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#1 2013-04-19 22:48:02

Azrael85
Member
Registered: 2012-05-30
Posts: 24

Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

Hi!!

Two days ago I received my new laptop and I'm having some issues with wifi. It seems like a weak performance. I have in the same position than the old one and everytime I reboot the system, It can't connect to my router by itself. I have to carry the laptop two or three meters closer to the router, it connects, and then I can go back to the original position and the connection won't be lost till the next reboot. Besides, it seem to work slower than the old computer. It is a Realtek card with the chipset RTL8723AE. I've seen some packages in AUR, but it seems to be for older kernel than 3.8, when it wasn't supported I guess.

Any idea about what can I do to get a better performance??

Thanks in advance!!

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#2 2013-04-20 16:34:51

vitor14
Member
From: /dev/urandom
Registered: 2013-04-19
Posts: 15

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

What happens if at the usual distance you use the laptop, with the wifi already working, you disconnect it and try to connect it again?

Besides, how are you establishing the connections? (wpa_supplicant, netcfg, etc.) Maybe the program generates useful output.

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#3 2013-04-20 18:12:49

Azrael85
Member
Registered: 2012-05-30
Posts: 24

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

I'm in gnome, with networkmanager, so I'm using wpa_supplicant for my wireless connection. What do you mean by "useful output?

vitor14 wrote:

What happens if at the usual distance you use the laptop, with the wifi already working, you disconnect it and try to connect it again?.

I've tried, but the problem appears again, asking me the password over and over again till I get closer to the router.

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#4 2013-04-20 20:08:15

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

I wonder which device is having trouble  with the communications.  In other words, does your lappy not hear the router, or does the router not hear you? 

What is the output of iw wlan0 scan dump   (replace wlan0 with the name of your wireless network)?
Do you have access to the control functions of the router?  If so, find out what the signal strength it reports coming from your laptop and let us know.


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#5 2013-04-21 15:10:55

Azrael85
Member
Registered: 2012-05-30
Posts: 24

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

The output is this:

BSS 00:19:70:8a:12:87 (on wlp3s0) -- associated
	TSF: 96161859178 usec (1d, 02:42:41)
	freq: 2437
	beacon interval: 100
	capability: ESS Privacy ShortPreamble ShortSlotTime (0x0431)
	signal: -16.00 dBm
	last seen: 36713 ms ago
	Information elements from Probe Response frame:
	SSID: Orange-1bed
	Supported rates: 1.0* 2.0* 5.5* 11.0* 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 
	DS Parameter set: channel 6
	RSN:	 * Version: 1
		 * Group cipher: TKIP
		 * Pairwise ciphers: CCMP TKIP
		 * Authentication suites: PSK
		 * Capabilities: (0x0000)
	WPA:	 * Version: 1
		 * Group cipher: TKIP
		 * Pairwise ciphers: CCMP TKIP
		 * Authentication suites: PSK
	ERP: <no flags>
	Extended supported rates: 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0 
	WMM:	 * Parameter version 1
		 * u-APSD
		 * BE: CW 15-1023, AIFSN 3
		 * BK: CW 15-1023, AIFSN 7
		 * VI: CW 7-15, AIFSN 2, TXOP 3008 usec
		 * VO: CW 3-7, AIFSN 2, TXOP 1504 usec
	HT capabilities:
		Capabilities: 0x104c
			HT20
			SM Power Save disabled
			RX HT40 SGI
			No RX STBC
			Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes
			DSSS/CCK HT40
		Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
		Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 8 usec (0x06)
		HT RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-7
		HT TX MCS rate indexes are undefined
	HT operation:
		 * primary channel: 6
		 * secondary channel offset: no secondary
		 * STA channel width: 20 MHz
		 * RIFS: 0
		 * HT protection: non-HT mixed
		 * non-GF present: 0
		 * OBSS non-GF present: 1
		 * dual beacon: 0
		 * dual CTS protection: 0
		 * STBC beacon: 0
		 * L-SIG TXOP Prot: 0
		 * PCO active: 0
		 * PCO phase: 0
	Country: ES	Environment: Indoor/Outdoor
		Channels [1 - 13] @ 20 dBm
	WPS:	 * Version: 1.0
		 * Wi-Fi Protected Setup State: 2 (Configured)
		 * AP setup locked: 0x00
		 * Selected Registrar: 0x0
		 * Response Type: 3 (AP)
		 * UUID: 90013bef-1bed-9001-3bef-1bed3bef1bed
		 * Manufacturer: Sagem
		 * Model: Livebox2
		 * Model Number: Livebox2
		 * Serial Number: LK11294DP1
		 * Primary Device Type: 6-0050f204-1
		 * Device name: Livebox2-1BED
		 * Config methods: Ethernet, Label, PBC
		 * RF Bands: 0x1

