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#1 2008-06-17 14:10:23

andy54
Member
Registered: 2008-06-17
Posts: 5

Wireless works, but sometimes very slowly

I'm using Arch on my media/torrent server. It uses the wireless card, managed by netcfg2, with WPA encryption, to connect to the network.

40-50% of the time, it connects at 54Mb/s as it should do, and transfers files around the network as well as can be expected. The rest of the time it connects at 1Mb/s and won't let me move files over the network faster than 20KB/s.

There is no physical reason why it should connect so slowly, it is about 5 meters away from the router, and there are no other networks on the same channel.

Is there a way to force the card to connect at 54Mb/s? I have looked around a fair amount but can't find anything that works.

I've tried adding IWOPTS="rate 54M" to the network script, but it seems to do nothing. Is this line correct, or does it not work with WPA? I don't really understand.

Thanks for any help.

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#2 2008-06-17 14:18:41

kjon
Member
From: Temuco, Chile
Registered: 2008-04-16
Posts: 398

Re: Wireless works, but sometimes very slowly

I have seen that crappy behavior with some ralink cards. Do you own one? don't you?


They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

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#3 2008-06-17 14:27:55

andy54
Member
Registered: 2008-06-17
Posts: 5

Re: Wireless works, but sometimes very slowly

Sorry, I should have said what card it was. But you are correct, it is a Ralink RT2500.

I'm aware of some serialmonkey drivers, which i haven't tried, is it worth attempting them? I'm currently accessing the computer over SSH, so I think swapping drivers about might not be my favorite idea! But if it comes down to it I guess I can plug the computer into some monitor somewhere. But if you know of anything else that would help, that would be good too.

Thanks for the quick reply!

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#4 2008-06-17 16:22:59

kjon
Member
From: Temuco, Chile
Registered: 2008-04-16
Posts: 398

Re: Wireless works, but sometimes very slowly

I got a rt61 in one of my desktops, so I learned by the hard way how to deal with these cards.
What I'm about to recommend you, probably, isn't the most ellegant solution; however, it works and does the work.
Download http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/RT250 … 6.6.tar.gz, which are the linux drivers -from ralink- for your network card. Some people doesn't like these drivers, however, I haven't any issues with them.

And remember, after compiling and installing, perform a 'depmod -a' and blacklist the rt61_pci module (or similar).
Another important issue is: these drivers doesn't like WEXT at all, so, if you're going to use wpa_supplicant to connect to any wpa-protected network you'll have troubles. You got 2 options here: Recompile wpa_supplicant with ralink support or, configure wpa parameters through iwconfig. There is a readme on the file with additional information.


They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

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#5 2008-06-18 12:01:33

andy54
Member
Registered: 2008-06-17
Posts: 5

Re: Wireless works, but sometimes very slowly

It seems this problem (for me at least) can be resolved, while still using the default drivers, by simply doing:

iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M

There isn't even a need to bring the card down or anything. I don't know why trying to set the speed when initializing the connection doesn't work though.

So I've put it in rc.local, and it seems to work fine now.

In case anyone else is having a problem with it which can't be resolved by doing that, there is a further discussion here, although there still seems to be uncertainty about what is actually causing the issue.

Thanks kjon for your help, if it all goes pear shape I will try what you have suggested.

Last edited by andy54 (2008-06-18 12:03:03)

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