• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Netgear Router: WLAN access rejected, incorrect security

nickdalzell

nickdalzell

Extreme Android User
this has been an issue for a little over a week now. at times, my entire internet will go down, but it's not the internet. it's my router. in its log, it throws aroun a few 'WLAN ACCESS REJECTED, Incorrect security for MAC address:' errors. but the thing is all my devices are unable to connect. this almost always happens when i turn on any wifi device (my smart TV, phone, tablet, etc) and BAM! all access lost. have to pull the plug on the router and force a reboot.

the thing is, i have NOT enabled security. it's an open network. so where is this 'incorrect security' coming from? once i reboot the router it works fine for perhaps an hour or so, then it repeats it. any device on the wifi band can cause it. it's just a matter of which device and when i suppose. twice in th same day my phone did it, then i tried to use my smart TV and it done it again. when it does it with either device, the error is particular to the MAC address of that one device.
 
What model is the router? Perhaps other people with the same router are having issues too :dontknow:
 
Netgear WNR2000V3. latest firmware. i've turned off any and all security as it tended to cause other issues. still have not tracked this one down just yet. QoS and WMM are now disabled as well. per another forum i changed the wifi channel to 9 and have not seen the issue recur yet.

Been a really decent router. this WLAN access rejected issue just started to crop up.
 
WiFi routers can act funky sometimes, like they'll get some strange fault like rejecting all connections even after resetting. Had one, the instant I started Transmission bittorrent, the router would just crash and go dead.

If get one doing something like that I'd just replace it. I can get TP-Link ones for about equivalent of $15. They're perfectly OK. So it's not even worth messing round too much trying to fault it, other than resetting and seeing if there's an updated software for the thing.
 
If you decide to replace it, see if using dd-wrt fixes it first. I've got it loaded on my Netgear WNDR3300. I just looked and the 2000v2 is on the list.

I don't believe you can flash back to OEM firmware once you go to dd-wrt though.
 
i'd be afraid of bricking mine with dd-wrt. first of all i don't even know how to do it, secondly, what will change in my configuration? i got it set up specifically for my connection, including disabling all that security stuff that seems to play up with my Xboxes

i have noticed the one thing that makes the log absolutely fill up with 'WLAN access rejected' notices, and that is attempting to play YouTube. the MAC address listed in the error is specifically the Smart TV (Vizio)'s MAC Address. it's just the TV. nothing else is reported that way. if i attempt to use a ethernet cable, instead of booting the TV off at random, it just disables ALL internet connectivity entirely. it's like something about my TV and my router don't get along. i have MAC filtering disabled, all forms of security disabled, and my TV's IP Address in a DMZ. it still does it. what type of 'security' am i missing? all the results on Netgear's sites including their forums are dealing with problems with WPA security and MAC Filtering, none of which i am using.

All of this has seemed to coincide with a recent firmware update my TV installed onto itself, i had no option to decline it, i just turned it on one day and it told me it updated the firmware. ever since, using it as a smart TV is useless. it refuses to play YouTube, many of the apps refuse to see a connection (display error triangles), the app store refuses to work anymore (Downloads: Unavailable) and Netflix appears to be the only functioning app.
 
Vizio 24" E-Series Razor LED Smart Connected TV. it's a rather nice HDTV that has bundled Vizio Internet Apps and an app store to download more. it is really nice except i wish it had Google apps like Play Movies. you can download some weather widgets, view Wiki pages, podcasts, Pandora radio, and even ebooks if you so desire.
 
If the problem recurs, I would doing a reset to defaults and then make the necessary changes you need for your network to do its thing.
 
Already tried factory resetting both the TV and the router. It only seems to take issue with the TV's MAC address when using the built-in wifi. Works perfectly fine with ethernet cable. What I just cannot grasp is why that particular log entry even exists. The router is configured with no security, no password, and with MAC filtering, DoS attack prevention as well as the firewall disabled. Turned off. Gone. So what 'security' is it referring to?
 
I just said it is disabled. Every 'secure' feature is disabled. So the log entry continuing to exist makes me scratch my head in confusion.
 
Revert to an older firmware. Newer isn't always better. I have a Netgear WNDR3700 that, when loaded with the newest (at the time) firmware, gave me headaches. Once I reverted to an older firmware version all the issues went away. In fact, Netgear seems to have pulled the update that was giving me issues with mine.
 
Would not factory reset do that? I already did the reset procedure to revert it to factory and reconfigured everything, but it still doesn't like the MAC address of the Vizio TV.
 
