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Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

PBrou
Aspirant

Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

I have two WAC120 devices. Since the fix on the security vulnerability with WPA2 (firmware 2.1.5) and the updates on our Android and iOS devices I can only use my access points during a few hours/days. Unless I reboot them constantly, they refuse to authenticate on the WIFI (5Ghz NG WPA2) with as error message "wrong password" although the password is perfectly correct.

Both of my devices have exactly the same issue ( one bought in August 2015, another one in May 2016 ).
With the previous release 2.1.4 my devices were finally running reasonably stable but now they have become totally unusable.
Does anybody have the same issue? Does someone has a solution for this issue?  

Thanks for posting your suggestions.

Kind regards,
Mr. P. Broucke

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 1 of 14

Accepted Solutions
PBrou
Aspirant

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

With the following combination the issue currently does not occur anymore:

- factory reset + installation of the initial firmware followed by the installation of the 2.0.5 one and afterwards of the latest 2.1.5. 

- disabled band steering to 5GHz
- disabled the QoS WMM

- latest iOS updates on all devices ( was one without a WPA2 fix triggering the issue.. ? )

Please note that I have no real proof that band steering or QoS is the problem. I will do some further tests over time..
Thanks for the great assistance by the Netgear community Smiley Very Happy
PBrou

View solution in original post

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 6 of 14

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DaneA
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

Hi @PBrou,

 

Welcome to the community! 🙂 

 

Let us isolate the problem.  Kindly answer the questions below.

 

a. Are there any other access points nearby within the area where the WAC120 is deployed?

b. How is the WAC120 deployed?  Is it mounted on the ceiling or in a side-wall? Is it on top of a shelf? 

c. How high is the WAC120 from the floor?

d. Kindly try to unsecure both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless networks configured on the WAC120.  Are you able to go online wirelessly just fine on any wireless device like laptop/s or android mobile phone/s if the 2.4GHz and 5GHz  wireless networks are unsecured?

e. Have you tried changing the wireless channel on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz  wireless networks? 

f. Did you perform a factory reset on the WAC120 after you have upgraded the firmware to v2.1.5?  It is recommended to reset the access point back to factory default settings after doing a firmware upgrade then reconfigure it from scratch in order to start clean using the latest firmware version.

 

I look forward to your response.

 

 

Regards,

 

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

Message 2 of 14
PBrou
Aspirant

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

Please find my answers below:
a. Are there any other access points nearby within the area where the WAC120 is deployed?
There is approx. 7 meters between the different access points ( 2 WAC120's and one in my xDSL modem/router).

b. How is the WAC120 deployed?  Is it mounted on the ceiling or in a side-wall? Is it on top of a shelf? 
It is currently standing on the ground (one on the ground floor and one on the floor at the attic)

c. How high is the WAC120 from the floor?
0 cm, it's on the floor in both cases.

d. Kindly try to unsecure both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless networks configured on the WAC120.  Are you able to go online wirelessly just fine on any wireless device like laptop/s or android mobile phone/s if the 2.4GHz and 5GHz  wireless networks are unsecured?
When running as open network is seemed fine.

e. Have you tried changing the wireless channel on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz  wireless networks? 
Currently they are both / all in auto-channel mode but normally I optimize them manually.

f. Did you perform a factory reset on the WAC120 after you have upgraded the firmware to v2.1.5?  It is recommended to reset the access point back to factory default settings after doing a firmware upgrade then reconfigure it from scratch in order to start clean using the latest firmware version.
Because of the issue I did a full, clean install on them:
- factory reset
- installation of the initial firmware
- installation of the 2.0.5 one

- installation of the 2.1.5

Currently I have changed a number of settings:

- I de-activated the band steering to 5GHz because I saw a lot of log entries with the same time-stamp (not sure it is/was problematic)
- I disabled the QoS WMM (not sure that my mobile devices are tagging the traffic correctly so not sure anyway if it is useful)
The access points are now running again stable for 2 days. As soon as it fails again I will configure it as open network as you suggest (d).
Note that I use a lot fixed IP addresses for my mobile devices ( static IP-Mac address linking in my xDSL modem/router) and they are attached via a fixed UTP cable to my central switch.
Thanks for your swift reaction! I will keep you posted.

 

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 3 of 14
RaghuHR
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

Please share your AP configuration once you see the issue.

 

Thanks

Raghu

Message 4 of 14
RaghuHR
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

@PBrou Just wanted to follow-up on this. Are you seeing issue still? Kindly share your feedback on this. If everything is fine I request you to close this thread by clicking "Accept as a solution"button.

