Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

angelic_sedition · 2015-01-23 19:04:44

I've been having issues connecting wirelessly in certain areas at my university for a long time. In some places I have no issuses, but in others the wifi is very spotty for me (even with what's shown as a medium or strong signal). If I get disconnected, I don't get reconnected, and sometimes I can't connect at all. On my phone, I have no problem connecting, and other people don't have problems either.

I was previously using netctl and am now using connman without any luck. If I repeatedly start and stop the connman service it usually will connect me maybe 1/15 times. I've also tried wicd, but couldn't connect at all. I don't recall having any luck with network manager but am willing to try again. I'm sort of baffled. Is this possibly a hardware problem? How would I check? Does anyone have any suggestions for a connection manager that will keep trying to connect? I'd appreciate any help.

Trilby · 2015-01-23 19:07:41

Does this happen to be an eduroam network?

angelic_sedition · 2015-01-23 21:11:13

Trilby wrote:

Does this happen to be an eduroam network?

No, it's not. Does that cause problems?

Last edited by angelic_sedition (2015-01-23 21:12:34)

ajbibb · 2015-01-23 21:21:11

There was some back and forth on the Connman mailing list a month or so ago (I think, I'll need to go back to make sure) about Connman failing to reconnect to hidden networks if it got disconnected. I'm assuming the networks you are having trouble with are not hidden, but thought I'd mention it.

Is your Connman current? This bug was fixed in the recent 1.27 update, but sounds similar to what you are seeing:
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/network/conn … dcc85b3f93

Are your services set up for autoconnect? I don't actually know this, but my observations are that autoconnect is the default so unless you've changed that your services probably are, but maybe worth a check anyway.

When you get disconnected do you try and reconnect or just shutdown Connman and restart? I saw an answer on the mailing list to a connection question recently to the effect that wpa-supplicant was in a snarl. Both WiCD and Connman use wpa-supplicant so wondering if maybe the problem is there.

Lastly, CMST does have a feature where you can have the program automatically try to reconnect a WiFi connection that has fallen into the "Failed" state. If you enable the feature it makes one try, that cannot be changed. Connman is supposed to automatically reconnect if it can, but I had some users (or user - singular) that was having problems so I put the feature in. He told me that with the Connman bug fix I mentioned above that he didn't need that work around anymore, but we left it in anyway.

angelic_sedition · 2015-01-23 21:49:43

It looks like my version is below that, so I will update and see if that changes anything.

I am set up for autoconnect (though it won't check after it's failed; maybe I will use CMST for this). I've had the most success actually stopping and then starting connman, but if I try to manually reconnect that won't work either.

I will test it with the new version of connman next time I am in the area. I'm really hoping this is something specific to connman. I did get disconnected a lot with netctl, but I don't remember it being quite this bad when trying to reconnect. Thank you for the help.

Last edited by angelic_sedition (2015-01-23 21:51:29)

Trilby · 2015-01-23 22:41:29

angelic_sedition wrote:

No, it's not. Does that cause problems?

If it's not eduroam, then it's not relevant to your issues. But as an aside, it does seem some local eduroam networks have pretty shoddy implementation leading to symptoms like those you describe.

angelic_sedition · 2015-01-28 18:03:53

Updating connman doesn't fix the problem. I consistently can't connect in one area (and when I do, I get disconnected pretty soon) even though CMST lists the strength as 51%. In other areas it won't disconnect, but I still have to restart it to get it to connect. Are there any suggestions for a network manager that doesn't use wpa_supplicant? I'm pretty willing to try anything at this point.. It seems the newest Network Manager has problems with wifi also... *sigh*

Trilby wrote:

angelic_sedition wrote:
No, it's not. Does that cause problems?
If it's not eduroam, then it's not relevant to your issues. But as an aside, it does seem some local eduroam networks have pretty shoddy implementation leading to symptoms like those you describe.

Ah well they might be switching which is why I asked.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-23 19:04:44

Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

#2 2015-01-23 19:07:41

Re: Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

#3 2015-01-23 21:11:13

Re: Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

#4 2015-01-23 21:21:11

Re: Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

#5 2015-01-23 21:49:43

Re: Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

#6 2015-01-23 22:41:29

Re: Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

#7 2015-01-28 18:03:53

Re: Connection Issues: Hardware Problem?

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