no B connectivity on main -- guest OK

[torchddv]

I just bought the RT-N66U today to replace an aging WRT54GL running DD-WRT. I thought I would try Merlin and see if it met my needs as DD-WRT documentation can be somewhat less than clear at times. I fiddled with the stock firmware a little bit, then flashed it with Merlin 3.0..0.4.372.31.

I've worked out most of the basics thus far, found a few things that didn't work quite the way I'm used to and adapted, but I'm stuck on this one: I have a legacy 802.11B device (Palm TX) that won't even detect the network. The 2.4 SSID is currently set to Legacy, b/g protection, auto channel, WPA-Auto-Personal, TKIP+AES (which is how I had the last router set up), although I've tried fiddling with all of the above. I just cannot connect.

But here is the odd thing: I CAN connect just fine to a guest account set up on the 2.4GHz band!

Anyone care to guess what the difference is?

I can hotsynch the Palm if I allow the guest network to access the local intranet, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a guest account.

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Just to see, try it w/o any security settings.

 

[torchddv]

Hi,
Just to see, try it w/o any security settings.

There are 3 things I didn't try. I didn't change the key rotation. I didn't try an open system and I didn't try WEP.

For some reason -- which I fail to understand -- you are right. Making the primary 2.4GHz SSID Open or WEP makes it visible to the Palm TX. By visible, I mean to say that it can connect and appears in the list of available sites when the SSID is broadcast.

So why, when the security is set to WPA (any iteration thereof), does the main 2.4GHz SSID vanish from sight of the Palm TX, but there's no problem seeing and connecting to the Guest SSIDs with WPA?

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
I know older devices are not capable of WPA. Only can work on WEP or even
less like password.

 

[torchddv]

The Palm TX is fine with WPA personal (TKIP) but not capable of WPA2 personal (AES). It was also updated for WPA enterprise (radius server).

It connects just fine to my old router, with the same WPA/WPA2 TKIP+AES settings. Even more to the point, it connects just fine to a "guest" SSID set up on this same router using the same WPA security.