Bug: Clients count on Network Map

[David Cavalli]

I have a separate thread for my tribulations for stability with my RT-AX88U Pro.
(LINK --> Asus RT-AX88U Pro stopped working occasionally)

I'm back posting here to give additional observations about the interaction between the Asus and Synology. I've reconfigured some things and thought the information might be of use to the Channel number increasing. To summarize my (original) configuration for this thread, I had my AX88U Pro connected to a Synology DS920+ and the Synology was the source of the ever increasing client connection count. We established that the dual ethernet connection was somehow likely to blame for the problem. New information today.

Looking at the forums for Asus and Synology, throwing in some ChatGPT, I delved into some configuration issues resulting from the logs. I think I've found something new. Until today, My Synology "Link Aggregation Mode" wasn't really true LACP. It seems I configured "Adaptive Load Balancing" as the way to join my dual ethernet connection. Synology reports this method "does not requrie any special network-switch support". I think I chose it because my old (pre-Asus) switch might not have handled it. I don't know if my first Asus RT-AC68U did, but I never switched it. They were connected into LAN2 and LAN3 respectively on my current router.

Upon discovering that my AX88U Pro *does* support 802.3ad LACP today, I decided to configure both the Asus and Synology to take advantage of this potentially more optimal link aggregation. The Asus requires the move of the Synology ethernet connections to LAN1 and LAN2 to achieve this. Configured both sides to IEEE 802.3ad. Seems to be working as a connection. The Asus logs report "bond0: Warning: No 802.3ad response from the link partner for any adapters in the bond". ChatGPT thinks it is not working after parsing the logs, so I'll work on that after dinner. Synology side seems to think it's working in the web side and Asus reports the bond looks configured in the web interface too.

Regardless of the configuration issues I might have, switch from ALB to LACP does seem to have fixed the counter problem in the Asus web interface. Whether this is because ALB is an issue, or LACP incorrectly configured, or other, remains to be seen. Back on it after dinner, but everyone home now, so less rebooting. The NAS does seem to be working, 1GB or 2GB, so probably can't change anything today, but wanted to add that as a data point in case anyone had anything else for me to test / check before the .6 release.

Thanks!

 

[northumberland]

I've a separate thread on what looks like the same type of issue. Reading this made me realise I'd missed something out in my thread.

I'm not using Synology, but I am using MLO, and although my main router is a BE88U, I do have an older AX88U in the mix. Mine seems to be caused by my pixel 9 phone, which shows 100's of clients connecting through it at times. I'm using Aimesh btw, though I see you're not. Just trying to narrow down where the problem is.

 

[bennor]

Mine seems to be caused by my pixel 9 phone, which shows 100's of clients connecting through it at times

Is your Pixel configured to randomize it's MAC address when connecting to WiFi? If so, perhaps each time the Pixel cycles it's WiFi connection, due to the router's WiFi's Group Key Rotation Interval, it generates a new MAC address leading to the router creating a new client entry.

 

[Twiglets]

Is your Pixel configured to randomize it's MAC address when connecting to WiFi? If so, perhaps each time the Pixel cycles it's WiFi connection, due to the router's WiFi's Group Key Rotation Interval, it generates a new MAC address leading to the router creating a new client entry.

See https://www.snbforums.com/threads/client-list-showing-hundreds-of-extra-clients.95759/post-970025 for full definition of the various forms of MAC Randomization.

The Pixel 9 is running Android greater than Ver. 12 therefore IF Non-persistent randomization is set as the randomisation type the following applies:

Non-persistent randomization​

Under the non-persistent randomization type, which is used for some networks in Android 12 or higher, the Wi-Fi module re-randomizes the MAC address at the start of every connection or the framework uses the existing randomized MAC address to connect to the network. The Wi-Fi module re-randomizes the MAC address in the following situations:

• The DHCP lease duration has expired and more than 4 hours have elapsed since the device last disconnected from this network.
• The current randomized MAC for the network profile was generated more than 24 hours ago. MAC address re-randomization only happens at the start of anew connection. Wi-Fi won't actively disconnect for the purpose of re-randomizing a MAC address.

If none of these situations apply, the framework uses the previously randomized MAC address to connect to the network.

If the definition above is true there must be a NEW connection being made to force the MAC randomisation to happen, which would be seen by the router as multiple MACs.

The DHCP lease expiry SHOULD NOT force a randomisation of the MAC in its own right if the connection does NOT disconnect.
Only having a connection that is still live yet has an expired DHCP Lease and has exceeded a duration 4 hrs beyond the DHCP Lease Expiry will do so.
This means that even if you could set the DHCP Lease for 1 minute the cadence of MAC randomisation would be slightly bigger than 4hrs.

Something must be causing the phone to disconnect/reconnect rapidly to cause the rapid generation of NEW Macs.

OR

Android has a bug that means the above definition is NOT actually being followed.

 

[northumberland]

Is your Pixel configured to randomize it's MAC address when connecting to WiFi? If so, perhaps each time the Pixel cycles it's WiFi connection, due to the router's WiFi's Group Key Rotation Interval, it generates a new MAC address leading to the router creating a new client entry.

No, static IP and using device mac. MLO turned off and so far all is good, but I'm not convinced. So far disabling MLO has worked, but time will tell if it happens again as it's been intermittent.