Hey there.
My business computer is a MacBook Pro with latest operating system. I'm using the software "Tunnelblick", which is basically a GUI for OpenVPN.
My current access point is a Cudy WR3000, but I'm seeing the very same problem on a Belkin RT3200 as well as a Zyxel WSM 20. All of them are running latest stable 23.05.5.
My router is a Banana Pi, which as no issue at all.
While OpenVPN is not holding a tunnel, my Wi-Fi is stable for 40 hours. Probably longer, that's just when I stopped my test over the weekend.
When OpenVPN maintains a tunnel, my MacBooks Wi-Fi connection gets dropped about 30 minutes after it connected, but then comes back up right after.
To make it clear: The VPN is not running on my router. The server is at my company I'm working at, the client is my MacBook. The AP is not involved except passing the packages. Just having the VPN going through the AP makes my router think the Wi-Fi is getting unresponsive, I guess.
All other devices going through that AP are fine, it's just the MacBook.
The syslog shows this:
Tue Nov 19 21:23:30 2024 daemon.notice hostapd: phy1-ap0: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED f6:77:29:0f:2d:88
Tue Nov 19 21:23:30 2024 daemon.info hostapd: phy1-ap0: STA f6:77:29:0f:2d:88 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Tue Nov 19 21:23:31 2024 daemon.info hostapd: phy1-ap0: STA f6:77:29:0f:2d:88 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)
Tue Nov 19 21:23:31 2024 daemon.info hostapd: phy1-ap0: STA f6:77:29:0f:2d:88 IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Tue Nov 19 21:23:31 2024 daemon.info hostapd: phy1-ap0: STA f6:77:29:0f:2d:88 IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 1)
Tue Nov 19 21:23:31 2024 daemon.notice hostapd: phy1-ap0: AP-STA-CONNECTED f6:77:29:0f:2d:88 auth_alg=open
Tue Nov 19 21:23:31 2024 daemon.info hostapd: phy1-ap0: STA f6:77:29:0f:2d:88 RADIUS: starting accounting session DEA9B624C56F21B4
Tue Nov 19 21:23:31 2024 daemon.info hostapd: phy1-ap0: STA f6:77:29:0f:2d:88 WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Tue Nov 19 21:23:31 2024 daemon.notice hostapd: phy1-ap0: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED f6:77:29:0f:2d:88
My current AP has a couple of network settings in place, but Wi-Fi is as vanilla as it gets. The main thing about network settings is: The network interface the Wi-Fi is bridged to is of type none and no Wi-Fi zone attached, because the management/configuration interface the AP is supposed to be configured is on a different network interface which has no Wi-Fi.
This means: I'm pretty sure it's not a firewall issue because there's really only bridging involved, no incoming and no routed IP traffic.
~# cat /etc/config/wireless
config wifi-device 'radio0'
option type 'mac80211'
option path 'platform/18000000.wifi'
option channel '1'
option band '2g'
option htmode 'HE20'
option disabled '1'
option log_level '0'
config wifi-device 'radio1'
option type 'mac80211'
option path 'platform/18000000.wifi+1'
option channel '36'
option band '5g'
option htmode 'HE80'
option cell_density '0'
option log_level '0'
config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
option device 'radio1'
option mode 'ap'
option ssid 'test'
option encryption 'psk2'
option key 'test'
option network 'lan'
I'm constantly running traffic on my MacBook, at least a ping every second going through the VPN tunnel. So I pretty much exclude any kind of power saving mode to be at play here.
And because the disconnect only happens when OpenVPN is running, I guess that's not the usual "deauth due to inactivity" thing everybody seams to solve by increasing dtim_period from 2 to 3 or 6.
As you can see, I raised the Wi-Fi log level to 0. I see a successful 4-way-handshake when the Wi-Fi connection gets established, then there's 30 minutes silence, then there's a timeout and a reconnect. When having OpenVPN turned off, there's no log line, even for an hour. So OpenWrt syslog doesn't give me any clue what traffic is expected, and hence interpreted as timeout when missing.
Any ideas what could be causing this? Anyone with a similar issue?