Airport Extreme drops connection to two computers

We're having the same problem. Seems only to happen to a subset of users on our network. Mac OS X 10.6 server connected to an Airport Extreme router (using WPA2 Enterprise/RADIUS for authentication). Here are our logs when the last drop-out occurred:


Feb 02 11:17:39 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station 00:24:36:b4:58:d9 (reserved 2).
Feb 02 11:17:39 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:24:36:b4:58:d9
Feb 02 11:17:40 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
Feb 02 11:17:40 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station 58:55:ca:fa:1b:8d (reserved 2).
Feb 02 11:17:40 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 58:55:ca:fa:1b:8d
Feb 02 11:17:41 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
Feb 02 11:17:46 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:24:36:b4:58:d9
Feb 02 11:17:46 Severity:4 Authenticating station 00:24:36:b4:58:d9 to RADIUS.
Feb 02 11:17:46 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:24:36:b4:58:d9
Feb 02 11:17:48 Severity:5 Associated with station 58:55:ca:fa:1b:8d
Feb 02 11:17:48 Severity:4 Authenticating station 58:55:ca:fa:1b:8d to RADIUS.
Feb 02 11:17:48 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 58:55:ca:fa:1b:8d
Feb 02 11:18:16 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:24:36:b4:58:d9
Feb 02 11:18:19 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 58:55:ca:fa:1b:8d
Feb 02 11:18:22 Severity:5 Connection accepted from [fe80::5a55:caff:fefa:1b8d%bridge0]:55706.
Feb 02 11:18:24 Severity:5 Connection accepted from [fe80::5a55:caff:fefa:1b8d%bridge0]:55713.
Feb 02 11:18:24 Severity:5 Connection accepted from [fe80::5a55:caff:fefa:1b8d%bridge0]:55714.
Feb 02 11:18:51 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station f8:1e:df:f0:6f:23 (reserved 2).
Feb 02 11:18:51 Severity:5 Disassociated with station f8:1e:df:f0:6f:23
Feb 02 11:18:52 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
Feb 02 11:18:58 Severity:5 Associated with station f8:1e:df:f0:6f:23
Feb 02 11:18:58 Severity:4 Authenticating station f8:1e:df:f0:6f:23 to RADIUS.
Feb 02 11:18:58 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant f8:1e:df:f0:6f:23
Feb 02 11:19:06 Severity:5 Clock synchronized to network time server time.apple.com (adjusted +0 seconds).
Feb 02 11:19:28 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant f8:1e:df:f0:6f:23


This all started in the last few months. Never had any problems before. Installed the latest firmware to the AEBS this morning with no improvements.

My setup is as follows:

Mac mini with Mac OS X Server 10.6.6
Two AirPort Express n Stations with Firmware 7.5.2 (current as of 2011/02/03)
Using WPA2/RADIUS.

My MacBook Pro disconnects and reconnects from the network exactly at 11 Minutes past the hour, EVERY hour. I had the impression that the issue got better since the 7.5.2 update, but in fact it only has improved AirPlay/AirTunes playback stability. The disconnects have become more reliable since they now happen exactly every hour.

This is what is in the logs of one of the AirPort Express stations:


Feb 03 02:09:54 Severity:5 Clock synchronized to network time server time.euro.apple.com (adjusted +0 seconds).
Feb 03 02:10:47 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station 58:b0:35:78:09:e9 (reserved 2).
Feb 03 02:10:47 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 58:b0:35:78:09:e9
Feb 03 02:10:47 Severity:5 Rotated CCMP group key.
Feb 03 02:10:53 Severity:5 Associated with station 58:b0:35:78:09:e9
Feb 03 02:10:53 Severity:4 Authenticating station 58:b0:35:78:09:e9 to RADIUS.
Feb 03 02:10:53 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 58:b0:35:78:09:e9
Feb 03 02:11:23 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 58:b0:35:78:09:e9

I've tried to switch the AirPort station from DHCP (with static binding on the server) to manuel configuration as it might have been the AirPort trying to renew it's DHCP lease and perhaps needing to reauthenticate RADIUS for that. That is not the case, it doesn't matter if the AirPort Express is configured via DHCP or manually.

