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#1 2012-04-12 21:04:26

davidbe
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2009-09-08
Posts: 22

[SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Hi,

Wireless connection has some troubles. I don't get connection drops or anything in everyting.log mentioning errors with wlan. I tried wicd, Networkmanager and netcfg - but alas - no better results in any of them. The problem is that when checking mail, upgrading packages, ... sometimes connection cannot be made. Most of the time, running the same program immediately a second time, won't give this error. Less error-tolerant programs just crash/quit with an error-message.

Errors are like (in Dutch, I tried an English translation after ***):

Herleiden van v3.lscache4.c.bigcache.googleapis.com... mislukt: Naam of dienst is niet bekend. *** Failed to resolve from ... Name or service unknown.
wget: kan host-adres '‘v3.lscache4.c.bigcache.googleapis.com’' niet herleiden *** Cannot resolve host-addres

I've on the same laptop Sabayon and Ubuntu running where those problems do not occur.

Wireless/ lspci:
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

lsmod:

Module                  Size  Used by
aes_x86_64              7508  1 
cryptd                  8309  0 
aes_generic            26138  1 aes_x86_64
joydev                  9927  0 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     24240  1 
snd_hda_codec_conexant    46938  1 
asus_laptop            17142  0 
snd_hda_intel          23631  1 
arc4                    1410  2 
snd_hda_codec          92950  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
snd_hwdep               6389  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                74812  3 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
snd_page_alloc          7153  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              19544  1 snd_pcm
snd                    59858  9 snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
ath9k                  92940  0 
soundcore               6210  1 snd
jmb38x_ms               8417  0 
serio_raw               4653  0 
ath9k_common            2096  1 ath9k
jme                    35085  0 
ath9k_hw              358828  2 ath9k_common,ath9k
ath                    15393  3 ath9k_hw,ath9k_common,ath9k
mei                    32568  0 
sdhci_pci              10568  0 
psmouse                69904  0 
input_polldev           2914  1 asus_laptop
memstick                6974  1 jmb38x_ms
mac80211              396060  1 ath9k
sdhci                  23438  1 sdhci_pci
iTCO_wdt               12941  0 
mii                     4091  1 jme
iTCO_vendor_support     1961  1 iTCO_wdt
cfg80211              176921  3 mac80211,ath,ath9k
i2c_i801                8187  0 
mmc_core               82804  2 sdhci,sdhci_pci
i2c_core               20524  1 i2c_i801
evdev                   9626  7 
sparse_keymap           3120  1 asus_laptop
thermal                 7799  0 
rfkill                 15530  2 cfg80211,asus_laptop
button                  4470  0 
battery                 6453  0 
ac                      2344  0 
video                  11164  0 
intel_agp              10904  0 
intel_gtt              14519  1 intel_agp
cpufreq_powersave        990  0 
acpi_cpufreq            5877  1 
mperf                   1275  1 acpi_cpufreq
processor              25981  1 acpi_cpufreq
ext4                  425832  3 
crc16                   1359  1 ext4
jbd2                   71939  1 ext4
mbcache                 5881  1 ext4
sd_mod                 28371  5 
sr_mod                 15047  0 
cdrom                  36489  1 sr_mod
ahci                   20133  4 
libahci                19487  1 ahci
libata                167582  2 libahci,ahci
scsi_mod              134028  3 libata,sr_mod,sd_mod
ehci_hcd               43864  0 
usbcore               146465  2 ehci_hcd
usb_common               954  1 usbcore

Can you help to pinpoint the problem and try to find a solution?

Thanks in advance,
david

Edit: solution: Disabling ipv6

Last edited by davidbe (2012-04-23 18:15:21)

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#2 2012-04-12 21:50:25

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

The ath9k driver has some issues with new kernels, check here if that applies to your problems: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=139274

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#3 2012-04-22 12:57:14

davidbe
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2009-09-08
Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

I wanted to be on the safe side and waited until 3.3.2-1 kernel was available. Several mention that it solved their problem, but it doesn't help for me.
It is not that wlan0 gets disconnected completely (/var/log/everything.log) doesn't mention anything. dmesg seems to be allright. I have no clue how to investigate further on this...

Any help is welcome!

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#4 2012-04-22 14:48:11

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Maybe the connection is just weak or the router has troubles to keep it up. Check connection quality parameters with iwconfig when it happens. If the router is very old, the encryption may also be troublesome and changing it may help.
edit: Also check your resolv.conf when it is connected if DNS servers beside the router are listed.

