglesnest and all nodes are currently up. I will definitely provide feedback. Thank you

[bombo99]

my e-mail address is bombo99@… if you require any additional information to update the network firmware. Thanks

[mike]

OK, upgrades are enabled. You should see r360 on your network in a bit over 30 minutes.

[Chip]

Hi, Please upgrade my network... thanki

cheers

[marek]

Replying to Chip:

Hi, Please upgrade my network... thanki

It already is on ng360. Yours was among the first to be upgraded. Is it not working for you ?

[saccomat]

Can I also test the ng360? We too have the disconnection problem. Network is Totemnetwork, thanks!

[Chip]

Replying to marek:

Replying to Chip:

Hi, Please upgrade my network... thanki

It already is on ng360. Yours was among the first to be upgraded. Is it not working for you ?

Sorry didnt realise, ill take a look

[bluestick]

Good morning all, well that's 3 days on and all our IOS 5 devices are still connected and working normally so I think I am happy that the issue has certainly been resolved on our site with r360. How are our r360 site fairing?

[bombo99]

I'm still receiving reports of dropped connections on our mesh network after upgrading to r360 ... I don't think the connectivity issues have been completely resolved yet.

[mike]

What network is yours?

[bombo99]

Replying to mike:

What network is yours?

eaglesnest

[mike]

Can you quantify this a bit? So far, all other reports have been positive. How many were you getting before vs now? What devices? Can you specifically descript the reported issues?

[bombo99]

We've been averaging about one reported incident per day. Typical reports indicate that the device is able to connect to the wifi network for a short period of time (approx. 5 mins) before being disconnected. They then need to reboot their device before trying again with similar results. The majority of reports have been from iOS devices, but there were a couple of Windows laptops as well.

[bombo99]

Let me know what additional information might make troubleshooting these issues easier for you. I am asking users to fill out and submit incident reports each time they encounter a problem, what specific information would you like to be included on these reports. Thank you.

[bombo99]

I recently installed 12 new routers to the mesh, can you please push the r360 firmware (or the most recent version) to these new routers. Thank you

[rhg]

This may be related, not sure. I have a 20 node OM1P network that I upgraded to r354. Then I replaced 12 of the OM1P routers with OM2Ps. I started having people call with connection problems so I went back to all OM1P but still with r354 firmware and thought I would wait and see. I still have one guy with a windows 7 laptop who has been consistently losing his connection after anywhere from a few minutes to 3-4 hours since I reverted (about 4 days ago). He had no problems before the change. I do have a couple of iPads and an iPhone showing up in the user list but I notice they never connect for more than a short time. They may just not be complaining as the network has been spotty for everyone.

[rhg]

I forgot to mention that the WIFI vendor for the windows 7 guy is GemTek? if that matters.

[mike]

What network?

[rhg]

Master: Justintime, Network:CayCondo

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 8:30 PM, dev.cloudtrax.com <trac@…>wrote:

#189: Apple Connection Problems Still Exists ng354 -------------------------+-------------------------------------------------- Reporter: Chip | Owner: dfl-owner Type: bug | Status: new Priority: major | Milestone: ng-beta Component: firmware | Keywords: apple problem om2p Network_name: thanki | -------------------------+-------------------------------------------------- Comment(by mike): What network? -- Ticket URL: <http://dev.cloudtrax.com/ticket/189#comment:> dev.cloudtrax.com <http://dev.cloudtrax.com/> dev.cloudtrax.com

[bombo99]

I recently installed 12 new routers to the mesh, can you please push the r360 firmware (or the most recent version) to these new routers. Thank you

[mike]

We will release it in the next few days.

[itogav]

Replying to mike:

We will release it in the next few days.

I hope it will be ASAP as my client 9smaahjem suffer from the same symptoms with losing connection after a few minuters. and NG-360 solved all the problems I had with flintholmkollegiet. At least I haven't had any complaints the last week :-)

[bombo99]

Is there anyway for me to update the firmware of the newly added nodes from r347 to r360? The network name is eaglesnest, there are 10 nodes with r347 and 30 nodes with r360.

