hey there,

so, I did the obvious things:

  • reboot my phone
  • restartet the router
  • reset the network settings on my phone
  • PW tripplechecked and confirmed, even scanned the QR code with same result

just went to the grocery store and I was able to connect to their public wifi with no issues

So, no expert here, but this leaves me with the conclusion, that something with GrapheneOS is wrong on my phone in particular combinations of factors, regarding my home network.

Let me give the details to my home wifi and you can think, if there is something out of the ordinary (remember at least 7 other devices are still using the AS IS wifi and my phone was, too up until very recently!)

  • WPA/WP2/WPA3 encryption setting used to secure the wifi (most secure, recommended setting from my provider, Telekom, btw)
  • 2.4 and 5 GHz are enabled
  • open SSID (not hidden!)
  • WiFi type 6

[deleted]

the router reset is considered the last, nuklear option.
As I said, plenty other devices USE the wifi as is and no changes were applied to the network - and being forced to enter new Wifi connection on every single device where only one phone is having an issue and - as it turns out (see my other post) - obviously particularly with my home network only, seems hardly justifyable.

    Okay, here is something REALLY strange: when looking on my router into the network settings and the connected devioces, I see like at least 50 entries counting up on the last x.x.x.XX set of numbers for the IP address, all being listed as disconnected

      okay, and with one of those "ghost" IP addresses deleted I am back online with my phone.

      Any explantion, anyone?

        satansbraten Every Time your GOS device connects to your router you get a different ip. You can change this behaviour if you go to > known wifi (no idea how it is exactly in english language) > your home wifi an change (under "security") from random mac to use device mac. Than your ip will stay the same. I seems like your router has no ip possibilities left.

          Change this security option only with your home wifi. Random mac is, IMHO, an important security feature.

          dirksche
          How long the IP address assigned is reserved
          Will up to your router/AP configuration

            Thanks to everyone for the help, mich appreciated.
            Can I close this discussion in MX own?

            • [deleted]

            • Post #14

            satansbraten
            You can think of it as that the IP address which is given to your phone has reserved place on your router for a certain amount of time. When you have a longer "lease time", it means that that your router expect your IP address to connect.
            If you lower the value of your lease time in your router's setting, your list of previously connected IP addresses will clear faster. It means that if you have a different IP address when you connect to your router, you need to set your lease time accordingly, so there is always a spot for you to connect. Otherwise you cannot connect, because all spots are already taken. I try to explain it as simple as I am able, but it might be still a bit confusing.

            If it is too complicated just search the web for: "how to renew IP lease." You will also learn the command for your terminal or CMD or whatever you are using.

              d4f2 The strange thing: with LOS and activated random mac I never had this issue with changing IPs. But since I connect my device with GOS, every connection affect a new IP. Even if I disconnect for just a minute

                  dirksche https://grapheneos.org/features#wifi-privacy

                  GrapheneOS supports per-connection MAC randomization and enables it by default. This is a more private approach than the standard persistent per-network random MAC used by modern Android.

                  This is a privacy feature added by GrapheneOS. You do have the option to make it per-network instead of per-connection, however.

                    Never use device mac address. It exposes you everywhere, all the time.

                    Use per connection mac randomization, or per network in worst case scenarios.

                    As others mentioned, main problem is with your router. reduce lease time. You can also increase your IP allocation pool. from 50 to higher, but this alone won't solve your problem. The main problem is your router not releasing unused mac addresses.

                      • [deleted]

                      • Post #22

                      GrapheneOS
                      Found on news://news.aioe.org/comp.mobile.android

                      Note: I'm fully aware that hiding the SSID broadcast is not for security
                      reasons, but many people do not realize hiding it is for privacy reasons!

                      Specifically, most Android phones driving by your home will upload your GPS
                      location and your unique router BSSID even if you have "_nomap" appended to
                      the SSID (unique because you want your unique-as-possible SSID to stay out
                      of voluminous Internet butterfly/hash tables but that's a separate thing).

                      Even if Google/Mozilla respect the _nomap on the server side... notice that
                      distinction because it's the whole point that it's already uploaded even
                      if you have "_nomap" appended (where we can forget nowadays about
                      optout)... there's no guarantee that the others (e.g., Kismet, Wiggle,
                      etc.) will respect the _nomap optout request).

                      The solution is to prevent "most" Android phones from even seeing your
                      SSID, which can only be done by hiding the broadcast - where - if someone
                      knows what they're doing, of course they will see your (hidden) SSID -
                      but "most" phones will not upload a hidden ID to the Internet servers,
                      and that's why you hide it.
                      Of course, once you hide it, then you have to worry about your phone
                      constantly trying to reconnect to it (which shouts out your supposedly
                      unique SSID everywhere you go), so you also need to turn off the
                      auto-reconnection option in Android - which is very easily done.
                      ...

                          dirksche From what I understand (and I could be wrong), when your device's wifi communicates with a router, the mac address of both devices are constantly sent back and forth between the two devices as part of the communication protocal. So each packet of data transmitted contains the sender and recipients mac address (random mac or real). All other devices nearby also pick up all communication from those two devices, look at the macs, and if the message is not for them, then they ignore it.

                          This means that your real mac address will be picked up by other devices and associated with your home address (can be done very accurately by google through other user devices). Your home address is already very likely compromised through various online sources (shopping sites, government emails, etc) and associated with your real identity already.

                          Then should that mac address ever be seen anywhere else (by accident or otherwise), it will be recognize as you on the move.

                          If this is true (And i'll leave it up to you to decide if this is true or not), then... why risk it to begin with? Why not just use random macs?

                          There are occasions when you really have to use real mac address because of technical limitations. If not, best to just use random.

                          If I'm not mistaken of course.

                          There are also other scenarios that the real mac could be exposed and used against you, which for the sake of keeping this short I will not get into. So why build up a visible location history with that mac address to begin with?