Madwifi Sloooooow!

jimbo-62 · 2005-08-02 19:27:46

OK, I have the PC card that uses the Prism54 driver working OK. But my card that uses the madwifi driver is very slow with Internet access. Actually, it is very erratic with ping operations. If I ping my router/gateway, the response time is fast but I lose packets. If I ping a location on the web, the response time is slower and I lose packets.

If I use Firefox to browse the web, it takes a long time to connect and transfer data.

Any thoughts on why using the PC card and madwifi driver would give such poor results?

Thanks for any insight, jimbo

murffatksig · 2005-08-11 22:36:06

What model of PC card do you have, what model computer, and what kernel are you trying to use?

kleptophobiac · 2005-08-12 17:31:14

do an iwconfig ath0, and let us know the signal strength/quality/noise information. Multipathing can cause packet loss even with good pings.

Also, a little tidbit of radio knowledge... always keep the transmitter and receiving antennas parallel to each other. Signal strength is a complex equation, but one of its factors is cos(theta), where theta is the angle between the two antennas. IIRC, cos(pi/4) is 0.

jimbo-62 · 2005-08-15 21:57:33

Well, the PC card is a D-Link DWL-G650, V.C1, made in Taiwan. The computer is a Sony PCG-GRT150. The kernel is 2.6.12.2. All of which seems to mean nothing.

Two other distros, Slackware and Debian exhibit the same behavior, long connect time and lost packets. Slackware using kernel 2.6.12.2 and Debian using kernel 2.6.8.

Arch, Slackware and Debian all work perfectly with a Netgear WG511, V2.0, made in Taiwan PC card that uses the Prism54 driver and isl3890 firmware.

Both cards work perfectly in WinXP, fast connect time and no lost packets.

My perception, madwifi driver = poor performance. Actually very poor performance. Really not usable. I suppose I could try the ndiswrapper, but I prefer a Linux driver.

Thanks, jimbo

kleptophobiac · 2005-08-17 01:47:35

Just for reference, I have an Atheros 802.11a/b/g mini-pci card in my laptop. With the madwifi drivers on 802.11g, I move around 2200 kbps.

Nothing in the logs?

jimbo-62 · 2005-08-17 14:56:29

Which logs might have useful information?

I normally get 370 mbps with my cable internet connection which is rated at 384 mbps. But with the madwifi driver and D-Link PC card I get about 80 mbps. And the operation is very erratic, even pinging my router/gateway results in packet loss and slow times. Packet time with the hard wired connection is .31 ms, with the madwifi card about 1.22 ms, but sometimes five out of five packets are lost. And almost never zero packet loss.

Thanks, jimbo

kleptophobiac · 2005-08-17 20:06:32

I'd check /var/log/messages, /var/log/errors, and dmesg for anything worthwhile.

Also, are you encrypting traffic? I've found madwifi a little touchy when trying to use WEP or WPA.

jimbo-62 · 2005-08-17 20:30:38

There is no /var/log/messages or /var/log/errors file. dmesg doesn't show any warnings or errors associated with the ath0 interface. iwconfig shows some differences between the two wireless cards. Sensitivity for madwifi is 0/3 and for Prism 20/200. Link quality for madwifi 52/94 and Prism54 214/0. Both cards show signal level about -40dBm and noise level of abour -95dBm.

I don't have WAP or WEP enabled. I do have a MAC filter to prevent unauthorized use of my network. But the ath0 interface connects to the network with no problems. The problem is the loss of packets and slow performance.

Thanks for any additional help, jimbo

Arch Linux

#1 2005-08-02 19:27:46

Madwifi Sloooooow!

#2 2005-08-11 22:36:06

Re: Madwifi Sloooooow!

#3 2005-08-12 17:31:14

Re: Madwifi Sloooooow!

#4 2005-08-15 21:57:33

Re: Madwifi Sloooooow!

#5 2005-08-17 01:47:35

Re: Madwifi Sloooooow!

#6 2005-08-17 14:56:29

Re: Madwifi Sloooooow!

#7 2005-08-17 20:06:32

Re: Madwifi Sloooooow!

#8 2005-08-17 20:30:38

Re: Madwifi Sloooooow!

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