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ghost cells appear on WiFi network


coverup
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Hi there,

 

I am having a strange problem while connecting to Dlink 624+ router using Intel 2100 3B miniPCI card and linuxant driverloader. The router is configured with SSID broadcast disabled. Each time, after the connection is established, a "ghost" cell appears on the net. That cell has the same ESSID as my network and is clearly visible, despite the SSID broadcast is disabled. Also the cell suggests that encryption key is off turned off (which is a lie:-). In other words, the scan shows something like this:

 

The laptop starts with eth1 interface down. At this stage, before eth1 is up, only 1 cell is available, ESSID is hidden, as should be:

 

[root@host homedir]# iwlist eth1 scan

eth1 Scan completed :

Cell 01 - Address: 00:11:22:33:44:55

ESSID:""

Mode:Managed

Frequency:2.437GHz

Quality:1/1 Signal level:-35 dBm Noise level:-200 dBm

Encryption key:on

Bit Rate:1Mb/s

Bit Rate:2Mb/s

Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s

Bit Rate:11Mb/s

Bit Rate:22Mb/s

Extra:bcn_int=100

 

Now, after running ifup eth1 and connecting to the router, I see this

 

[root@host homedir]# iwlist eth1 scan

eth1 Scan completed :

Cell 01 - Address: 00:11:22:33:44:55

ESSID:""

Mode:Managed

Frequency:2.437GHz

Quality:1/1 Signal level:-35 dBm Noise level:-200 dBm

Encryption key:on

Bit Rate:1Mb/s

Bit Rate:2Mb/s

Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s

Bit Rate:11Mb/s

Bit Rate:22Mb/s

Extra:bcn_int=100

Cell 02 - Address: 00:11:22:33:44:55

ESSID:"MyEssid"

Mode:Auto

Frequency:2.407GHz

Quality:1/1 Signal level:-35 dBm Noise level:-200 dBm

Encryption key:off

Extra:bcn_int=0

 

My question is why do I see this second cell? My worry is that this cell discloses the hidden SSID....

 

Both cells have the same MAC address, so one might think that it's the router who is misbehaving. However, after reboot the second cell disappears. But once it's there, turning eth1 off and on does not make any difference . A similar thing happens in Windows, so it's not an OS related but a rather driver related bug.

 

Did anybody come accross anything similar? Dlink support reckons it's a card related issue, but I want to know for sure.

 

Cheers

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I've got a DL-524 and noticed the same thing on mine last night, except, I have mine set up to broadcast ID and when I turn off my linux box, It still shows up, but is just represented by a blank where ID should be (mac address is same, etc.) I'm not too worried about my situation tho, since I never turn my Linux box off, and If anyone is near enough to pick up on my wireless router, they'd have to be in my yard, The reason I noticed it was because I was setting up my box to accept a static IP (recently broke down and paid the extra $10) and it wouldn't let go of the IP and registered mac.

 

If you get any resolution from D-Link, I'd like to hear about it, as I'm probably not going to research it for myself :D

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Thanks kmc77, :thanks:

 

I've got a DL-524 and noticed the same thing on mine last night, except, I have mine set up to broadcast ID and when I turn off my linux box, It still shows up, but is just represented by a blank where ID should be (mac address is same, etc.)

 

That is exactly what I see - once I turn broadcast back on, the two cells are still there, one with a blank SSID "", and another with "MyEssid"

 

and when I turn off my linux box, It still shows up,

Are you saying that you continue to see two cells (presumably on other box) even after the recevier box is turned off? This is an important detail, as it unambiguously points out that the fault is related to the router, rather than the laptop card! Would you mind to confirm this for me? Will it be too much of asking you to try to experiment for a half an hour and report the results back please :D ? I really want to know :wall: . If it's a router, I will simply exchange it to another make, but if it's a card, I'd better switch back to wired...

 

By the way, Dlink support did not have a clue why could that happen and blamed Windows (since I have the same problem with Win, I did not even mention Linux).

 

:thanks::thanks::thanks:

Edited by coverup
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