Belkin RT3200: iPhone 11 frequently loses connectivity

darksky · February 27, 2022, 9:24am

I have an iPhone 11 that frequently loses WiFi connectivity from my RT3200 configured as a dumb AP. Other devices do not experience this (newer and older iOS devices, miscellaneous laptops, etc).

This RT3200 is running a snapshot I complied a few days ago, but the losing connectivity has been pretty constant ever since I switched to using the RT3200. Prior to the RT3200, I was using a Netgear R7800 and I did not experience these disconnects on this particular iPhone 11.

Here is an example output from logread with time stamps that correspond to the disconnection:

Sun Feb 27 08:02:45 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:02:45 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Sun Feb 27 08:02:47 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)

At the time that occurred, the screen was on, and I was using the phone. I noticed the WiFi symbol change to LTE. The behavior stabilized a bit but came back about 15 minutes later as you can see in the more complete logread output:

more complete logread output

Sun Feb 27 07:34:35 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 2)
Sun Feb 27 07:34:35 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-CONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 07:34:35 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Sun Feb 27 07:34:35 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:02:45 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:02:45 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Sun Feb 27 08:02:47 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)
Sun Feb 27 08:08:14 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 2)
Sun Feb 27 08:08:14 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-CONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:08:14 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Sun Feb 27 08:08:14 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:08:30 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:08:30 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Sun Feb 27 08:08:31 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)
Sun Feb 27 08:09:07 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Sun Feb 27 08:09:07 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 2)
Sun Feb 27 08:09:07 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-CONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:09:07 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Sun Feb 27 08:09:07 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:10:30 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:10:30 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Sun Feb 27 08:10:31 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)
Sun Feb 27 08:15:39 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Sun Feb 27 08:15:39 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 2)
Sun Feb 27 08:15:39 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-CONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:15:39 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Sun Feb 27 08:15:39 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:30:27 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:30:27 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Sun Feb 27 08:30:28 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)
Sun Feb 27 09:34:50 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 3)
Sun Feb 27 09:34:50 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1: AP-STA-CONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 09:34:50 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA xx:xx:xx WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Sun Feb 27 09:34:50 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED xx:xx:xx

/etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path 'platform/18000000.wmac'
	option channel '1'
	option band '2g'
	option htmode 'HT20'
	option disabled '1'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path '1a143000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
	option band '5g'
	option country 'US'
	option beacon_int '101'
	option cell_density '1'
	option htmode 'HE80'
	option channel '149'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet2'
	option device 'radio1'
	option mode 'ap'
	option encryption 'sae'
	option dtim_period '3'
	option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'
	option ssid 'name'
	option key 'xxx'
	option ieee80211w '2'
	option network 'lan'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet3'
	option device 'radio1'
	option mode 'ap'
	option encryption 'sae-mixed'
	option dtim_period '3'
	option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'
	option ssid 'guestname'
	option key 'xxx'
	option ieee80211w '2'
	option network 'guest'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet4'
	option device 'radio1'
	option mode 'ap'
	option dtim_period '3'
	option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'
	option ssid 'anothername'
	option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
	option key 'xxx'
	option ieee80211w '1'
	option disabled '1'

Finding this wiki page, I tried applying option disassoc_low_ack '0' to all the wi-fi interfaces. In doing so, I found that an iPhone 13 began experiencing the same wifi dropping so I removed those lines.

Instead, I disabled cell density coverage option cell_density '0' and am testing that out.

darksky · May 10, 2022, 7:45am

An update: I just built from master pulling in the PR to update the kernel to 5.15.38 (previously on 5.10.113 from about 2 weeks ago). I have not experienced this yet. Not sure what change/changes to credit to it.

