Client mode connection to hidden SSID

Installing and Using OpenWrt
21

I'm running FreshTomato on the R8000 and have avoided using OpenWrt due to speed issues reported here Nighthawk R8000 Throughput Speed Issues

I did restore the R8000 to stock firmware and it works fine with hidden SSID so the issue is with FreshTomato and how it handles the hidden SSID

I will log this fault with the FreshTomato developer but there still should be a way to force OpenWrt to connect using WPA_Supplicant :woman_shrugging:

22

It's a bit of a weird expectation to want OpenWrt to work around a Tomato bug. I hope the Tomato guys can help you, since in the end all they got access to is binary blobs as well. The Tomato community is where you should look for a solution, now that it's clear the issue is on their end.

1 Like
23

As you can see here it responds to the OpenWrt wireless scan but won't connect yet other devices can so I don't think you can say for certain that it's a Tomato bug

HiddenSSID
HiddenSSID1440×900 123 KB

24

I don't know a **** of tomato but if they are similar to OWRT and they use the softmac/hostapd stack, you probably can set the "hidden option" directly in to the hostapd config file o via hostapd_cli (instead of the wireless config file or UCI equivalent they could have)

You can explore two different options, changing the default value specified as "0" to "1" or "2".

# Send empty SSID in beacons and ignore probe request frames that do not
# specify full SSID, i.e., require stations to know SSID.
# default: disabled (0)
# 1 = send empty (length=0) SSID in beacon and ignore probe request for
#     broadcast SSID
# 2 = clear SSID (ASCII 0), but keep the original length (this may be required
#     with some clients that do not support empty SSID) and ignore probe
#     requests for broadcast SSID

ignore_broadcast_ssid=0

Source: https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/hostapd/hostapd.conf ("THE" source)

1 Like
25

So I eventually figured this problem out.

My FreshTomato Netgear R8000 AP was connected to OpenWRT TP-Link Archer C50 V3 on SSID "Bridge" channel 52 (5.260Ghz) and the connection would fail when the SSID was hidden.

I found that when connected to channel 36 (5.180Ghz) or 40 (5.200Ghz) the hidden "Bridge" SSID connects without issue.

I did notice that some client devices didn't like channel 52+ so I guess that also includes the TP-Link Archer C50 V3.

Hopefully this might help someone in the future :+1:

2 Likes
26

Sounds like DFS being an issue?

2 Likes
27

When you mentioned DFS I searched the forum and found this which matches the channels I tested that hidden SSID does work, and the ones marked radar detection are the ones that don't work:

1 Like
28
  • I thought to mention DFS, but assumed the OP had set a non-DFS channel. The would definitely cause the issue
  • It could also be that the other device cannot use the other channels you set

Glad you got it working!

1 Like
29

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.