IRTrans WiFi not connecting with security enabled

[rbergquist]

I received my IRTrans WiFi today and am attempting to connect it to my GN network secured by WPA2/AES. WiFI AP is Dlink DIR655

The IRTrans will connect to the network if it is unsecured.

As soon as I add in security, the network log shows the following entries:

[INFO] Wed Jan 25 16:37:45 2012 Bergquist: Wireless system with MAC address 0023A72D1EA0 disconnected for reason: Authentication Failed
[INFO] Wed Jan 25 16:37:45 2012 Bergquist: Wireless system with MAC address 0023A72D1EA0 associated

IRTrans set to Channel: Auto, Mode: Infrastructure, S.Power: 17dBm, Speed: Auto Auth Mode: Auto

DIR 655 normal setup: Mode: GN, Security: WPA-Personal, WPA Mode: WPA2 only; Cipher: AES, Channel: 1.

I have varied these combinations to use B, G, & N by themselves and tried options of WPA2 or WPA but nothing seems to work.

Using IRConfig USB, a Scan function would show the SSID and show it as WPA2 -50dBm.

What does it take to get IRTrans WiFI to work with WPA2/AES encryption?


-----------
IRTrans WiFi-RS232 / COD-RCV
WiFi V1.5 IRDB
MAC 00-23-A7-2D-1E-A0
Version: W06.08.30
FW SNo: 59024

[IRTrans]

Hi,
in general the IRTrans works fine with all encryption methods.

There is only one thing to check: The IRTrans does not support WPA/WPA2 Keys with more than 31 characters.

Once we have seen a problem with combined WPA/WPA2 encryption. If you use that please switch your AP to WPA2 only.

IRTrans

[rbergquist]

Yes works with a shorter password.

Can you update the firmware to support the 802.11 standard please. It will be an onerous task to update all of the machines that access the wireless network. The 802.11 standard calls for passwords from 8 to 63 characters in length. Since best practice is to have long passwords for better security, I expect this will be a continuing problem for IRTrans.

[IRTrans]

Sadly that is not possible. The firmware for the radio chip we use does not support full password length. We already asked the manufacturer to change that, however so far they did not do that.

With regards to security that is no problem: Every password with at leat 16 chars will provide full WPA2 security.

IRTrans

[rbergquist]

It would be nice if that limitation of password length were documented in the IRTrans WiFi documentation sheet. That would have saved me several hours trying isolate the problem.

re:

With regards to security that is no problem: Every password with at least 16 chars will provide full WPA2 security.

You may get full encryption, but shorter keys are easier to break. It is hard to believe the Redpine stack doesn't support the full standard.

[IRTrans]

You are right regarding documentation.

We are already talking with Redpine for more than a year about that issue. So far they where not able to change it

With regards to security: 31 characters will already take more than 100 years to crack even with advanced HW. When WiFi networks are hacked that happens because of weaknesses of the key exchange system and not via brute force.

IRTrans