HostAP WEP problem?

[Joseph Chiu]

Hi,

I apologize in advance if this has been covered, and for such a long
message.  I've tried to google/search the archives, but I haven't seen this
behavior mentioned anywhere else.  (I don't think the problem related to the
"reauthentication after WEP change" described around Dec. '02.)

I've spent about a week trying to track down a terrible performance problem,
and I think I've got it boiled down to a point where I now have to ask the
list...

When I first turn load hostap and hostapd to run as AP with no WEP, I get
very good performance -- about 5 Mbit/sec.  Generally, the bit rate is 11
Mbit/sec or 5.5 Mbit/sec.

BUT, when I try to turn on WEP using "iwconfig wlan0 key s:blahblah", the
performance drops to an abysmal 200 Kbit/sec or so.   Generally, the bit
rate is 1 Mbit/sec when this happens.

Even when I then attempt turn off the WEP with "iwconfig wlan0 key off", the
terrible performance continues.  The only way to clear the problem, it
seems, is to power cycle the AP computer and also reset the client station
computer.

Just rebooting the AP doesn't seem to clear the problem, and the bit rate
remains at 1 Mbit/sec.

I've included the dmesg from the AP computer -- you can see that initially,
the AP was generally choosing 110 or 55 rate, and after the attempt to turn
on the WEP key, the rate drops to 10.

Some details -- I am running HostAP 2002-10-12, configured to use hostapd.
It is compiled against Linux 2.4.18-mips with wireless extension patched up
to version 15.  I am running on a embedded board with about 260 MIPS of
processing power (yes, much slower than a P4 2 GHz, but certainly more than
comparable to a P-133 that I see some people seem to run HostAP with).  This
is running against a Bromax WM-302 card which is based on Prism 3 and runs
STA firmware 1.4.2.  I prism2_srec load STA 1.4.9 for my test.

Many thanks and appreciations!

Joseph
-----Original Message-----
hostap_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
hostap_crypt: registered algorithm 'WEP'
hostap_cs: hostap_cs.c 0.0.0 2002-10-12 (SSH Communications Security Corp,
Jouni Malinen)
hostap_cs: (c) Jouni Malinen <jkmaline at cc.hut.fi>
hostap_cs: setting Vcc=33 (constant)
hostap_cs: CS_EVENT_CARD_INSERTION
prism2_config()
hostap_cs: setting Vcc=33 (from config)
Checking CFTABLE_ENTRY 0x01 (default 0x01)
IO window settings: cfg->io.nwin=1 dflt.io.nwin=1
io->flags = 0x0046, io.base=0x0000, len=64
hostap_cs: index 0x01: Vcc 3.3, irq 44, io 0x0000-0xc0000000
hostap_cs: Registered netdevice wlan0
hostap_cs: Registered netdevice wlan0ap for AP management
prism2_hw_init()
prism2_hw_config: initialized in 18748 iterations
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x007f0000: OK
wlan0: NIC: id=0x801a v1.0.0
wlan0: PRI: id=0x15 v1.1.0
wlan0: STA: id=0x1f v1.4.9
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
prism2_download: dl_cmd=1 start_addr=0x003f0c01 num_areas=3
  area 0: addr=0x007e1800 len=47514 ptr=0x1001f000
  area 1: addr=0x007f0800 len=4214 ptr=0x1001d000
  area 2: addr=0x007fe000 len=3304 ptr=0x10011000
prism2_hw_init()
prism2_hw_config: initialized in 7994 iterations
wlan0: Writing 47514 bytes at 0x007e1800
wlan0: Writing 4214 bytes at 0x007f0800
wlan0: Writing 3304 bytes at 0x007fe000
prism2_hw_init()
prism2_hw_config: initialized in 3175 iterations
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x007f0000: OK
wlan0: NIC: id=0x801a v1.0.0
wlan0: PRI: id=0x15 v1.1.0
wlan0: STA: id=0x1f v1.4.9
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: prism2_open
VLAN REGISTER:  Allocated new group.
eth1.4088: add 01:00:5e:00:00:01 mcast address to master interface
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0ap: prism2_open
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0ap: hfa384x_setup_bap - timeout after
wlan0ap: prism2_tx_80211 - to BAP0 failed
wlan0: scheduled card reset
hostap_cs: wlan0: resetting card
prism2_pccard_cor_sreset: original COR 41
prism2_hw_init()
prism2_hw_config: initialized in 18969 iterations
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x007f0000: OK
eth1: link up
eth0: link up
eth0: going to full duplex
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 55
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate raised to 110
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 55
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 20
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 55
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
wlan0: hfa384x_cmd: entry still in list? (entry=802117e0, type=0, res=0)
wlan0: hfa384x_cmd: command was not completed (res=0, entry=802117e0,
type=0, cmd=0x0002, param0=0x0000)
set_encryption or reset_port failed
wlan0: hfa384x_cmd: entry still in list? (entry=802117e0, type=0, res=0)
wlan0: hfa384x_cmd: command was not completed (res=0, entry=802117e0,
type=0, cmd=0x0021, param0=0xfc28)
wlan0: hfa384x_get_rid: CMDCODE_ACCESS failed (res=-145, rid=fc28, len=2)
Could not read current WEP flags.
wlan0: encryption setup failed
set_encryption or reset_port failed
wlan0: hfa384x_cmd_issue: cmd reg was busy for 1000 usec
wlan0: hfa384x_cmd_issue - timeout - reg=0x8a32
wlan0: prism2_transmit: CMDCODE_TRANSMIT failed (res=-145)
wlan0: prism2_tx - to BAP0 failed
wlan0: scheduled card reset
hostap_cs: wlan0: resetting card
prism2_pccard_cor_sreset: original COR 41
prism2_hw_init()
prism2_hw_config: initialized in 18592 iterations
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x007f0000: OK
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 20
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 55
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 20
wlan0: STA 00:40:05:de:39:55 TX rate lowered to 10
wlan0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)