# logread| grep DEAUTH | wc -l
0

Anteus · May 10, 2022, 8:15am

Havn't noticed much but I have three DEAUTH over 13h but for three different devices on the rc-snapshot r19338.

darksky · November 12, 2022, 10:57am

I should update this. No issues except with a recent macbook pro (only seeing the message in logread output, never experiencing loss of connectivity on the device itself). iPhone 13, newer and older iPads seem fine.

/etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path 'platform/18000000.wmac'
	option channel '1'
	option band '2g'
	option htmode 'HT20'
	option cell_density '0'
	option disabled '1'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path '1a143000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
	option band '5g'
	option beacon_int '101'
	option country 'US'
	option htmode 'HE80'
	option channel '149'
	option txpower '25'
	option he_bss_color '8'
	option he_su_beamformee '1'
	option cell_density '2'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet2'
	option device 'radio1'
	option network 'lan'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'ssidname'
	option encryption 'sae'
	option key 'mypassword'
	option dtim_period '3'
	option ieee80211w '2'
	option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'

Lynx · November 12, 2022, 12:06pm

I see lots of these:

 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)

using 22.03.2 on three RT3200's - one as router and remaining two as AP's connected to router via WDS and all provide 2.4 and 5 GHz AP's and FT enabled across all.

And my wife complains a lot about her iPhone 11 losing WiFi conneciton and her having to manually restart WiFi on her phone.

No issues with my Pixel 3a or other devices that I am aware of.

Pico · November 12, 2022, 12:15pm

did you by chance reuse the exact same SSID/Wifi settings on the new access point device? If yes and if facing annoying WiFi issues on migrated WiFi clients, I would recommend, to try a onetime-reset of the IOS network settings on iOS client devices that had previously connected to the old AP with the same settings
The chance is not very high that it solves the problem, but it is not zero and an attempt to try does not cause lots of effort.

Lynx · November 12, 2022, 12:22pm

Nice idea - I'll try.

darksky · November 12, 2022, 12:56pm

No, I changed the SSIDs/passwords.

Lynx · December 7, 2022, 11:09am

@darksky my wife had another go at me today that her iPhone 11 has WiFi issues (as in she picks it up after period of non use and has to reconnect to WiFi to get it to work, but she is often just relying upon 4G which eats up her data allowance).

What's the fix? We presently have 22.03.2 on 3x RT3200's.

I haven't tried the network reset idea yet.

Gingernut · December 7, 2022, 11:16am

Have you tried lowering the DTIM interval from default 2 to 1 on the AP?

Lynx · December 7, 2022, 12:00pm

I have not. But I thought Apple suggest 3?

Gingernut · December 7, 2022, 5:06pm

3 it to let it save a little more battery

darksky · December 7, 2022, 6:58pm

I've read some Apple articles wherein they recommend a value of 3. Can't find the reference. @Lynx we upgraded our devices to 13s and have not experienced the similar issues. Can't help you.

For reference, these settings work well:

config wifi-device 'radio1'
  option type 'mac80211'
  option path 'xxx'
  option channel '149'
  option band '5g'
  option country 'US'
  option cell_density '2'
  option beacon_int '101'
  option he_bss_color '8'
  option he_su_beamformee '1'
  option htmode 'HE80'
  option txpower '24'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet2'
  option device 'radio1'
  option mode 'ap'
  option network 'lan'
  option ssid 'my-ssid-name'
  option encryption 'sae-mixed'
  option key 'secret'
  option dtim_period '3'
  option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'
  option ieee80211w '2'

Pico · December 7, 2022, 7:33pm

this one claims 1-3 as decent range:
https://routerguide.net/dtim-interval-period-best-setting/

Does onyone know the default value of OpenWRT for bacon-int and dtim, if not set implicit via config?
Luci shows bacon 100 and dtim 2 as example field text, but that maybe does not mean that this would be the default values

Gingernut · December 7, 2022, 9:37pm

Beacon 100 and DTIM 2 is OpenWRT default.

Lynx · December 10, 2022, 9:00pm

What does this do? And why '2'?

And why this?