[Madwifi-users] problems sniffing in managed mode

[Dean P. <pie...@gm...>]

So, I have noticed some strange behavior when sniffing wireless
networks while in managed mode.  For some reason, I am able to see all
the traffic going from the access point to the clients on the network,
but no traffic going from the clients to the access point.  For
example, on a network with many outgoing TCP connections, I would see
none of the syn packets going out, but all of the syn/acks coming back
performing the second part of the three way handshake.

Over the past month and a half or so, I have been trying different
hardware/software combinations, and found that any card using ath_pci
or ath5k that I tried behaved this way.  All cards I tested that use
the rt73usb and rt73 drivers behave the same way as well, but some
broadcom and orinoco cards behave the way I would expect (being able
to see the traffic going both ways, like you would see on a hub).

So what's the deal?

Was that an intentional design decision?  Is what I am seeing a bug?
If it's a bug, will it ever get fixed?  Does the 802.11 spec have
anything to say about this?  Did I blindly overlook some magical flag
somewhere?

Is anyone familiar with this issue?  Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

   - DEAN