Trouble with 128 virtual stations trying to associate without WPA.

[Ben Greear]

I notice that our system has trouble trying to associate
128 (or similar numbers) of un-authenticated stations.  It
works fine with WPA, for whatever reason.

I'm suspicious there is some bad feedback loop.  About 50 or so stations
are un-associated...they get a scan result, and all try to associate.

I see the events noting they go associated, but then shortly after,
they all dis-associate for reason code 2.

On the AP, I see logs like this:

1320369114.124177: hostapd_ht_operation_update new operation mode=0x4 changes=0
1320369114.144319: mgmt::auth
1320369114.144399: authentication: STA=00:0e:8e:00:00:3a auth_alg=0 auth_transaction=1 status_code=0 wep=0
1320369114.144441:   New STA
1320369114.144523: 1320369114.144551: 1320369114.144573: 1320369114.144582: authentication reply: STA=00:0e:8e:00:00:3a auth_alg=0 auth_transaction=2 resp=0 (IE 
len=0)
1320369114.145356: mgmt::auth cb
1320369114.145445: 1320369114.171736: vap0: mgmt::deauth
1320369114.171859: vap0: deauthentication: STA=00:0e:8e:00:00:39 reason_code=2
1320369114.171903: vap0: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED 00:0e:8e:00:00:39
1320369114.171944: 1320369114.171969: 1320369114.171989: 1320369114.172173: hostapd_ht_operation_update current operation mode=0x4
1320369114.172253: hostapd_ht_operation_update new operation mode=0x4 changes=0
1320369114.172864: mgmt::auth
1320369114.172943: authentication: STA=00:0e:8e:00:00:39 auth_alg=0 auth_transaction=1 status_code=0 wep=0
1320369114.172987:   New STA
1320369114.173060: 1320369114.173083: 1320369114.173104: 1320369114.173113: authentication reply: STA=00:0e:8e:00:00:39 auth_alg=0 auth_transaction=2 resp=0 (IE 
len=0)
1320369114.173451: mgmt::auth cb
1320369114.173532: 1320369114.200985: vap0: mgmt::deauth
1320369114.201076: vap0: deauthentication: STA=00:0e:8e:00:00:38 reason_code=2
1320369114.201120: vap0: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED 00:0e:8e:00:00:38
1320369114.201164: 1320369114.201196: 1320369114.201218: 1320369114.201386: hostapd_ht_operation_update current operation mode=0x4


I'm wondering if the de-auth that the AP sends gets to the station after
they think they have re-authenticated, and causing the station to again de-auth,
and start the whole loop over again, or something like that?

Any ideas for debugging this further is welcome.

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb at candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com