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#1 2009-10-15 00:05:27

aldld
Member
Registered: 2009-08-10
Posts: 14

Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

Hello,

There seems to be a problem with my wireless connection. I am connecting with Network Profiles, to a Linksys WRT54G using WPA, using a Belkin F5D7000.

I'm getting disconnected (seemingly) randomly from the network. Disconnecting and reconnecting again usually fixes it, but sometimes it gets disconnected again after a few seconds. This is very annoying. Also, it seems to mostly happens from about 4:00 PM to about 8:00 PM, or later.

Also, there are other computers connected to the same network, running Windows, that don't have this problem, so I'm guessing it may be a problem with how I am setup.

Here is /etc/network.d/main:

CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION="A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection"
INTERFACE="wlan0"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="virus"
KEY="my key"
IP="dhcp"

Does anyone know what the problem might be? Thanks!

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#2 2009-10-15 14:31:25

steve___
Member
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 452

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

Are there lots of access points (AP) around you?  I use this command to see what is going on around me:

$ cat $HOME/bin/iw

    #! /bin/bash

    iwlist "$1" scanning | \
        awk -F '[ :=]+' '/ESS/{ printf $3" " } /Chan/{ printf $6" " } /Qual/{ printf ($3 "\n") } /Encr/{ printf $4" " }' | \
        sed 's/)//g' | \
        sort -k4

Usage is 'iw eth1', replacing eth1 with the name of your wifi interface.

See how many AP are using the same channel as your AP.  If a few APs are and their 'Quality' is high, then choose another channel.  The channels which do not overlap are 1,6 and 11.

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#3 2009-10-15 23:27:26

aldld
Member
Registered: 2009-08-10
Posts: 14

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

Thanks for your reply.

I just tried that, and ended up with this:

~$ iw wlan0
 8 32/100
on "JACKY" 
on "virus"  6 27/100

I will also try setting it to a different channel and see if that works.

Thanks!

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#4 2009-10-16 00:18:57

steve___
Member
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 452

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

hmm something is funky with how the script is parsing the output of 'iwlist wlan0 scanning'.  The script should output something like:

"ESSIDNAME" 6 off 59/100
"ESSIDNAME" 11 off 73/100
.
.
.
etc

It doesn't look like you have too many AP's around you, so looking at the output of 'iwlist wlan0 scanning' shouldn't be too painful.

Last edited by steve___ (2009-10-16 00:20:53)

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#5 2009-10-16 03:16:38

aldld
Member
Registered: 2009-08-10
Posts: 14

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

I think choosing a different channel seems to have helped. It's been a few hours without it getting disconnected again. Before, it would disconnect after about 1-20 minutes.

Here is what I get with iwlist wlan0 scanning

~ $ iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:14:BF:F3:F8:C5
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=27/100  Signal level=27/100  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"virus"
                    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=00000003145ac18a
                    Extra: Last beacon: 3ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 00057669727573
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0104
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0104
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD060010180200F0
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK

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#6 2009-10-16 03:49:37

steve___
Member
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 452

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

Is 'virus' your AP?  A signal strength of 27/100 is quite low.

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#7 2009-10-16 03:51:38

aldld
Member
Registered: 2009-08-10
Posts: 14

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

Yes, I know it's quite low. I'm just satisfied that it's working now, and when it does work, the speed is not too bad.

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#8 2009-10-16 03:58:21

steve___
Member
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 452

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

Signal strength has nothing to do with speed and could be your problem or part of it.  Is your AP far away from your computer?  From the garbled output of that command I assume there was three APs around you.  I assume someone was using an AP on the same channel as yours and it had a higher signal strength.

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#9 2009-10-16 04:11:34

aldld
Member
Registered: 2009-08-10
Posts: 14

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

Okay, I didn't know about signal strength and speed.

The AP is on the other side of my house, and there are a couple of walls in between, but I don't know how much that effects the signal strength. I think that the other AP did have a higher signal strength.

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#10 2009-10-16 09:53:59

zenlord
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-05-24
Posts: 1,221
Website

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

To increase your signal strength (and thus stability of the connection) you could add a bridged access point to your network or you could try a  802.11n-router, that offer better signal strength...

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#11 2009-10-16 14:45:07

aldld
Member
Registered: 2009-08-10
Posts: 14

Re: Wireless keeps on disconnecting,

I'll be sure to try that sometime. Thanks!

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