Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

TheGuyWithTheFace · 2017-11-05 19:06:52

My ThinkPad X250 has had this issue off and on for years, but in the past few weeks it seems like it's gotten worse. (Or at least I'm finally fed up with it.)

Sometimes I will spontaneously lose internet connection. NetworkManager reports that I am still connected to whatever wifi network I am on, but everything times out until I disconnect from that wifi network and reconnect.

Pastebin of most recent journalctl output from the last time I noticed everything timing out: https://pastebin.com/7Pc00NRi

Not sure if it's relevant, but I'm using KDE with the standard nm-applet. Any thoughts on this? I'm not even sure where to start, or what other information might be useful here.

nesk · 2017-11-05 20:11:34

Post your systemctl --state=running
And lspci info of your wifi card.

jasonwryan · 2017-11-05 20:23:31

Card and driver would be a nice start.

Moving to NC...

TheGuyWithTheFace · 2017-11-05 21:17:27

systemctl --state=running: https://pastebin.com/2H18c0FN

Relevant (I assume) bit of lspci output:

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 (rev 59)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 47
        Memory at e1000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Capabilities: [c8] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [d0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [40] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number 34-02-86-ff-ff-a7-30-e1
        Capabilities: [14c] Latency Tolerance Reporting
        Capabilities: [154] L1 PM Substates
        Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
        Kernel modules: iwlwifi

javamarket · 2017-11-05 23:22:16

I had similar pains across distros with that card. What worked for me was disabling power management.
This may have been resolved since it was an issue for me (was a bit ago) however you can certainly try:

/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/wifi-powerman-off.sh

Note: Be sure to update the WLAN_IFACE variable as necessary

#!/usr/bin/env sh

IFACE=$1 STATUS=$2
IW=/usr/bin/iw
WLAN_IFACE=wlp1s0

if [ ! -x $IW ]; then
	exit 1
fi

if [ "$IFACE" = $WLAN_IFACE ] && [ "$STATUS" = "up" ]; then
	echo "[SCRIPT] Disabling wifi power mgmt"
	$IW dev $IFACE set power_save off
fi

TheGuyWithTheFace · 2017-11-06 18:44:55

Dumb question: Is there a difference between disabling power savings here and doing so in my TLP settings?

javamarket · 2017-11-07 00:22:40

I'm not quite sure, but you can query the status directly by:

sudo iw dev wlp1s0 get power_save

Note you may need to adjust your interface name.

Last edited by javamarket (2017-11-07 00:25:08)

TheGuyWithTheFace · 2017-11-08 16:12:01

Yes, changing it in TLP did change the power_save status reported by iw dev. Unfortunately, though it did seem to help (qualitatively I experienced the issue less often than before I disabled power saving), it didn't entirely fix the issue - I still experienced internet connection loss while still connected to wifi eventually. Any other suggestions?

lo1 · 2017-11-08 17:22:17

When you lose connectivity, are you able to

ping 8.8.8.8

?

javamarket · 2017-11-08 23:04:26

What @lo1 suggests is really the next step, finding out where the packet traffic is problematic. I suggest pinging your router first and examine the results with and without powersave set. If you find lag or other packet loss you'll have to continue internal diagnostics. After the internal ping some external address like the Google DNS IP suggested by @lo1 If the problem is exterior you'll need your ISP to address it.

One tool that will help is MTR

https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/ … s-with-mtr

Last edited by javamarket (2017-11-08 23:09:25)

lo1 · 2017-11-08 23:39:24

javamarket wrote:

What @lo1 suggests is really the next step, finding out where the packet traffic is problematic. I suggest pinging your router first and examine the results with and without powersave set. If you find lag or other packet loss you'll have to continue internal diagnostics. After the internal ping some external address like the Google DNS IP suggested by @lo1 If the problem is exterior you'll need your ISP to address it.
One tool that will help is MTR
https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/ … s-with-mtr

That ping was indeed to ensure the problem isn't his gateway but the DNS server. Pinging the router will most likely work, until the problem is the DHCP...

TheGuyWithTheFace · 2017-11-12 03:26:53

Thanks, will perform these tests next time I lose internet connectivity and report back. I don't think this is an external issue though, I've experienced it on multiple networks in the past, and no one else seems to run into quite this issue.

That reminds me, I've observed that the issue appears to occur more frequently depending on what frequency network I'm on. If I recall correctly, it happens more often on 2.4GHz wifi networks than on 5GHz networks. (At least, I think it does - it's hard to tell because how often the issue occurs at any point in time is extremely random. Sometimes it'll happen repeatedly in one sitting, rarely it'll happen every couple of minutes, other times I can go for hours or even days without it occurring.)

Arch Linux

#1 2017-11-05 19:06:52

Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#2 2017-11-05 20:11:34

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#3 2017-11-05 20:23:31

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#4 2017-11-05 21:17:27

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#5 2017-11-05 23:22:16

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#6 2017-11-06 18:44:55

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#7 2017-11-07 00:22:40

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#8 2017-11-08 16:12:01

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#9 2017-11-08 17:22:17

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#10 2017-11-08 23:04:26

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#11 2017-11-08 23:39:24

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

#12 2017-11-12 03:26:53

Re: Intermittent internet loss while still connected to wifi

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