 

Thanks

Raghu

Message 5 of 14
PBrou
Aspirant

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

With the following combination the issue currently does not occur anymore:

- factory reset + installation of the initial firmware followed by the installation of the 2.0.5 one and afterwards of the latest 2.1.5. 

- disabled band steering to 5GHz
- disabled the QoS WMM

- latest iOS updates on all devices ( was one without a WPA2 fix triggering the issue.. ? )

Please note that I have no real proof that band steering or QoS is the problem. I will do some further tests over time..
Thanks for the great assistance by the Netgear community Smiley Very Happy
PBrou

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 6 of 14
PBrou
Aspirant

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

The problem is appearing again!
In attach details from my logging.

Switching to OPEN instead of WPA2 did not help, only rebooting (from admin UI) helped.
It would be great to have some assistance on the interpretation of the log file.

The issue is only appearing on the 5GHZ 11AC, not on the 2.4GHZ.

 

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 7 of 14
DaneA
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

@PBrou,

 

I suggest you to update the firmware of your WAC120 to v2.1.6.  You can download firmware v2.1.6 here.  Be reminded to perform a factory reset on the WAC120 after upgrading the firmware then reconfigure the setting from scratch in order to start clean using the latest firmware version.  Then, observe if the same problem occurs. 

 

 

Regards,

 

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

Message 8 of 14
PBrou
Aspirant

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

I have installed firmware 2.1.6 on one of my WAC120 devices with your instructions ( upgrade > factory defaults reset > reconfigure ).

I am running with the 5Ghz steering on and fixed channels on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.
After +/- 1 day the issue is unfortunately reappearing, only on the 5Ghz 11ac.

I will try two things: 

1) configuring a syslog server so I can keep a much longer & complete log history
2) deactivate the steering to 5Ghz - I have the impression the WAC120 is trying hard to negotiate with the client device(s) to switch to 5Ghz but that my iOS devices only change for example when they wake up from a sleeping mode - maybe normal?

Kind regards,

PBrou

 

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 9 of 14
RaghuHR
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

Is it possible to share your WAC120 configuration? We will check and update.

 

Thanks

Raghu

Message 10 of 14
PBrou
Aspirant

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

Please find my configuration of WAC120-1 in attach (as PDF).

WAC120-1 (on firmware 2.1.6) is running on address 192.168.1.253.

WAC120-2 (still on firmware 2.1.5) is running on 192.168.1.251.

The loggings & configuration are about thee WAC120-1 on firmware 2.1.6.

Both WAC's are connected on a Netgear 116GS switch.

Don't hesitate to ask if you require additional information or change of configuration to test.
Thanks in advance for your support.
PBrou

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 11 of 14
RaghuHR
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

Thanks. Can you disable bandsteering and check? 

The following print comes in the log only when band-steering is enabled

"kernel:***<wlan_band_steering_sta_connect_5GHz:657>:status<2>****"

 

Thanks

Raghu

 

Message 12 of 14
RaghuHR
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

@PBrou Have you had a chance test by disabling band steering? Please share your feedback

 

Thanks

Raghu

Message 13 of 14
PBrou
Aspirant

Re: Unable to authenticate after some time on WAC120 (wrong password on WPA2 ) with firmware 2.1.5

Hi,

 

I have been running one WAC120 device now during 3 days till it stopped working correctly:

- without the 5Ghz steering

- logging everything on a rsyslog server

 

What I observed is that the activity led (green - ethernet traffic) and the wifi led (green) were gradually more and more, increasingly active (without really having more traffic being "generated") till nearly constantly green when the device finally did not respond anymore with the following effects at the end:

- wrong password error on 5Ghz 11ac (gives me the impression of a timing error, or not getting enough processor time; kind of traffic storm not giving enough bandwidth for the device)

- nearly no traffic / slow on the 2.4Ghz 11ng

 

The last hours of the 3rd day I was using airplay for +/- 5 hours, not sure if this accelerated the kind-of-crash.

I have the impression - this is only an impression - that there is some kind of increasing traffic storm, broadcast storm, loop, or something that is gradually increasing the load on the device. And would the wrong password error not be the result of some timing error because of the huge load?

 

Anyway, in attach you can find the complete logging (quite big) of these 3 days.

I hope you are able to see something strange in the log files.

Meanwhile I will try to check the other traffic on my switch.

Model: WAC120|SOHO 802.11ac Gigabit Wireless Access Point
Message 14 of 14
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