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javonera

Member

Registered: 2007-05-28

Posts: 16

rtl8185 signal

I've been having a weak signal with this PCI wifi card. Iwconfig shows:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"buda"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:1C:10:08:B7:A5   
          Bit Rate=24 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=49/100  Signal level=49/100  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:1322  Invalid misc:10   Missed beacon:0

About 50% signal. The weird thing, is that on Windows, I get about 80% signal.
Today, trying some stuff, I found this using iwlist:

[javo@am2 ~]$ iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1C:10:08:B7:A5
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=80/100  Signal level=80/100  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"buda"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=0000008bff6ca9e0
                    Extra: Last beacon: 4507836ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000462756461
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B96A4B0C8EC
                    IE: Unknown: 03010B
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0104
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0104
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 32048C9298E0
                    IE: Unknown: DD09001018020015000000

Should I assume iwconfig is giving me wrong info?

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,353

Re: rtl8185 signal

Should I assume iwconfig is giving me wrong info?

Comparing WiFi signal strengths from tool to tool is going to be like trying to nail Jello to a tree.

About all it is really useful for are relative measurements generated by the same program.  They will vary from scan to scan based upon orientation of the computer, location of people in the room, humidity, channel, number of other nodes on the same network, the number of nodes on nearby networks, maybe even the phase of the moon.  Some programs convert to percentage, others use a log scale.  Some cards RSI have a linear response, others don't.

So I guess the black and white answer is yes.  The real answer is: don't worry about it, just use the indication to maximize the reading, if necessary.  I would be more concerned out the link speed and the bit error rate metrics.

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