Issues with hostapd & windows client

[S Lang]

I still haven't solved my earlier issues...  But I was helping setup a 
friend's wireless network with an off the shelf wireless AP, and I noticed 
it went a little different.

Right now I'm using the configuration from 
http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/HostAP, with the SSID and passphrase 
changed, and wpa_pairwise as just TKIP or CCMP (I've tried both ways).

With my friend's network, I set the passphrase on the AP, then in Windows 
(XP SP2) was able to click on the network, and have it prompt for the 
passphrase.  I entered the passphrase, and it was online.

With my network, I try the same thing.  Same length passphrase.  Only, 
with my network, Windows tells me it needs to be 5 or 13 ascii characters 
or 10 or 26 hex characters.  (Not between 5 and 13 or 10 and 26, it must 
be exactly.)

If I make the passphrase 13 characters long, I get from hostapd:

Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20
ath0: STA 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 IEEE 802.11: associated
   New STA
Failed to parse WPA/RSN IE from 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 (res=-2)
WPA/RSN IE - hexdump(len=194): 1f c0 00 00 00 00 1d 00 00 00 01 00 02 00 
86 02 00 00 bb be 1f c0 01 00 00 00 08 f4 0a ed 96 02 00 00 91 ff ff 00 44 
3e 73 db 09 00 00 00 08 f4 0a ed 86 02 00 00 7d fc 11 00 fc 3d 73 db 45 b3 
43 45 e0 ca 0e 23 00 ca 9a 3b 00 26 80 f7 6c 8a 0f f7 91 ff ff ff 14 49 5e 
f6 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 30 b0 ee f7 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 49 5e f6 30 
b0 ee f7 c0 f3 12 c0 44 3e 73 db 44 3e 73 db b1 3e 73 db ff ff ff ff b4 3d 
73 db 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 9d 0f 00 00 0a 00 00 
00 0a 00 00 00
WPA/RSN information element rejected? (res 1)
Data frame from not associated STA 00:90:96:92:c2:e4
Data frame from not associated STA 00:90:96:92:c2:e4
Data frame from not associated STA 00:90:96:92:c2:e4
Wireless event: cmd=0x8c04 len=20
ath0: STA 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
ath0: STA 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 WPA: event 2 notification
madwifi_del_key: addr=00:90:96:92:c2:e4 key_idx=0
ioctl[IEEE80211_IOCTL_DELKEY]: Invalid argument
WPA: 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 WPA_PTK entering state DISCONNECTED

(Entered the passphrase for Windows here)

WPA: 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE
madwifi_del_key: addr=00:90:96:92:c2:e4 key_idx=0
ioctl[IEEE80211_IOCTL_DELKEY]: Invalid argument
Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20
ath0: STA 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 IEEE 802.11: associated
   New STA
Failed to parse WPA/RSN IE from 00:90:96:92:c2:e4 (res=-2)
WPA/RSN IE - hexdump(len=194): 1f c0 00 00 00 00 1d 00 00 00 01 00 02 00 
86 02 00 00 bb be 1f c0 01 00 00 00 08 f4 0a ed 96 02 00 00 00 01 00 00 80 
c9 5d f6 09 00 00 00 08 f4 0a ed 86 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 40 70 c1 00 dd 
31 c0 30 b0 ee f7 00 00 00 00 30 b0 ee f7 40 1e 66 f6 c8 7f 36 c0 75 ae 2c 
c0 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 30 b0 ee f7 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 30 
b0 ee f7 c0 f3 12 c0 44 3e 73 db 44 3e 73 db 7c 3e 73 db 30 b0 ee f7 b4 3d 
73 db 58 3e 73 db 58 3e 73 db b0 40 12 c0 01 00 00 00 9d 0f 00 00 0a 00 00 
00 0a 00 00 00
WPA/RSN information element rejected? (res 1)


If I try and configure the WPA passphrase directly for the network in 
Windows instead of waiting to be prompted for it, I see absolutely no 
debug output from hostapd when it tries to connect.  The same thing 
happens if I try using a wpa_psk of the appropriate length instead of a 
wpa_passphrase.

The fact that the passphrase prompt behaves differently for my network 
than for my friends network makes me wonder if there's a configuration 
setting that could fix it.


For the record, I'm using madwifi-ng 0.9.2 and have tried hostapd 4.7, 5.3 
and 5.5.  Both the Windows client and my AP host use atheros A/B/G 
chips.  It works fine with WEP or no security at all.  It also works 
fine as a client with no security.  (I don't have an AP I can try WPA 
with.)