The TV doesn't happen to (likely by accident if this is the case) have the same IP address as any other device on your network, does it? That would cause problems
 
Nope. The log entry is specifically taking issue with the TV's MAC address itself. Only kills connectivity to the TV whenever it crops up. Ethernet cable seems to fix it but then later the router kills ALL connectivity forcing a reboot if I use the TV too long. I don't know what security it is referring to as its all turned off, and disabled. I also do not know why it has a problem specifically with the TV. All the searches come up with stuff regarding MAC filtering or wifi security which I am not using.

Log entry is '[WLAN ACCESS REJECTED: incorrect security for MAC Address xx:xx:xx:xx' which the actual numbers end up being the same as the smart TV. No other MAC addresses show up for this error.

The error changes to something else when connected to ethernet. Takes longer though
 
nickdalzell said:
Would not factory reset do that? I already did the reset procedure to revert it to factory and reconfigured everything, but it still doesn't like the MAC address of the Vizio TV.
Click to expand...

No. "Factory reset" only reverts all settings to default, it does NOT revert the firmware to the version that was factory-loaded. You could also find out what the "30-30-30" reset procedure is for your router. This is a form of factory reset but seems to do something different that can help resolve issues the standard reset doesn't.
 
nickdalzell said:
i'd be afraid of bricking mine with dd-wrt. first of all i don't even know how to do it, secondly, what will change in my configuration? i got it set up specifically for my connection, including disabling all that security stuff that seems to play up with my Xboxes
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm late in getting back to this thread.

Installing dd-wrt is incredibly easy and instructions are available on their site.

As far as security and XBox, I've got mine set up with WPA-PSK2 with a 13-character alpha-numeric passphrase and have zero issues with our XBox, Wii, PS3 or our laptops, tablets or phones. You shouldn't have to disable security in order to get those to work. Either something's misconfigured on your router or something's misconfigured on your XBox.

dd-wrt (at least for me) provided me with a lot more configuration options.
 
Security usually messed with some of my tablets and mobile devices. The xbox is wired. Linux in particular had a nasty habit of forgetting wifi passwords or refusing to even scan for secure enabled wifi hotspots.
 
nickdalzell said:
Security usually messed with some of my tablets and mobile devices. The xbox is wired. Linux in particular had a nasty habit of forgetting wifi passwords or refusing to even scan for secure enabled wifi hotspots.
Click to expand...

Only time I have connection issues on my laptop is when I'm connected to my school's wifi and it decides to not want to let me load webpages. I can be sitting 5 feet or less from the stick that supposedly represents the wifi router and it still is slow and bogged down (usually in the hour and a half before noon and the half hour after which is when it seems the most people are on). If I'm on my personal wifi (i.e. at home) or loading pages on my phone (via 3g/4g or my personal wifi, whichever one happens to be connected at the time), I'm fine and have no real issues
 
nickdalzell said:
Nope. The log entry is specifically taking issue with the TV's MAC address itself. Only kills connectivity to the TV whenever it crops up. Ethernet cable seems to fix it but then later the router kills ALL connectivity forcing a reboot if I use the TV too long. I don't know what security it is referring to as its all turned off, and disabled. I also do not know why it has a problem specifically with the TV. All the searches come up with stuff regarding MAC filtering or wifi security which I am not using.

Log entry is '[WLAN ACCESS REJECTED: incorrect security for MAC Address xx:xx:xx:xx' which the actual numbers end up being the same as the smart TV. No other MAC addresses show up for this error.

The error changes to something else when connected to ethernet. Takes longer though
Click to expand...

As ridiculous as it sounds, it may be there's a bug in the firmware when those particular MAC address numbers are concerned.

I'd suggest taking a known good system and have it spoof the MAC address of the TV and try to connect. If the router reacts the same as it does to your TV you've hit a one-in-a-million bug that would only affect that MAC address, ever. Probably chalk it up to a typo in the friggin' code, too.
 
palmtree5 said:
Only time I have connection issues on my laptop is when I'm connected to my school's wifi and it decides to not want to let me load webpages. I can be sitting 5 feet or less from the stick that supposedly represents the wifi router and it still is slow and bogged down (usually in the hour and a half before noon and the half hour after which is when it seems the most people are on). If I'm on my personal wifi (i.e. at home) or loading pages on my phone (via 3g/4g or my personal wifi, whichever one happens to be connected at the time), I'm fine and have no real issues
Click to expand...


At least you are able to connect to your school wifi... I'm pretty sure what I need is a copy of the school's certificate, but apparently I can't email them, and the yahoos in the tech support center don't seem to know anything.
 
Dngrsone said:
At least you are able to connect to your school wifi... I'm pretty sure what I need is a copy of the school's certificate, but apparently I can't email them, and the yahoos in the tech support center don't seem to know anything.
Click to expand...

Those yahoos have probably got bosses, have you tried going up the chain?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom