OpenWrt AP not working with Android phone

Hi all

I have set up an AP with Openwrt and thought everything worked well, actually it is working well with my iPhone XR and my Win 10 laptop.
Unfortunately not with my wife's phone (Honor 9, Android 9).

With the iPhone and Win 10 laptop it works like a charm, good speed, reliable connection.
In contrast the Honor 9 can connect to the AP but it already says "no internet access". If I connect anyway I can open a webpage or two but then there is no more internet access.

I have absolutely no idea what to do and you can imagine that the wife's phone has a top priory :sweat_smile:

So any advice is very welcome!

With kind regards,
Marc

Is there any antivirus running in the Android? I came across a similar case lately.
Just in case post here the wireless config uci export wireless

Do you have adblock running?

Different clients apply different policies to judge whether there is "Internet access" or not. E.g. it's a good idea to allow to ICMP Echo (ping) the router / DHCP server. Also, some systems / applications insist on using "their" DNS server so your router's firewall must allow this bypass. In other words, if you set up the AP as suggested, it could be worthwhile looking at routing / firewall aspects.

Dear all

Thanks a lot for the feedback :pray:. Here is the current status:

@trendy
output uci export wireless
config wifi-device 'radio0'
option type 'mac80211'

  • option channel '11'*
  • option hwmode '11g'*
  • option path 'platform/soc/a000000.wifi'*
  • option htmode 'HT20'*
  • option legacy_rates '1'*
  • option country 'DE'*

config wifi-device 'radio1'

  • option type 'mac80211'*
  • option channel '36'*
  • option hwmode '11a'*
  • option path 'platform/soc/a800000.wifi'*
  • option htmode 'VHT80'*
  • option legacy_rates '1'*
  • option country 'DE'*

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'

  • option device 'radio1'*
  • option ssid 'Netgear'*
  • option encryption 'psk2'*
  • option key *
  • option mode 'ap'*
  • option network 'lan'*
  • option wds '1'*

config wifi-iface

  • option device 'radio0'*
  • option ssid 'Netgear'*
  • option encryption 'psk2'*
  • option key *
  • option mode 'ap'*
  • option network 'lan'*
  • option wds '1'*

I will check if my wife has antivirus when she is back.

@fantom-x
I am not sure if adblock is on the phone, will check when my wife is back.
There is no adblocker on my firewall.

@CuteRoute
I am using the DNS server of my VPN provider which I would like to keep, if feasible.
I have an of-the-shelf Asus router lying around. I will exchange it with my firewall and connect the Openwrt AP to it in order to check if the firewall is causing problems.

Have you tried HT40 instead of VHT80 (5 GHz)?
Also, don't enable legacy rates unless you absolutely have to (2.4 GHz).

Also try to disable wds.

Hi all

I figured our that it is mainly a problem between pfsense and the antivirus on the Android phone.
So disabling the antivirus solved 98% of the problem.
Still 1-2 times per day there is no internet access for the Android phone for a minute or so. Then it magically returns. Not sure why though, I will need to observe this some for some time.

@CuteRoute I have not tried different htmodes, actually I just googled it because I was not even aware of this specification :sweat_smile:
The HT20 (2.4 GHz) and VHT80 (5 GHz) are default settings.
Looking at the Openwrt docs it appears to me that HT40 is targeting 802.11n and not 802.11ac, so would it also work for 5 GHz?
I have disabled legacy rates for 2.4 GHz and 5GHz (I do not need them), so maybe this will help.

@trendy I need to keep WDS since I have a wireless bridge to extend my network via WDS.

@fantom-x
There is no adblocker on the phone as well.

Thanks for your answers!

Marc

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I think it was a typo and meant VHT40 for 5GHz.

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Hi all

For the last few days everything has been working flawlessly. I did not do any changes.
I have no idea what was causing the problem in the beginning but it seems that it has disappeared. No more questions asked.
So topic is solved :grin: :smile: :smiley:
Thanks for your help!

Marc

If the problem is solved, feel free to mark the topic accordingly .

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