What do you mean by "access to the control functions"?? Accessing through the browser with the ip? Because I do have that kind of access, but I don't find any place where I can see the signal strength that the router is receiving from my laptop...

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#6 2013-04-21 15:22:26

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

signal: -16.00 dBm

That is a pretty good signal.  My laptop is reporting about -45 dBm and is more than adequate; your signal is much stronger.

Azrael85 wrote:

What do you mean by "access to the control functions"?? Accessing through the browser with the ip? Because I do have that kind of access, but I don't find any place where I can see the signal strength that the router is receiving from my laptop...

Yes, that is what I mean.  I phrased it the way I did because not all routers have a web page, so I went generic.  I would expect it to have some signal quality information, what type of router is it?

It does not really matter, your signal quality appears to be fine.  Is there any chance that when you are further from the router that your laptop is finding another access point and is trying to associate with that one?


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#7 2013-04-22 03:33:02

vitor14
Member
From: /dev/urandom
Registered: 2013-04-19
Posts: 15

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

ewaller wrote:

Is there any chance that when you are further from the router that your laptop is finding another access point and is trying to associate with that one?

That's what occurred to me, it may be detecting an open network and getting stuck trying to connect to it (the router has MAC-blocking on). It would be interesting if you disabled all network managers and then used iw/wpa_supplicant/dhcpcd to connect to your network, eliminating the possibility of interferences. (I tried in my machine to telinit into runlevel 1 but that doesn't seem to allow networking at all; you'll have to find out which services/programs you'll need to stop/kill).

Azrael85 wrote:

What do you mean by "useful output?

There might be a log of connection attempts, exit codes, etc. Your router too may have useful logs (I don't know if you'd first have to change something like a verbosity level though).

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#8 2013-04-24 14:42:42

Azrael85
Member
Registered: 2012-05-30
Posts: 24

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

Hi again!!

ewaller wrote:

Is there any chance that when you are further from the router that your laptop is finding another access point and is trying to associate with that one?

I think the problem is not related with others closer access points. This morning I've tried to connect to the network of my University; that was the only wifi available in that point, and it didn't connect, even when the reception seems good.

vitor14 wrote:

There might be a log of connection attempts, exit codes, etc. Your router too may have useful logs (I don't know if you'd first have to change something like a verbosity level though).

Yep, some of the router that I had in the past used to have that kind of information, but I can't find any of that in the one that I'm using right now, provided for my ISP (Orange).

On the other hand, after I deep research, I found that this chip seem to be really new, and kernel 3.8 was the first to have official support for it. So, maybe it is too soon?? I really hope that in future kernel versions it gets better...

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#9 2013-04-25 00:27:19

vitor14
Member
From: /dev/urandom
Registered: 2013-04-19
Posts: 15

Re: Wifi problem (RTL8723AE)

Well I actually don't know much about the kernel since I never had problems with it not supporting my hardware. Three things come to my mind, one would be to use an external (USB) wireless adapter, if you have access to one, to test if the problem is with your internal card. The other idea would be to run BSD or something other than Linux (FreeBSD can run as a live image) to test if the problem is with the kernel. And you could also try the aircrack-ng suite to scan for networks in monitor mode (different from the managed mode iw scan uses), though I'm not sure that would be helpful.

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