After more tinkering, I discovered if I power off our Linksys AP, the OS controller no longer constantly reboots. With my AP unplugged, I can connect to the OS controller with my laptop wireless, and open the initial set up web interface at 192.168.4.1. The OS controller then scans for available wireless connections…and of course my wireless AP does not show up because it is powered off. But I type in my AP’s SSID & password, then plug in my AP, wait a few seconds for it to power up, and click the “Connecting…” button on the web page. The LED screen on the OS controller says “Connecting…” for a few moments, and then it reboots and comes back up in AP mode again. I can see no evidence in either my router’s or my AP’s logs that the OS controller is able to finalize a connection to my network.
What is it about my wireless AP that causes the OS controller to constantly reboot in AP mode? I admit that it is an older AP, but it normally works fine for my usage. I’ll attach two screenshots of its configuration.
I should note that I am doing this initial configuration on my workbench. My AP is ~5 feet from the OS controller. My laptop is ~1 foot away from the OS controller. Later: moved the OS controller and my laptop into another room so we were over 40 feet from my AP, and the reboots continue. There are many other wireless networks in my neighborhood that the OS controller detects, and their presence does not make the OS controller reboot. What is it about my old WAP?
Update: Took the OS controller & my laptop to a shop out in the backyard, about 100 feet from my wireless AP. At this distance from my wireless AP, the OS controller does not constantly reboot. I was able to connect to the OS web interface (192.168.4.1), and OS scanned & detected my wireless AP. I entered the password for my wireless AP, submitted, and OS shows “Connecting…”. Then OS reboots and goes back into its original AP mode with no IP from my router.
My wireless AP logs show the OS controller as “connected”, and I was able to obtain the OS mac address from this log. But my router logs do not show any connection from the OS controller. It seems the connection is not passed through my wireless AP to my router. I suspect the problem is my wireless AP, since it causes the OS to reboot constantly when it is within close proximity. I document this strange situation in case it is helpful to someone else in the future. Note that my wireless AP works fine with my other wireless devices, such as my laptop.
