OBi1032 with OBiWiFi won't connect to 'WPA+WPA2' Access Point.

[drgeoff]

When I received an OBi1032 and OBiWiFi a couple of months ago I initially tried to connect it via Wi-Fi.  However after 5 minutes of no success I abandoned that and used the wired ether connection which worked fine.

Last night, needing another wired connection in addition to the fully used complement of 2 on the router and 7 on a switch, I tried to free one up by moving the OBi1032 to Wi-Fi.  I spent a good 20 minutes with no success.  The OBi could see the AP's SSID and I was entering the correct password but the OBi would never get past the "connecting" stage with the signal strength indicator cyclically increasing and going back to zero.  Tried several phone reboots and entering the password many times.  The phone was only two metres from the router in the same room and reported the signal strength as 'Excellent'.   The phone has the latest firmware.

The router/AP (a BT HomeHub3b) has always been set at its default and recommended 'WPA+WPA2' encryption setting.  I changed that to 'WPA' and the OBi connected straight way.  And with 'WPA2' also a rock solid connection.  But as soon as I select 'WPA+WPA2' it disconnects and will never reconnect until I set the router's Wi-Fi security to WPA or WPA2.

I've never experienced this problem before.  The WPA+WPA2 setting has worked with every device I've ever attempted to connect.  And that list of devices is not short:

2 off Samsung Galaxy 2 7.0 tablets
Gemini D7007 tablet
2 off Goclever Quantum 4 Android phones
Kobo Mini ebook reader
Chromecast dongle
IPush dongle (like Chromecast but DLNA protocol)
No-name Android Smart TV box
Philips NP1100 Internet Radio and Music streaming receiver
4 different makes/models of internet radios using Reciva module and firmware
Brother MFC-J4510DW printer/scanner
B and B+ Raspberry Pis running Raspbian with Ralink and Realtek based Wi-Fi dongles
B and B+ Raspberry Pis running SqueezePlug with Ralink and Realtek based Wi-Fi dongles
Asus WL-HDD25
Asus WL-330g
D-Link D730AP
Edimax SmartPlug
TP Link External AP running in repeater mode
TP Link Range extender
4 different clones of Hame A1
clone of Hame A2
clone of Hame A15
Linksys PCMCIA adaptor in Windows and Linux laptops
3-com PCMCIA adaptor in Windowsa and Linux laptops
3 different Windows PCs with internal Wi-Fi
Fonera+ running DD-WRT firmware as client/repeater
Belkin AP running DD-WRT firmware as client/repeater
Solwise NET-3G-3G11nMRW
LB-Link BL-MP01
Vonets VAR11n
Dell X50 PDA Windows Mobile 2003SE
Dell X50v PDA Windows Mobile 2003SE
HP HX2790 PDA WM6
Benq E72 phone WM6.5
HTC S610 phone WM6

Now the fact that all of those work with 'WPA+WPA2' but the OBi1032 plus OBiWiFi does not is not 100% proof that the cause lies at Obihai's door but it certainly suggests they need to look at this.

[SteveInWA]

While it might be considered a bug, WPA is obsolete, and has serious security vulnerabilities.  Also, devices with WPA2 support implements the AES encryption more efficiently in hardware, resulting in better performance.  You really should just turn off WPA support and use WPA2 exclusively.

[QBZappy]

@drgeoff

Not a reply to your observation. Just wanted to note that I was impressed with the list of projects you have dabbled with.

[MarkObihai]

Wow - that's a comprehensive lineup of devices!

Let me log this with Engineering. It seems like the two devices are failing to negotiate what security protocol to use.  For now as you've observed, the best approach is to run the AP/WiFi Router exclusively with WPA2 security (or WPA if WPA2 is not possible).