Last edited by Strike0 (2012-04-22 14:49:39)

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#5 2012-04-22 15:02:22

davidbe
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2009-09-08
Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Even when I'm sitting next to the router, this issue appears (link quality 65/70 according to iwconfig). But I doubt whether it is due to the router, because when booting on the same laptop in other distros (Sabayon, Ubuntu), I don't have these troubles... They're not as bleeding edge as Arch Linux, so it could be kernel/driver related? The frustrating thing is that I don't find any errormessage in /var/log/everything.log or dmesg that gives me any clue. Any other places I should check?

resolv.conf only gives my router.

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#6 2012-04-22 16:25:45

Gcool
Member
Registered: 2011-08-16
Posts: 1,456

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

When you experience the connectivity issues, is your wlan0 interface still associated with the router at that point (and does it still have an ip address assigned to it)?


Burninate!

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#7 2012-04-22 17:28:05

davidbe
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2009-09-08
Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Yes, I think so. I tried wicd and networkmanager. Both of them don't give any change. eg. I keep wicd-curses open in the background.

These issues are constant throughout the time. I mean, it doesn't seem (subjective, I know, because I don't have any objective error-messages, logs, ...) to happen, for example, after 5 minutes uptime... I've a script that checks some mail-accounts. Almost everytime, when I run it the first time, it crashes with an error like "cannot resolve...". I've to rerun the script one or two times to make it finish with success. And no strange messages in the log/dmesg/wicd-curses.

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#8 2012-04-22 17:34:58

Gcool
Member
Registered: 2011-08-16
Posts: 1,456

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Next time it happens, please post the output of the following commands:

# ip addr
# ip route
# iwconfig -a
# cat /etc/resolv.conf
# ping www.google.com
# ping 8.8.8.8

Burninate!

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#9 2012-04-22 18:46:30

davidbe
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2009-09-08
Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

The thing is, I cannot run it when it happens, because it is not a disconnection. It is more like small hickups. Fault-tolerant applications won't give an error. But using wget/curl might fail 1, 2 or three consecutive times, but can succeed flawlessly a 4th time. :-/

ip addr

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether e0:cb:4e:f6:77:9e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 1c:4b:d6:5b:c0:a8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.10/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global wlan0
    inet6 fe80::1e4b:d6ff:fe5b:c0a8/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

ip route

default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0  metric 303 
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.1.10  metric 303 

iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Mobistar-3a40"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 5C:33:8E:BF:B3:60   
          Bit Rate=65 Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=56/70  Signal level=-54 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:24   Missed beacon:0

eth0      no wireless extensions.

cat /etc/resolv.conf

domain home
nameserver 192.168.1.1

ping www.google.com -c 10

PING www.google.com (173.194.66.104) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=1 ttl=48 time=23.6 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=2 ttl=47 time=23.8 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=3 ttl=48 time=24.4 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=4 ttl=47 time=23.9 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=5 ttl=47 time=25.0 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=6 ttl=47 time=26.2 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=7 ttl=48 time=26.0 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=8 ttl=47 time=25.4 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=9 ttl=47 time=25.0 ms
64 bytes from we-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.66.104): icmp_req=10 ttl=48 time=24.3 ms

--- www.google.com ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9013ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 23.607/24.796/26.204/0.885 ms

ping 8.8.8.8 -c 10

PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=1 ttl=50 time=27.0 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=2 ttl=50 time=27.2 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=3 ttl=50 time=26.7 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=4 ttl=50 time=26.9 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=5 ttl=50 time=27.3 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=6 ttl=50 time=27.1 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=7 ttl=50 time=28.2 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=8 ttl=50 time=27.1 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=9 ttl=50 time=27.7 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=10 ttl=50 time=27.1 ms

--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9012ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 26.795/27.299/28.266/0.407 ms

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#10 2012-04-22 19:36:48

Gcool
Member
Registered: 2011-08-16
Posts: 1,456

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Try disabling ipv6 and see if that makes a difference.


Burninate!

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#11 2012-04-22 22:16:51

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Also, setup some DNS to complement your router in resolv.conf. If in doubt just copy the ones the router uses or googles.
When the error happens (e.g. when you run your email script first time), check with iwconfig if the bitrate is greater than 1mb/s at that time or the connection broke down to that.

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#12 2012-04-23 18:12:15

davidbe
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2009-09-08
Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED] unstable wireless connection

Disabling ipv6 did solve the problem!

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