c/linuxquestions · by 7DpHJA2wbF@lemmy.zip · 51d

Why are these network configs being duplicated?

I don't have any particular problem here. I'm merely curious and can't find simple answers online. I haven't tried asking an AI, but I just feel strangely inclined to not try asking AI...

My screenshot depicts several networks in the Wifi section of gnome settings on Ubuntu 26.04LTS. The networks in question are ones labeled like management, untrusted, trusted. Some having a 1 at the end of their name/SSID (Same thing?). These networks are "hidden", not broadcasting their SSID. To my knowledge, the only networks which I've created on my infrastructure are the ones which do not have a 1 at the end of their name. After I initially connected to these hidden networks, the networks/configurations with a 1 at the end of their name/ssid/whatever just spontaneously appeared in the Wifi settings. This doesn't happen on any other devices or operating systems. So the question is of course, why does this happen?

9 points · 3 comments · view on lemmy.world

3 Comments

artwork@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 51d (2 replies)

Wonderful day!

It may be related to the router/access point/hotspot etc. (stations) having similar BSSID (mac address), and some may have a single bit changed in the 5th or 6th address byte.

In the result, the settings GUI merges them. Such technique is used for mesh and repeater networks, so that the User as a client station would not notice the different between devices in the same network.
That technique is also commonly used in evil-tween Wi-Fi attacks in kits as Linset, Fluxion, Twincy etc.
Yet, in this case, it explicitly shows them with a post-fix, possibly for the security against such attacks.

Therefore, is it possible to share the BSSIDs in the complete 6 bytes or just the 3 last bytes, to compare?

I would also try enabling logging, temporarily, for Network Manager (or Gnome's docs), that is likely used under the hood:

sudo nmcli general logging level TRACE domains ALL;

The log is Systemd based, so it should appear in journalctl:

sudo journalctl -fu NetworkManager;

And, thank you, heartfelt, for clarifying at experienced people... prior the dead, sorrowful, awful machinery/algos as LLM... which are all based on stolen knowledge and art of people and being meatground and sold to the same people.

7DpHJA2wbF@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Thanks for your reply! Your explanation kinda makes sense cause these networks are on the same physical device. It's a Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO. Looks like their BSSIDs are only different by a single bit, as your describing. Except, it's the first bit which is different and all others are the same like below;

BSSIDs of the networks
02:[etc] - trusted
0A:[etc] - untrusted
06:[etc] - management

Looks like the post-fix networks have the same BSSID of their non-post-fixed counterparts. Makes sense. I tried the journalctl command. When I am on the "trusted" network without post-fix and I click the "untrusted" it seems to actually connect to "untrusted 1" according to the log output. And, vice versa for connecting to "trusted" from "untrusted 1".

artwork@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 25d

Thank you for more details! May I ask, have you got a chance to clarify at Communities who are more oriented on the subject? Like KDE/Linux IRC/Matrix networks, or forums?