[driverloader] ghost cells with ssid broadcast disabled

coverup coverup coverup_coverup at yahoo.com.au
Sat Jan 8 00:13:35 EST 2005


Hi there,

I am having a strange problem while connecting to
Dlink 624+ router using Intel 2100 3B miniPCI card.
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:

Before eth1 is up, only 1 cell is available, ESSID is
hidden, as should be: 

[root at 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, I see this

[root at 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 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.
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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