I'm afraid that the actual culprit is in fact the Client Mac and not the AirPort Express or even the Server. My iOS Devices all run without any problems or disconnects.

My AirPort interface on the MBP is configured as follows:

IPv4 DHCP, IPv6 automatic
802.1X with username and Password from the Mac mini's OD Server. (Single Sign-On via Kerberos)
Enabled Protocols are TTLS (which seems to be used) and PEAP.
When configuring TTLS, the authentication is MSCHAPv2, and the (optional) Outer Identity is empty.
The (optional) Outer Identity setting for PEAP is empty as well.

TTLS is shown to be used in the Network PrefPanel.

Wireless Network Name and Security Type are correct.

The trusted Certificates in [Configure Trust…] are:
CA Cert Signing Authority (which is the correct CA that signed my Server's certificate.)
There also is the explicit certificate of my server in this list.

Servers to trust has an entry with the valid FQDN of my server.


Maybe this helps to compare my settings which suffer an hourly disconnect (with mostly immediate reconnect within ≈ 1min.) to those machine with different problems.


As a sidenote: Which authentication methods should one have active? Which ones are supported by Mac OS X Server and an AirPort Station? TLS, TTLS, EAP, EAP-FAST, PEAP, MD5? Which is the most secure?

Best regards
Pepi

I should note that my MacBook Air which is affected by this issue at the office with WPA2 Enterprise works flawlessly at home with the exact same Airport Extreme Base Station but using WPA2 Personal.

The problem does not manifest when using WPA2/Personal. It clearly is related to WPA2/Enterprise authentication (aka RADIUS) and my personal suspicion is that the client (Mac OS X) is to blame. From my logs I see that the client starts to deauth and disconnect, then reconnect and authenticate in regular intervals. (Beeing the equivalent of unplugging your network cable and resulting in all network connections to drop.)
Best regards
Pepi

I don't think its just Enterprise. I am seeing the same problem with WPA2/Personal and am seeing lots of threads about it. I'm noticing it the most with my WiFi Thermostat (CM50), which starts to beep when it loses the connection. I think it happens with my iPhone as well, but it harder to notice since it disconnects/connects each time the iPhone sleeps. I have not seen it with my MacBook Pro running Windows XP, but its connected over 5Ghz (and perhaps is smarter about reconnecting faster).
This is with a Airport Extreme Dual with 7.5.2 firmware.

I'll add I am seeing this with my WiFi Printer as well, but it seems to reconnect faster than the thermostat.

Here is a typical log entry for the thermostat...
Feb 5 12:13:48 5 Rotated TKIP group key.
Feb 5 12:13:48 5 Deauthenticating with station 5c:da:d4:24:ad:6a (reserved 2).
Feb 5 12:13:48 5 Disassociated with station 5c:da:d4:24:ad:6a
Feb 5 12:13:49 5 Rotated TKIP group key.

And here is what I am seeing with the WiFi Printer
Feb 5 11:13:17 5 Deauthenticating with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4 (reserved 2).
Feb 5 11:13:17 5 Disassociated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:13:17 5 Rotated TKIP group key.
Feb 5 11:13:18 5 Associated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:13:20 5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:14:05 5 Associated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:14:08 5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:14:59 5 Associated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:15:01 5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:18:21 5 Associated with station 5c:da:d4:24:ad:6a
Feb 5 11:18:22 5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 5c:da:d4:24:ad:6a
Feb 5 11:24:14 5 Associated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:24:16 5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:24:57 5 Associated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:24:57 5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:25:37 5 Associated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:25:42 5 Deauthenticating with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4 (reserved 2).
Feb 5 11:25:42 5 Disassociated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4
Feb 5 11:25:44 5 Associated with station 00:1f:29:fe:7f:f4

I am having the same problem and it is starting to get super annoying! Both my apple tv's, my macbook pro, my wireless printer, my iphones, and ipads are constantly disconnecting from my Airport Extreme.

Every hour or so I have to hard recycle my router! I have no idea how to find those logs like you guys though, just hoping this gets resolved soon. I think something happened when I installed Snow Leopard on the machine that is physically connected to the Airport Extreme.