Thank you

[SEM-IT]

Not to be a pest but any idea what the timeline exactly for release of r360, I have a several clients returning to my site who had the disconnect problems with there apple equipment and I would like to give them a better experience when they return if possible...

Thanks

[osgraul]

Hello everyone, thank you Dev Team for all the hardwork you all do. Couple of questions related to this ticket, it seems based on the thread of replies r360 seems to be hitting all the nails on the head with this issue. We are in the process of Beta testing (3) more OM2Ps for a client that has a heavy Mac user base. If all is successful (3) will turn into (17) for this site. My questions are:

1. is r360 being pushed OTA for OM2Ps yet? or are we still doing it manually? (Sorry can't seem to tell from the thread)

2. If it is OTA, how long does it take for a site to realize it is available and begin telling all the OM2Ps to download and apply the firmware updates?

3. I'm still struggling in understand how the configuration settings work for the Firmware/Upgrade? section on cloudtrax, in order to apply this firmware manually do I need to ensure Test firmware is checked for the OM2Ps to take and apply r360?

Thanks in advance.

[mike]

We haven't pushed it out yet. Working on one wifi issue (not related to connection problems). If we don't feel we are close tomorrow, we'll put together a release with the r360 fixes for the short term while we work on the remaining wifi bug.

Yes, for OTA upgrades, you will need to turn on "test firmware" as the OM2P is still in beta.

[osgraul]

Thanks for the quick reply Mike.

One final question, regardless of what happens tomorrow, is r360 or a variant available for download so that I can manually update the firmware on my OM2Ps to correct some of the bugs? Or is it behind lock and key at this point?

Thanks again!

[shudon]

If you could push ng360 to my corporate network I'd love to see if it helps with this issue here.

[shudon]

Sorry, user is srgadmin - corporate network

[shudon]

Replying to mike:

We haven't pushed it out yet. Working on one wifi issue (not related to connection problems). If we don't feel we are close tomorrow, we'll put together a release with the r360 fixes for the short term while we work on the remaining wifi bug. Yes, for OTA upgrades, you will need to turn on "test firmware" as the OM2P is still in beta.

Any estimate on this? I have a lot of angry apple users.

[bombo99]

Any update on the r360 release? I have 10 nodes that are stuck at r347 and will not update to even the r354 release. Will these automatically upgrade to the r360 release like the remaining 30 nodes in my network or will I need to manually flash all 10 of the new nodes?

Thank you

[marek]

The reason for not publishing ng360 (or a later build) is simple: In some networks it worked very well in others it had bad side effects. We don't want to put your networks at risk until we have figured out what is going on. As you can imagine, debugging wifi problems is tricky.

However, we are going to publish a downloadable ng360 to allow you to make that decision. Once available, you can download and flash ng360 manually if you wish to do so.

[bombo99]

Is it possible for you to push an ota update of r360 to the 10 new nodes on the EAGLESNEST network? You previously pushed r360 ota to the other 30 nodes in the same network and I would like them all to be the same version. Thank you

[mike]

Done.

[shudon]

Replying to mike:

Done.

Can you also push 360 to my network- srgadmin/corporate.

[mike]

Clarification: I pushed it out to eaglesnest. I can find no network "srgadmin/corporate"

[shudon]

Replying to mike:

Clarification: I pushed it out to eaglesnest. I can find no network "srgadmin/corporate"

The site is corporate under the srgadmin account.

[mike]

Ok, upgrade should be complete within 40 minutes for "corporate".

[bombo99]

thank you very much (for eaglesnest) :)

[marek]

We are about to release the next testing version and would like to ensure it works as well as ng360. Are there any volunteers for testing ng375/ng376 ? We'd push it OTA to your network. Expect no new features - just more fixes.

