ReporterAndWds

Category:Sasecurity
wlan0wds0 -- . . . what is this animal? Is it 
supposed to
be there? Is it only in remote nodes? If I kill the interface, it pops 
right
back up in a few seconds.
We have two nodes - a gateway and a remote node. The gateway doesn't 
have
that interface but the remote does. The gateway shows the remote node 
in
reporter but the remote node doesn't show the gateway. They both have 
ample
signal to noise from each other.
Could someone out there check their nodes and see what they've got? 
Just run
plain ifconfig and see what pops up.
Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
When you put your first message out, I looked around on my network & 
I'm not seeing this interface anywhere - on single and dual radio boxes.
I'm wondering if someone in your network is using something like a 
WRT54G router (Sveasoft) to form a WDS link to your node? I don't know if it 
would show up weird like that, but it looks like a WDS bridged link on that 
wlan interface.
It isn't impossible that something like that is happening, but not
especially likely. This is a very rural area that just recently saw a 
fiber link to their local phone CO. I know none of our customers are using 
those, but not sure about a random person. Nothing shows up in sigspy that
shouldn't be there. There are other WISPS in the general area that have
equipment on some towers that are at least 5 air miles away. I guess it 
is possible that they are pumping something out.
Regardless, I just want to permanently kill it. If I knew how it gets
generated or what module creates it, I would remove those mechanisms.
Assuming of course that the kernel module isn't necessary for our 
purposes.
This particular node is interesting and has a rather strange past all
around, so not sure if there could be other issues. The eth0 interface 
at
some point decided it didn't want to function correctly anymore but 
still
does PoE. Later, it decided that it didn't want to check into Wiana for
updates despite nothing changing and signal quality remaining constant. 
Then
it decided that meshing was too much of a chore and decided to start
randomly dropping the tunnels. You may remember some time back 
discussion on
wireless reflections off a silo being an issue. Nope, after we shut off
meshing and turned it into a static routing setup, it worked fine. That 
is,
of course, until the WDS interface made a grand appearance.
If you know a quick trick to make it stop creating that interface, 
that would be great. If not, we're going to have to figure out a hack on our 
own. If we do find a solution, I'll share it so you guys don't have to 
experience this frustration and have to explain to customers that you aren't sure 
when you will get it fixed.
> When you put your first message out, I looked around on my network &
> I'm not seeing this interface anywhere - on single and dual radio
> boxes.
> I'm wondering if someone in your network is using something like a
> WRT54G router (Sveasoft) to form a WDS link to your node? I don't 
know
> if it would show up weird like that, but it looks like a WDS bridged
> link on that wlan interface.
It maybe the wormhole, if you are using one.
> > be there? Is it only in remote nodes? If I kill the interface, it 
pops right
> > back up in a few seconds.
> >
> > We have two nodes - a gateway and a remote node. The gateway 
doesn't have
> > that interface but the remote does. The gateway shows the remote 
node in
> > reporter but the remote node doesn't show the gateway. They both 
have ample
> > signal to noise from each other.
> >
> > Could someone out there check their nodes and see what they've got? 
Just run
> > plain ifconfig and see what pops up.
> >
> > Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
The wlanXwdsX interfaces are part of the core Meshing, it shall be 
there, one interface is created for each AP that AP sees!
(For example the below node meshes with 6 other nodes on its wlan1 
interface and 1 node on wlan0 (repeater)
Gateway
 * -reporter DOES shows the remote node
 * -ifconfig DOES NOT show wlan0wds0
Remote Node
 * -reporter DOES NOT show gateway
 * -ifconfig DOES show wlan0wds0
This behavior seems exactly opposite of what you are saying.
> The wlanXwdsX interfaces are part of the core Meshing, it shall be
> there, one interface is created for each AP that AP sees!
> (For example the below node meshes with 6 other nodes on its wlan1
> interface and 1 node on wlan0 (repeater)
There are only two nodes in this area. One with hardwire backhaul the 
other
without. We have a default route on the remote node pointing to the 
1.x.x.x
address of the gateway. As Aaron mentioned, we had tunnel stability 
issues
and decided to just "route" around the tunnel.
>>
>> In the strictest definition, no as the routes are static. The nodes 
>> are routing traffic between each other on the same interface that 
>> clients are sharing.
>>
>> <quote who="Stefan Karlsson">
>>> Didn't read your original post carefully enough....
>>> "after we shut off meshing and turned it into a static routing 
>>> setup, it worked fine. That is, of course, until the WDS interface 
>>> made a grand appearance" Are your running a mesh network, or not??