1266951 - Firefox keeps disconnecting my WIFI

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[adamhm]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:40.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/40.0
Build ID: 20150826023504

Steps to reproduce:

Firefox 45.0.2
Android 4.2.2

First for all, there is a roaming wireless network in my home. There are two wifi routers, both configured with the same SSID and different wifi channel. The master router is configured with LAN IP 192.168.1.1, and with DHCP enabled, while the slave router is configured with LAN IP 192.168.1.253, with DHCP disabled. I use an ethernet cable to connect a LAN port on the slave router to a LAN port on the master router. The master router is also used as the gateway to the Internet.

the problem only occurs when my phone is connected to the slave router's wifi signal

step to reproduce:
1. Stand near to the slave router and enable my android device's wifi, then connect to the slave router. From this position I can see signals from both routers with app "Wifi Analyzer", and the slave router's signal is significantly stronger than the master's, so I can also tell which router has the device connected to from the signal strength meter.
2. Start firefox browser, then I can see the wifi meter icon in the system tray disappeared, indicating that the wifi is disconnected. After a short time I can see the wifi meter re-appear, as the system will try to connect to any available wifi signal, but if the connected signal is still from the slave router, the disconnect-reconnect loop may occur a few times, then the connection will become stable 
3. If the finally connected wifi signal is still from the slave router, then when I open any address in firefox, the wifi is disconnected again. Sometimes the system will choose the master router's signal as it thinks there is problem with the slave's for the repeated connecting-disconnecting, in this case the problem ends.

So it seems that whenever firefox is connecting to some web address (I guess it will do a few web requests on start), it will disconnect my phone's wifi connection if it is connected to the slave router. I guess the problem has some relation with the network environment as it can only be reproduced on the slave wifi's signal. Maybe there is some kind of "spoof preventing" mechanism in firefox which triggers my problem? As the wifi signal's mac address(slave) is different from the gateway's (master)

The problem only occurs on firefox. I've tested my phone's default browser, google play and some other apps using network, the wifi disconnecting behavior never happens in the same network environment. So I think there is some bug in firefox make it happen.


Actual results:

repeated wifi disconnect-reconnect as described above


Expected results:

A browser should never manipulate/affect wifi connection at all

Comment 1

[Kevin Brosnan [Ex-Mozilla]]

Patrick/Snorp what data do we need for this report to be useful?

Comment 2

[James Willcox (:snorp) ([e-mail]) (he/him)]

Weird. I have the same router/AP configuration in my home and have never seen this. Do you have mozstumbler turned on ('Mozilla Location Service' in Firefox Settings -> Privacy)? That's one of two places we mess with the WiFi (to make sure scanning is enabled, I guess). The other place is when a connection fails we have a button on the error page that allows you to turn on WiFi.

Comment 3

[James Willcox (:snorp) ([e-mail]) (he/him)]

Also, reporter, if you are familiar with the 'logcat' tool, it would be great if you could attach that. There are some instructions here[0] if you are unfamiliar and want to try.

[0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA/Fennec_Android:_Logging_with_the_Android_Debug_and_Logcat

Comment 4

[Patrick McManus [:mcmanus]]

this is just a shot in the dark - but try setting network.tickle-wifi.enabled to false (in about:config)

Comment 5

[adamhm]

Attachment: logcat.txt

Comment 6

[adamhm]

I checked the Mozilla Location Service option, it was not turned on

tried disabled network.tickle-wifi.enabled, not works

record a debug log file with logcat, attached above. I opened(in fact switch to) firefox after the log begin, waited for a moment, watched the wifi connect/disconnect for 2-3 times, and press the back key of andorid, which made firefox to go to background as there is no page opened. It seems that the last action(switch firefox to background with android back key) will also cause a wifi disconnecting.

Comment 7

[lindawu16898]

I got the same issue.
When launched web page with FF browser, WiFi is disconnected.
Closed the browser, reconnected WiFi, and launched a new web page with Chrome. WiFi is no problem to keep connecting.
Reopen a new page with FF, WiFi is disconnected again.

Thanks
Linda

Comment 8

[Scott Finnell]

I have the exact same issue. It doesn't happen all the time, but happens enough to make me want to use another browser. I can't download things and I think what's going on, and I look down at my wifi bars, and it has a cross on it. It says connection is limited. Happens all the time. I thought why is this, so I searched Google and came across this bug report. I like Firefox, so I hope this gets resolved, or I will be forced to use Chrome.

Comment 9

[Sorina Florean [:sflorean]]

Hello,
We tried to reproduce with Android 8.1.0, Android 5.0.2 but weren't able. This issues is still reproducible with the latest Firefox build (61.0.2) or Nightly build? Both can be installed from Play Store.

Thanks

Comment 10

[Stefan Deiac]

Due to the lack of additional info, I'll close this issue as Incomplete. If someone can provide more information regarding this issue, please feel free to reopen it, thanks.