[opensuse] network (wifi) occasionally dropping out
Until recently I was using the same laptop at the same address I've been at the last few years, and I never had any problems with the wifi connection to the router. The wireless interface is the ipw2200. Then I got another secondhand laptop with the iwl4965 interface. I've noticed in KNetworkManagement the signal strength never appears as high as on the other laptop, but most of the time I have no problems. Every now and then, however, maybe every couple of days or so, connectivity goes haywire. Sometimes if I switch the hardware wireless switch off and back on again, I'm back to normal. Sometimes I try that, I restart, I go mad tearing my hair out and have rebooted the router and the problem can persist for a couple of hours or so. At first I was running both machines side-by-side and I thought one might be 'stealing' the signal from the other because things seemed worse when they were both on, and less comprehensively I've now had the odd similar problem on the old machine when the new one isn't running. I tried changing the wireless in YaST to traditional setup using Qinternet. There I can do a soft hang-up and restart, which also sometimes works, but not always. Trying to browse to the router homepage at 192.168.1.1 often doesn't succeed at these times. I know nothing about pinging generally so maybe I'm doing something stupid here, but the peculiar thing is that when trying to ping 192.168.1.1 I consistently get results like these: PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=2.97 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=2.87 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=4.57 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=36 ttl=64 time=2.90 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=39 ttl=64 time=6.68 ms ^C --- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics --- 39 packets transmitted, 5 received, 87% packet loss, time 38004ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 2.872/4.003/6.687/1.489 ms whilst if I ping one of my websites housed on a server in another country (UK) in quick succession I get this: PING username.me.uk (212.159.8.91) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from homepages.plus.net (212.159.8.91): icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=75.0 ms 64 bytes from homepages.plus.net (212.159.8.91): icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=68.2 ms 64 bytes from homepages.plus.net (212.159.8.91): icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=70.7 ms 64 bytes from homepages.plus.net (212.159.8.91): icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=74.5 ms ^C --- username.me.uk ping statistics --- 4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 7184ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 68.280/72.144/75.034/2.791 ms (At the time of typing this both are behaving now with 0% packet loss). I would have expected these results to be the other way around. What's going on? Is it just a flaky wireless card that sometimes drops out, poor drivers, the network card going to sleep or some power management mode, interference from another neighbour's network, or something else that could be responsible? (openSUSE 12.3) Cheers, Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Sun, 06 Oct 2013 23:56:54 +0200 Peter wrote: <snipped> Hi Peter, What is the router make & model & firmware revision? Thx! Carl -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 07/10/13 00:23, Carl Hartung wrote:
Hi Peter,
What is the router make & model & firmware revision?
Thx!
Carl
It's an Orange Livebox 2 made by Sagem Communications. Firmware revision FAST3XXX_6814BC (the most up-to-date I believe; at least it always reports itself as having the latest version). I have no choice over this equipment as I'm in a shared property with a cow for a landlady who oversees the Internet/TV/Tel subscription. I've witnessed these symptoms when nobody else is home and no other equipment has 'connected' status to the box. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 06/10/13 23:30, Peter wrote:
On 07/10/13 00:23, Carl Hartung wrote:
Hi Peter,
What is the router make & model & firmware revision?
Thx!
Carl
It's an Orange Livebox 2 made by Sagem Communications. Firmware revision FAST3XXX_6814BC (the most up-to-date I believe; at least it always reports itself as having the latest version).
I have no choice over this equipment as I'm in a shared property with a cow for a landlady who oversees the Internet/TV/Tel subscription. I've witnessed these symptoms when nobody else is home and no other equipment has 'connected' status to the box.
Friends of mine have had these from Orange and they have been no end of trouble - drop-out, lack of range, refusal to recognize new devices... -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 07/10/13 00:56, Dylan wrote:
Friends of mine have had these from Orange and they have been no end of trouble - drop-out, lack of range, refusal to recognize new devices...
