Chosing A Lower Connection Accesspoint (windows 7)

[zephid]

Hi all,

I am having some small problems on my school, one of the classrooms I am in, have an acesspoint that cant handle the load, and the IT department is working on it, but they have been on it for 2 months now, and they hav'nt fixed it yet.

So I was wondering if I could put the accesspoint in this room on a blacklist, or something, so it would connect to the accesspoint in the room next to us?

I can see it in kismet, it will give me 70% connection rate.

I am using Windows 7 Professionel, I can do it in Linux, but Outlook wont work under Linux, so thats not an option.

Any suggestions?

Edit: Forgot to mention, it's an Enterprise roaming accespoint network.

Edited April 15, 2010 by zephid

[digip]

I dont know that you can do it in windows using the default windows connection manager, but if they both have the same SSID then my suggestion is to make it so your PC does not connect automatically and you list them all and choose which one to connect to manually. Also, look to see if your cards manufaturer has any connection software in addition to just the driver from windows. A lot of cards these days have additional connection managers that you can use instead of the default windows built in one. My Broadcom and Linksys cards each have them, but require you to get them from the manufacturers site.

[Charles]

You can set it to connect automatically if it has a different SSID.

You can manage which connections that the machine remembers from:

Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Manage Wireless Networks.

[digip]

You can set it to connect automatically if it has a different SSID.

You can manage which connections that the machine remembers from:

Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Manage Wireless Networks.

But if they have the same SSID, it picks the closest one as far as I know and if you get dissconencted, it grabs the next closest one. Thats part of the flaw in windows which allows things like Jasegar to work against users.

[Sparda]

But if they have the same SSID, it picks the closest one as far as I know and if you get dissconencted, it grabs the next closest one. Thats part of the flaw in windows which allows things like Jasegar to work against users.

I was testing a similar thing a while ago. It turns out that in all OS's except OS X, if you have two APs with different mac addresses and channels but the same SSID, the OS will always choose the AP with the lowest channel number. Obviously in Linux you can fix this by not using the network manager and manually saying to connect to the AP with a given mac address. In Windows there is no way around this from what I was able to tell. OS X always connects to the AP with the strongest signal.

Unless you install a system where by all APs use the same channel, SSID and MAC address and coordinate there efforts to achieve maximum coverage while avoiding interference from each other over the LAN, you can't make it perfect, such a system should also allow clients to 'move' between APs without the client ever noticing it happened. Would be quite expensive though. Would also be quite technically challenging. For example, how would you enable each AP to be able to recognise the other APs it is close to when they all appear to be the same AP?

[digip]

I was testing a similar thing a while ago. It turns out that in all OS's except OS X, if you have two APs with different mac addresses and channels but the same SSID, the OS will always choose the AP with the lowest channel number. Obviously in Linux you can fix this by not using the network manager and manually saying to connect to the AP with a given mac address. In Windows there is no way around this from what I was able to tell. OS X always connects to the AP with the strongest signal.

Unless you install a system where by all APs use the same channel, SSID and MAC address and coordinate there efforts to achieve maximum coverage while avoiding interference from each other over the LAN, you can't make it perfect, such a system should also allow clients to 'move' between APs without the client ever noticing it happened. Would be quite expensive though. Would also be quite technically challenging. For example, how would you enable each AP to be able to recognise the other APs it is close to when they all appear to be the same AP?

One thing you can do is check what AP is on what Channel, and then set your wireless nic to only talk on one specific channel, which most cards can do. if you know AP linksys on channel 1 is classroom a and AP linksys on channel 6 is classroom B, you could sort of pic which one gets used this way. Problem is know which classroom is which channel. As far as I know, you cant successfully have two devices with the same SSID occupy the same channel space if the two access points can see eachother, or you get connection problems constantly jumping on and off, which actually may be whats causing his schools issue with the one access point. Generally you want that roaming capability you speak of, because like you said, users shouldnt know they are on one AP vs the other AP, it should be seemless with roaming of the NIC.

I think its something like 15% overlap when setting up AP's with the same SSID, but they all need to be on different channels. So if you had 3 AP's with an SSID of Linksys, you need them all to be on something like channel 1, 6, and 11, and then space them far enought apart to cover a 15% overlap so the clients can connect within the grid and hop AP to AP without ever seeing a difference.

[Charles]

Thanks for the info digip! I didn't know that.

Interesting info too, Sparda.

[Infiltrator]

I dont know that you can do it in windows using the default windows connection manager, but if they both have the same SSID then my suggestion is to make it so your PC does not connect automatically and you list them all and choose which one to connect to manually. Also, look to see if your cards manufaturer has any connection software in addition to just the driver from windows. A lot of cards these days have additional connection managers that you can use instead of the default windows built in one. My Broadcom and Linksys cards each have them, but require you to get them from the manufacturers site.

Is there a hack for the registry that will allow you to choose a wireless connection no matter how low the channel of the AP may be. I mean by changing the wireless values in the registry.

Edited April 16, 2010 by Infiltrator

[zephid]

It's a network where all the APs has the same ssid.

I tried to see if Atheros had some software around, they had, but with no luck, it only installs the driver under Windows 7, so I am limited to the functionality Windows' connection manager gives me. :(

So basiclly, I need to wait for the IT department to get it fixed. :\

[digip]

It's a network where all the APs has the same ssid.

I tried to see if Atheros had some software around, they had, but with no luck, it only installs the driver under Windows 7, so I am limited to the functionality Windows' connection manager gives me. :(

So basiclly, I need to wait for the IT department to get it fixed. :\

run inSSIder and see what channel each is on and then set your card manually to 1 channel per router, see which one you get. When the good one works, leave it alone.

Now your card may or may no thave the option, but check this image:

After clicking #2, go to the advanced tab for your wifi card, then see if you can set a permanent channel. If not, then the drivers you have dont give you that option. Most cards do, but under win7 I see a lot of limitations in these "signed" versions of their drivers since windows pretty much chooses what it wants by default anyway.

[Infiltrator]

run inSSIder and see what channel each is on and then set your card manually to 1 channel per router, see which one you get. When the good one works, leave it alone.

Now your card may or may no thave the option, but check this image:

After clicking #2, go to the advanced tab for your wifi card, then see if you can set a permanent channel. If not, then the drivers you have dont give you that option. Most cards do, but under win7 I see a lot of limitations in these "signed" versions of their drivers since windows pretty much chooses what it wants by default anyway.

What image?

[digip]

What image?

Do you not see the image at http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/digip/adapter.png ? If not, then my site is blocking you most likely.

[Infiltrator]

Do you not see the image at http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/digip/adapter.png ? If not, then my site is blocking you most likely.

Blocking me, why is that?

[Infiltrator]

Double post, I hate when that happens. How do I get rid of this post?

Edited April 20, 2010 by Infiltrator

[digip]

Blocking me, why is that?

I have a lot of filters in place. For instance, I block 90% of russia and china. Yoru iP address could be in a subnet I block, or you use something like a fast file downloader plugin that is showing up in the user agent of your browser.

Edited April 21, 2010 by digip

[Infiltrator]

I have a lot of filters in place. For instance, I block 90% of russia and china. Yoru iP address could be in a subnet I block, or you use something like a fast file downloader plugin that is showing up in the user agent of your browser.

Yes I am using several fast file downloader plugin in my brother, that could explain why its getting blocked. Just out of curiosity what filters are they?