Devices continually disconnecting and reconnecting to WiFi

zbyers · March 22, 2024, 3:32am

I have about a dozen Amazon Echo’s of various types. Basically ALL of them are disconnecting continually from WiFi. This is a snippet from syslog on one device in particular. They’re all showing similar logging for their applicable MAC.

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA IEEE 802.11: authenticated

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 2)

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=20 (5txb3SxeZp) alg=0 addr=0x8896f8 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0 key_flag=0x20

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA WPA: sending 1/4 msg of 4-Way Handshake

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA WPA: received EAPOL-Key frame (2/4 Pairwise)

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: Assigned VLAN ID 0 from wpa_psk_file to 1c:fe:2b:68:62:dc

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA WPA: sending 3/4 msg of 4-Way Handshake

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.120 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA a4:08:01:db:6f:b7 IEEE 802.11: disassociated

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.120 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED a4:08:01:db:6f:b7

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.120 hostapd - - - hostapd: wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=20 (5txb3SxeZp) alg=0 addr=0x1744ad8 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0 key_flag=0x20

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA WPA: received EAPOL-Key frame (4/4 Pairwise)

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=20 (5txb3SxeZp) alg=3 addr=0x8896f8 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=16 key_flag=0x2c

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: AP-STA-CONNECTED 1c:fe:2b:68:62:dc

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA RADIUS: starting accounting session B2ECAB8E86C8B8A8

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:20-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED 1c:fe:2b:68:62:dc

<30>1 2024-03-22T00:20:30-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: STA IEEE 802.11: disassociated

<29>1 2024-03-22T00:20:30-04:00 172.16.1.240 hostapd - - - hostapd: 5txb3SxeZp: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED

I spoke to Amazon support and they were unfortunately not much help, however I don’t think this is an Amazon problem (yet), as the devices are clearly disassociating from the AP’s. I can watch the live data in the portal and watch them go offline and come online every few seconds.

They were fine since the install of these AP’s over a week ago, so this is a new development.

It’s worth noting that I have devices that are NOT experiencing this behavior. So while it may not be an Amazon problem (yet), it might be a problem in the way the Amazon devices connect to WiFi.

Appreciate your help,

Zach

zbyers · March 28, 2024, 12:27pm

There has been some dialog on this thread with the fine folks in support (Thank you Mike!). It seems like a potential root cause for this is due to how the AP’s react, in this case to spanning-tree when connected to a Cisco Switch.

The interaction between the two gets stuck in a Listening state, and never actually goes to forwarding. The 2.0i flavor of firmware really brought this issue out in a ‘bad way’.

Temporarily rolling back to 1.1 seemed to resolve the issue enough that I could get an operational wireless network again.

Moving the ports these AP’s were connected to to ‘portfast edge’ allowed me to upgrade the AP’s back to 2.0j and they’ve been in operation for a week now without the symptoms I originally posted for.

Monitoring the environment for now.