Arch Linux

yodo

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-02-02

Posts: 71

Wlan - "iwlist scan" gives rarely results

Hey,
I'm trying to get wireless network working on my PC. I have a PCI network card, more precisely a Longshine LCS-8031N. The Chipset is Ralink RT2860T.
Compiling the linux driver failed, and I did not find a proper solution in the internet... only complaints about the buggy linux-driver. So I tried ndiswrapper - the card works now.
My problem is, that "iwlist scan" only gives results very very rarely. And the only network which was found until now in one of my neighbours. It exists though - its one of 5 available networks (including my own) that are listed in my fritzbox (which is in the room next to mine...).
Anyway, the fact that this one network is found once in a while proves that the card is working basicly.

Has anyone an idea why "iwlist scan" does not find my own network?

PS: I found several Forums with the same topic, but none really helped. A suggestion was to run it as root with a big discussion whether it actually changes anything or not. For me it does not. Another hint was, that maybe the sensibility could be increased, so that weaker networks are displayed. But as I said my fritzbox is in the room next door anyway...

Greetings, yodo

Edit: To be sure everything is configured correctly:
Here my rc.conf Networking settings:

HOSTNAME="arch"
wlan0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(lo !eth0 wlan0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.1.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
NETWORKS=(wlan0)

and the wlan0 file in /etc/network.d/ :

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE="wlan0"
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="myessid"
KEY="mykey"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=20

Last edited by yodo (2008-10-25 18:28:18)

yodo

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-02-02

Posts: 71

Re: Wlan - "iwlist scan" gives rarely results

I finally got it working with the same settings posted above after reinstall - it worked stable for a few weeks.
Now the problem started all over again, my wlan can't be found. I did not change *any* settings in Arch, and nothing in the Router... except of a firmware upgrade which may have caused the trouble. Although the PC was not used for some days in this time.
"iwlist wlan0 scan" does sometimes end up in "no results" but most of the times networks are found... 1-2 often, another very very rarely. But my own network never. Its frustrating.
I tested it with a vista laptop of my brother - everything works fine there. Should be no Router problem.

Any ideas now?

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Wlan - "iwlist scan" gives rarely results

I've found that I get poor/no results while I'm already connected to a network.