Oh I know tell me about it. I hate it. Mainly because the TV services (guide, programme info, overlay, etc.) disappears every couple of weeks requiring a reboot of the router (at least 30 mins wait usually advisable and even then the TV box often doesn't grab the time and settings and you have to try again). I know of three other people in my city with this same router, one of whom signed up quite recently yet still got the same crapbox, and all of them have the same issues of having to reset it regularly. Then again, to be fair, the Internet has always been okay, at least with my old laptop and spare desktop machine. It may just be the range on my new laptop's wifi card that is weak. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Mon, 07 Oct 2013 01:04:58 +0200 Peter Peter wrote:
On 07/10/13 00:56, Dylan wrote:
Friends of mine have had these from Orange and they have been no end of trouble - drop-out, lack of range, refusal to recognize new devices...
Oh I know tell me about it. I hate it. Mainly because the TV services (guide, programme info, overlay, etc.) disappears every couple of weeks requiring a reboot of the router (at least 30 mins wait usually advisable and even then the TV box often doesn't grab the time and settings and you have to try again).
I know of three other people in my city with this same router, one of whom signed up quite recently yet still got the same crapbox, and all of them have the same issues of having to reset it regularly.
Then again, to be fair, the Internet has always been okay, at least with my old laptop and spare desktop machine. It may just be the range on my new laptop's wifi card that is weak.
Maybe there's something here that might help? <http://blog.superuser.com/2011/06/09/better-know-your-wireless-router/> Good luck! :-) Carl -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
addendum: See comment #5 at the bottom of that article. - Carl -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 07/10/13 01:28, Carl Hartung wrote:
addendum: See comment #5 at the bottom of that article. - Carl
Thanks for the link. If you're referring to the comment by pb about dual-band switching, it's interesting though I don't know how I'd check which band all the devices are using. Reading that does raise another issue though that I'd completely forgotten about. Shortly after getting this additional laptop, I also acquired a secondhand HP printer with wireless capability. I tried to run through the steps to set the wireless but like so many others using Linux and this model of printer, this didn't seem to work correctly. I did succeed in connecting the printer to the network but not the laptop to the printer, so I simply plugged in the USB cable. It was around this time that I first noticed the problems with the wireless. I did recently switch the wireless function off on the printer as it's not used, but perhaps connecting it in the first instance has messed something up in the router configuration. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Mon, 07 Oct 2013 02:16:48 +0200 Peter Peter wrote:
On 07/10/13 01:28, Carl Hartung wrote:
addendum: See comment #5 at the bottom of that article. - Carl
Thanks for the link. If you're referring to the comment by pb about dual-band switching, it's interesting though I don't know how I'd check which band all the devices are using.
You don't know? This is what Google is for! :-) Sign into the router GUI and inspect the connection properties for each connected/ attached device. If you don't have access there, inspect the connection properties at each device.
Reading that does raise another issue though that I'd completely forgotten about. Shortly after getting this additional laptop, I also acquired a secondhand HP printer with wireless capability. I tried to run through the steps to set the wireless but like so many others using Linux and this model of printer, this didn't seem to work correctly. I did succeed in connecting the printer to the network but not the laptop to the printer, so I simply plugged in the USB cable. It was around this time that I first noticed the problems with the wireless. I did recently switch the wireless function off on the printer as it's not used, but perhaps connecting it in the first instance has messed something up in the router configuration.
This is feasible, I guess. You normally establish the network connection between the router and printer, first, and confirm it is visible (connected as a client, with an IP address) and *then* you install the printer driver on your system and configure it as a 'network printer.' Good luck! Carl -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 07/10/13 04:10, Carl Hartung wrote:
You don't know? This is what Google is for! :-) Sign into the router GUI and inspect the connection properties for each connected/ attached device. If you don't have access there, inspect the connection properties at each device.
The router GUI doesn't display this information anywhere. Whilst I could check my own devices, there are various other devices used at times by other flatmates and their guests, and given the sometimes hostile and uncooperative atmosphere that exists in the property, finding that information out wouldn't be so easy :(
This is feasible, I guess. You normally establish the network connection between the router and printer, first, and confirm it is visible (connected as a client, with an IP address) and *then* you install the printer driver on your system and configure it as a 'network printer.'
I will almost certainly curse the situation by typing this remark, but I hope I may have resolved the issue for the moment having followed up on the information in that link you sent. The router has a configuration option for using b/g or b/g/n. It was set at the latter, so I changed it to b/g. I was having all sorts of problems in the forty minutes or so before doing that but since then things are running okay. Cheers, Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (3)
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Carl Hartung -
Dylan -
Peter