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2k

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2006-02-17

Posts: 76

Wireless woes Ralink RT2500

Hi there,

For the first time in years I am having to use a wireless network card on my desktop PC. I have sort of got it working, however there are serious issues. When I scan for the network I am only getting a weak signal (however when I boot into windows it says i'm getting an excellent signal) at least 50% of the time it refuses to connect on boot, when its connected it can be ok but very slow for up to an hour, but normally the signal disappears after a few minutes.

As I couldn't remember what the card is....

lspci | grep -i net
02:03.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
02:04.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2500 Wireless 802.11bg (rev 01)

when I scan for the network I get...

 iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:25:69:12:08:84
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=41/70  Signal level=-69 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"neighboursnetwork"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=00000093d8d1df62
                    Extra: Last beacon: 6ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 0008534B593032313739
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030101
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180200F4000000
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:22:99:91:34:4E
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=39/70  Signal level=-71 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"mynetwork"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=0000004cd4afc1d6
                    Extra: Last beacon: 3ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 0008534B593133333837
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030101
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0104
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0104
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180204F4000000
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK

despite the router being under 15 feet from this computer it's trying to pick up a neighbours wireless over mine!

I have set it up using netcfg....

anyone got any ideas?
Mike

Strike0

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-09-05

Posts: 1,491

Re: Wireless woes Ralink RT2500

If you can, set your router to a different channel. It's transmitting on the same (chan 1) as your neighbours and their signal is a tweet better (just turning antaennas might change that).

2k

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2006-02-17

Posts: 76

Re: Wireless woes Ralink RT2500

Hi Strike0

I have moved my computer so it's now less than 10 feet away from the router, however the connection is still terrible and keeps dropping. I have acquired an antenna that is attached to a wire so can be freely moved about but that hasn't helped, I'm thinking that the problem must be a driver issue, but don't have the knowledge to be able to fix it

Strike0

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-09-05

Posts: 1,491

Re: Wireless woes Ralink RT2500

Most Ralink PCI cards nowadays are supported by the rt2x00 driver, which is in the kernel and should be loaded. They are not particularly troublefree I understand. A good place to search for issues is here. Maybe you have some conflicting drivers loaded. Anything with rt2x00 or r2800pci showing up in lsmod should be ok. If you have your router on "auto" channel, try to set a fixed one <> 1, see my first post. Also have a look in everything.log at the time a connection drop happens.

2k

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2006-02-17

Posts: 76

Re: Wireless woes Ralink RT2500

Hi there Strike0 thanks for the help that you're offering

Lsmod comes up with the following

[root@mydesktop mike]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
arc4                    1118  2 
firewire_ohci          27366  0 
usb_storage            35480  0                                                                 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    51810  1                                                               
rt2500pci              13596  0                                                                 
rt2x00pci               4287  1 rt2500pci                                                       
rt2x00lib              31844  2 rt2x00pci,rt2500pci                                             
eeprom_93cx6            1707  1 rt2500pci                                                       
mac80211              341076  2 rt2x00lib,rt2x00pci                                             
serio_raw               3709  0                                                                 
radeon                781145  2                                                                 
cfg80211              147570  2 mac80211,rt2x00lib                                              
psmouse                70891  0                                                                 
rfkill                 12568  2 cfg80211                                                        
i2c_i801                7088  0                                                                 
snd_hda_intel          20208  0                                                                 
8139too                17991  0                                                                 
8139cp                 16235  0                                                                 
mii                     3439  2 8139cp,8139too                                                  
snd_hda_codec          80733  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel                             
intel_agp               8752  0                                                                 
firewire_core          44271  1 firewire_ohci                                                   
i2c_algo_bit            4615  1 radeon                                                          
drm_kms_helper         29235  1 radeon                                                          
ttm                    46507  1 radeon                                                          
drm                   170883  4 ttm,drm_kms_helper,radeon                                       
fan                     1902  0                                                                 
button                  3614  0                                                                 
i2c_core               16653  5 drm,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,radeon                 
evdev                   7630  4                                                                 
acpi_cpufreq            5141  1                                                                 
mperf                   1023  1 acpi_cpufreq                                                    
processor              23815  1 acpi_cpufreq                                                    
thermal                 6563  0                                                                 
intel_gtt              11229  1 intel_agp                                                       
snd_pcm                61237  2 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel                                     
crc_itu_t               1095  1 firewire_core                                                   
iTCO_wdt               10705  0                                                                 
agpgart                21967  4 drm,ttm,intel_agp,intel_gtt                                     
uas                     7015  0                                                                 
iTCO_vendor_support     1545  1 iTCO_wdt                                                        
pcspkr                  1455  0                                                                 
snd_page_alloc          5901  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel                                           
snd_hwdep               4746  1 snd_hda_codec                                                   
microcode               8953  0                                                                 
coretemp                4702  0                                                                 
snd_seq_dummy           1127  0                                                                 
snd_seq_oss            24764  0                                                                 
snd_seq_midi_event      4576  1 snd_seq_oss                                                     
snd_seq                41535  5 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_dummy                    
snd_timer              14902  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq                                                 
snd_seq_device          4316  3 snd_seq,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_dummy                               
snd                    44394  9 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_device                                                
soundcore               4378  1 snd                                                             
cuse                    4239  3                                                                 
fuse                   60090  3 cuse
ext4                  386184  3 
crc16                   1091  1 ext4
jbd2                   62469  1 ext4
mbcache                 4345  1 ext4
sr_mod                 13180  0 
cdrom                  30472  1 sr_mod
sd_mod                 26991  8 
pata_acpi               2388  0 
ata_generic             2391  0 
ahci                   17913  1 
uhci_hcd               19808  0 
libahci                16779  1 ahci
ata_piix               19608  4 
ehci_hcd               35958  0 
libata                146087  5 ahci,pata_acpi,libahci,ata_generic,ata_piix
scsi_mod              112495  5 uas,usb_storage,libata,sd_mod,sr_mod
usbcore               123521  5 uas,uhci_hcd,usb_storage,ehci_hcd
usb_common               622  1 usbcore

I have set the channel on the router to channel 6. I shall report on how well it is working as soon as I know. and I shall check the logs next time the connection goes as well.