Thanks

[bombo99]

I would be willing to test it on the eaglesnest network. Thank you

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 2:10 PM, dev.cloudtrax.com <trac@…>wrote:

#189: Apple Connection Problems Still Exists ng354 -------------------------+-------------------------------------------------- Reporter: Chip | Owner: dfl-owner Type: bug | Status: new Priority: major | Milestone: ng-beta Component: firmware | Keywords: apple problem om2p Network_name: thanki | -------------------------+-------------------------------------------------- Comment(by marek): We are about to release the next testing version and would like to ensure it works as well as ng360. Are there any volunteers for testing ng375/ng376 ? We'd push it OTA to your network. Expect no new features - just more fixes. Thanks -- Ticket URL: <http://dev.cloudtrax.com/ticket/189#comment:73> dev.cloudtrax.com <http://dev.cloudtrax.com/> dev.cloudtrax.com

[mike]

It should upgrade in the next 40 minutes or so. Let me know if all looks ok. Thanks!

[bombo99]

Looks like it was pushed to all nodes. I'll report any connection issues. Thank you.

Replying to mike:

It should upgrade in the next 40 minutes or so. Let me know if all looks ok. Thanks!

[shanus]

I would be willing to test it on the "Harpsneck" network. We are experience terrible connection issues with no android, iOS, or OS X device able to connect with firmware ng354. They get a radio connection but never get a valid ip address on either SSID 1 or SSID 2. SSID 2 has wpa and SSID 1 is open.

[mike]

I have set harpsneck to upgrade. Let us know your testing results. It should be upgraded in about 45 minutes.

[scapshaw]

I would be willing to test on the "murrieta hot springs" network

[western592]

I would like to test the upgrade on the "charleswood" network. We primarily have Apple computers and devices on this network.

[mike]

I just looked and harpsneck is all MR500 and OM1Ps. The connection problem changes are OM2P specific. We don't have other connection issue reports on these devices, so whatever is happening there is most likely unrelated.

[mike]

Charleswood is MR500s. The changes made so far are OM2P specific. There will be a roaming improvement coming out soon in a future build. Do you see problems initially connecting or drops?

[mike]

I set murrieta hot springs to upgrade. But you have one node running r263. You will probably need to manually flash it to 299 or later or temporarily remove it from the cloud controller for the upgrade to start.

[western592]

I am seeing issues where the wireless connection stays active, but the network traffic is effectively stopped. When I disconnect the wireless connection and reconnect, the connection returns to normal.

[mike]

Sorry, my mistake. The older node is an MR500 so it will upgrade fine. You do not need to reflash or remove it.

[shanus]

ng376 cleared the problems on 'Harpsneck' , iOS, android and Mac OX clients are now able to connect.

[SEM-IT]

I would be willing to test the upgrade on SEM-WLAN1 all nodes are on r254 and online and although we don't have issues with all of the apple hardware, I still get some guests that have a serious problem with disconnects. Since I do have guests online I hope it is possible push out this upgrade between 9:00PM MST (now) & 6:00AM MST otherwise I will hold off until it is available OTA.

Thanks

[deniz]

I've had r354 on a single OM2P node network. I had no issues so far with connectivity problems. However, since a dashboard change today (changed the SSID#1 speed) connections get dropped frequently on SSID#2 (Macbook + imap) or I get network timeouts during the authentication process. I haven't tested SSID#1.

Can you please put that network also onto the tester list? I assume the WIFI driver patch will fix it, but it's weird though that it has been running fine until the dashboard upgrade today.

The network is called "00-juliette"

Thanks

[deniz]

Replying to deniz:

I've had r354 on a single OM2P node network. I had no issues so far with connectivity problems. However, since a dashboard change today (changed the SSID#1 speed) connections get dropped frequently on SSID#2 (Macbook + imap) or I get network timeouts during the authentication process. I haven't tested SSID#1.

It seems to have settled down again, and I can stay connected to SSID#2 with both Macbooks and iphone4S. Not sure what caused it to behave, all I've done was a few "save network settings" and logging into SSID#1. Sorry about the vague symptom description...

But would be great if you could update it to the latest testing release anyway. Thanks!

[deniz]

Marek or Mike,

Any chance you can push it onto the network today? network name: 00-juliette

Thanks.

[bjeung]

Mind pushing the update to network BNP?

Thanks

[marek]

ng376 is available in testing now. You can upgrade your networks whenever you wish to do so.