Alfa Tube 2HP w/ OpenWrt won't connect to a hotspot (4-Way Handshake Failed) while my laptop will connect to hotspot

[lleachii]

@wifiatsea, welcome to the communioty!

Just an FYI:

@wifiatsea

I know the key (wifi password?) works because I use it on my laptop and smartphone. In any event, I think they're talking about a pre-shared key, which I understand is different than the hotspot password.

To clear up what you do and do not have:

@lleachii

A passphrase is just the ASCII representation (63 characters) of the REAL Hex key (null + the 63 hexes of the characters.

The key itself is rarely seen or used by the human user - unless you're hacking.

(BTW, theft of service is a crime in most US jurisdictions...so if you're referring to agreeing to their terms of service on a captive portal page...or their ISP's, beware.)

And yes, they could be block MACs that are commonly routers and network devices (e.g. one could safely exclude let's say Juniper or Cisco MACs). They could also exclude you by seeing differing TTLs on the packets (meaning some passed a router ).

@wifiatsea

Is there a way to adjust the handshake timeout?

No, unless you control the cafe's WiFi and can flash firmware that had such an incompatible (and maybe illegal) setting.