There are seriously 25 wireless routers near me in my apartment complex could that be the problem?

Thanks

I'm in the same boat.

On my AirPort Extreme (2010) right now I have:

iPhone 4 (a/b/g), iPad (a/b/g/n), MacBook (2010)(a/b/g/n), a Wii (a/b/g), an HP Elitebook (a/b/g), and a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (using an a/b/g card).

I've been watching my Lenovo T400 drop pings randomly, averaging about 4% packet loss over a few minutes. All other machines work fine - the MacBook and HP ran a ping test for two hours and didn't drop a single ping.

So it lead me to believe that something in the Wireless on my T400 was wonky. I'm running the latest drivers and signal strength is rock solid.

It's just frustrating as **** when I can turn on my old Linksys a/b/g access point and get a solid connection to it.

Same problem here - config is:
Time Machine
MBA
iMAC
Macbook Pro
iPod Touch x 2
iPhone x 2
Mac Mini
(do I own to many gadgets here?)

Anyhow - constantly dropping connection and same error (as below) - super annoying - please help!


Mar 08 20:15:27 Severity:5 Internet configuration leased [IPv4] -- host <10.1.1.2/255.0.0.0> gateway <10.1.1.1> dns <10.1.1.1> wins lease <3600> domain
Mar 08 20:16:08 Severity:5 Disassociated with station d8:30:62:6d:26:fe
Mar 08 20:16:08 Severity:5 Associated with station d8:30:62:6d:26:fe
Mar 08 20:16:08 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant d8:30:62:6d:26:fe
Mar 08 20:16:10 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
Mar 08 20:16:21 Severity:5 Associated with station dc:2b:61:43:6d:fa
Mar 08 20:16:21 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant dc:2b:61:43:6d:fa
Mar 08 20:16:37 Severity:5 Disassociated with station dc:2b:61:43:6d:fa
Mar 08 20:16:37 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
Mar 08 20:18:08 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:17:f2:fd:72:55
Mar 08 20:18:09 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.

We have had the same issue, for a long time. OS X Leopard 10.5 Server, on a G5, 2 Airports - using WPA2/Enterprise RADIUS. 1 Laptop continually disconnects and reconnects on it's own, every couple hours. Never have that problem connected to any other wifi.

Same problem here.

Airport Extreme
Two macbook pros running 10.6.6
Macbook 2007 running 10.6.6
iMac running 10.6.4
PC running Vista
iPhone 4
Roku (only wired device)
Using WPA2/PSK

The first one of the macbook pros and iPhone were unable to connect via wifi with the same Deauthenticating....(reserved 2) in the logs. I restored factory settings on the Airport Extreme and set everything back up with a new passphrase. Now about a week later I have the same problem with the imac and the other macbook pro.

Mar 25 13:44:53 Severity:5 Associated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:44:57 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3 (reserved 2).
Mar 25 13:44:57 Severity:5 Disassociated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:44:59 Severity:5 Associated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:45:03 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3 (reserved 2).
Mar 25 13:45:03 Severity:5 Disassociated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:45:04 Severity:5 Associated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:45:08 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3 (reserved 2).
Mar 25 13:45:08 Severity:5 Disassociated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:45:10 Severity:5 Associated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:45:14 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3 (reserved 2).
Mar 25 13:45:14 Severity:5 Disassociated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:45:15 Severity:5 Associated with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3
Mar 25 13:45:19 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station f4:ce:46:5d:de:a3 (reserved 2).

I started watching this thread the first time it happened, and now that I'm faced with potentially rebuilding my router setup weekly or buying a new one I'm hoping apple or someone else can pinpoint the problem soon.

It was happening tome on one of my two MBP's (the older one). Backed off Airport 7.5.2 to 7.5.1, and it all went away. Go figure. I have heard from others that 7.4.2 was the most stable build as of late. If anyone can find a copy, let me know. I may down rev to that...

Downgrading to 7.5.1 firmware seems to have worked for me too. Thanks, Danny O. That was a pretty irritating bug.

The only bummer is now the Airport Utility on my Mac ******* at me to upgrade to 7.5.2 daily. Need to figure out how to turn that off..