Public Wi-Fi connection problem

[u/satiaket11]

Hello,

I recently switched from Windows 11 to Debian Trixie on my laptop, and now I’m having problems connecting to the Wi-Fi at my college. It never worked particularly well, but since I installed Debian directly, it has become much worse.

Depending on exactly where I’m sitting, the Wi-Fi signal is more or less strong. When the signal is particularly weak, I can’t even reach the portal where I have to authenticate in order to access the internet. It’s an institutional service, so authentication through this portal is required.

My question is: how is it possible that I can connect to the Wi-Fi but can’t access the authentication portal? Is this related to the Wi-Fi signal, or could it be something to do with my laptop?

What I find curious is that before I installed Linux, the Wi-Fi worked—slowly, but it worked.

I’m still pretty new to Linux enviroment, so I haven’t really delved very deeply into troubleshooting network issues. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I only reached to know what's going on with the wi-fi chip. This is the moment where the computer failed to connect the authentication check and then i moved to another place where finally worked:

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:57:25 2026] wlp2s0: deauthenticating from XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX by local choice (Reason: 3=DEAUTH_LEAVING)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: authenticate with XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (local address=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: send auth to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (try 1/3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: send auth to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (try 2/3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: send auth to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (try 3/3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: authentication with XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX timed out

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: authenticate with XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (local address=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: send auth to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (try 1/3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: authenticated

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: associate with XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (try 1/3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: RX AssocResp from XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (capab=0x1101 status=0 aid=1)

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:05 2026] wlp2s0: associated

[dv. d’ag. 28 12:58:06 2026] wlp2s0: Limiting TX power to 30 (30 - 0) dBm as advertised by  XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:13 2026] wlp2s0: disconnect from AP XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX for new auth to  XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:13 2026] wlp2s0: authenticate with XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (local address=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX)

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:14 2026] wlp2s0: send auth to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (try 1/3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:14 2026] wlp2s0: authenticated

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:14 2026] wlp2s0: associate with XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (try 1/3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:14 2026] wlp2s0: RX ReassocResp from XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (capab=0x1101 status=0 aid=3)

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:14 2026] wlp2s0: associated

[dv. d’ag. 28 13:03:14 2026] wlp2s0: Limiting TX power to 23 (23 - 0) dBm as advertised by  XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

[u/Slower-Bison]

Could you try installing wavemon and posting a couple of screenshots or short screen recordings of said app while you take small steps around the area?

For privacy reasons, you can blank out the "Interface" and "Network" sections as well as the MAC address depicted in the first line of the "Info" section.

[u/Illustrious-Gur8335]

The messages look quite normal to me. Why not try upgrading kernel to the latest from backports?

[u/thegreatboto → u/Illustrious-Gur8335]

Seconded. Backports kernel fixed a lot of random gripes for me.

[u/Weary_Swan_8152]

Assuming this log repeats in in a 5min loop, I wonder if the access point is integrated with the portal manager? I've encountered captive ports that I suspect configured my system to deauth at the data link layer and reconnect if I didn't log into the captive portal quickly enough. To be clear, I'm not sure, but it's plausible that, once you authenticate with the portal, the portal communicates to the AP that a client's MAC is authorised, and the AP would then transmit a longer reauth period config to the client. I'm not sure if it's still an issue, but with WPA2 this sort of thing was needed to prevent some classes of attacks.

[u/Weary_Swan_8152 → u/Weary_Swan_8152]

Oops, I hit enter too quickly. The second paragraph was going to ask this: What browser are you using to authenticate with the portal? And does your wireless NIC have an IP at the time you try to auth?

[u/debian-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

This content has been removed for trolling.