On 05-Jun-10 21:31:07, Jenny Hopkins wrote:

On 5 June 2010 22:20, Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:

...

Hi all,

I bought a wireless network card RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g last week for my amd64 debian squeeze machine. _I plugged the card in, installed firmware-ralink (via wired connection), modprobed for rt61pci, and sat back watching the shiny new connection and gloating at the easiest install of hardware I have ever had.

I duly moved the pc to a room with no wired capability, and network manager (running under gnome) detected and connected me to the wap netgear with a not bad signal.

A few hours later, the connection suddenly went down. _All efforts to ifupdown wlan0 or stop and start network manager failed to connect again, with dmesg reporting "wlan0: deauthenticating from <blah> by local choice (reason=3)". _Only a reboot seemed to sort it, and then only for a short while. Oh yes - I also got some ridiculous ping times for the gateway, even though the signal was fairly strong, which reduced to a sensible amount when I succeeded finally in quashing the wired interface eth0.

I've come back after a week away, however, and it won't connect at all. _syslog reports "rt61pci _firmware: requesting rt2561.bin" , modinfo rt61pci shows a bunch of useful stuff that assures me it is all loaded. _It can't be a firmware issue, surely, as it worked at first? I just keep being told "ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready"

Neither giving wlan0 a fixed IP in interfaces, or telling it to request an address from a dhcp server makes any difference. _(The request for an address isn't even getting as far as the dhcp server).

I'm stumped - any suggestions where to look for clues? _I did read it could be a clash between udev and network manager, I also have no idea whether invoking iwconfig and iwlist scan makes any difference. _I'm sure I've tried every combination possible by now.

Thanks, sorry if this isn't very clear, I've been going in circles for so long I think I've forgotten where I began.

Ah yes, should also have said what kernel I'm running: 2.6.32-3-amd64.

Thanks,

Jenny

Hi Jen, (shooting in the dark somewhat): what happens if you move the machine back into the same room as the wireless router and start again? Does it stay OK so long as it's in the same room?

Ted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Jun-10 Time: 22:40:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

On 05-Jun-10 22:11:48, Jenny Hopkins wrote:

On 5 June 2010 22:40, Ted Harding Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk wrote:

...

On 05-Jun-10 21:31:07, Jenny Hopkins wrote:

...

On 5 June 2010 22:20, Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:

...

Hi all,

I bought a wireless network card RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g last week for my amd64 debian squeeze machine. _I plugged the card in, installed firmware-ralink (via wired connection), modprobed for rt61pci, and sat back watching the shiny new connection and gloating at the easiest install of hardware I have ever had.

I duly moved the pc to a room with no wired capability, and network manager (running under gnome) detected and connected me to the wap netgear with a not bad signal.

A few hours later, the connection suddenly went down. _All efforts to ifupdown wlan0 or stop and start network manager failed to connect again, with dmesg reporting "wlan0: deauthenticating from <blah> by local choice (reason=3)". _Only a reboot seemed to sort it, and then only for a short while. Oh yes - I also got some ridiculous ping times for the gateway, even though the signal was fairly strong, which reduced to a sensible amount when I succeeded finally in quashing the wired interface eth0.

I've come back after a week away, however, and it won't connect at all. _syslog reports "rt61pci _firmware: requesting rt2561.bin" , modinfo rt61pci shows a bunch of useful stuff that assures me it is all loaded. _It can't be a firmware issue, surely, as it worked at first? I just keep being told "ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready"

Neither giving wlan0 a fixed IP in interfaces, or telling it to request an address from a dhcp server makes any difference. _(The request for an address isn't even getting as far as the dhcp server).

I'm stumped - any suggestions where to look for clues? _I did read it could be a clash between udev and network manager, I also have no idea whether invoking iwconfig and iwlist scan makes any difference. _I'm sure I've tried every combination possible by now.

Thanks, sorry if this isn't very clear, I've been going in circles for so long I think I've forgotten where I began.

Ah yes, should also have said what kernel I'm running: _2.6.32-3-amd64.

Thanks,

Jenny

Hi Jen, (shooting in the dark somewhat): what happens if you move the machine back into the same room as the wireless router and start again? Does it stay OK so long as it's in the same room?

Thanks Ted:

It did actually work fine at first in the room without router/wired connection, for a good few hours. Thanks for the hint though. I'll have to move it back to that room if I don't solve the problem ( which would be a shame as I've set up a cosy office here) and use the wired interface. The first thing I'll do is check the wireless if I do have to do that but since it did work down here I can't see that would be the issue.

Jen

You can get intermittent connectivity in locations more remote from the router. Local events (beyond your control) can interfere with the wireless connection -- e.g. if your neighbour's dog settles down next to the dividing wall within a few feet of your computer, or perhaps if you get interference from a neighbour's wireless router. Or, simply, just your own nearby presence (under certain conditions, me walking into my kitchen can switch the radio therein into "mush" mode).

Radio is funny stuuf! Ted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Jun-10 Time: 23:39:19 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 11:25:17 +0100 From: laurie@brownowl.com To: main@lists.alug.org.uk Subject: Re: [ALUG] wireless card conundrum

The basic rule is 3 channels of separation,

Its actually channel 1, 7 or 11 on the b/g/n 2.4MHz

and if your WAP is on the default channel, maybe a neighbour's is too, and on the same channel. This will cause problems with signal and traffic.

If they are on the same channel then they will share the bandwidth

If it's the case, and it might be, then just make sure you choose a channel that's 3 removed from the neighbours' channels, or at least, the strongest ones.

Use one of the above, if someone is on 7 and someone else on 9, then choose 1. This is set on the WAP itself, or ADSL router if its combined.

PS. Had a (very) quick google for netstumbler-like tools on Linux:

http://www.kuthulu.com/iwscanner/ http://apradar.sourceforge.net/ http://wifi-radar.berlios.de/ http://www.kismetwireless.net/

A lot of these types of tools have quite a lot you will not need, just look at the "overview" or "home" screen.

Keith

_________________________________________________________________ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=P...

On 6 June 2010 20:16, Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:

I have a vague wondering if it is to do with the router not having encryption and the card expecting it.  I'm not sure how to tell the card there is none to test this theory.

Further debugging info is on http://www.pastebin.org/313335 if anyone fancied sparing a glance. (Otherwise the drill will have to come out......and my DIY skills are on a par with my hardware skills).

Jenny

On 13 June 2010 00:17, Steve Fosdick sjflists@btinternet.com wrote:

On Sun, 2010-06-06 at 21:59 +0100, Jenny Hopkins wrote:

...

Further debugging info is on http://www.pastebin.org/313335  if anyone fancied sparing a glance. (Otherwise the drill will have to come out......and my DIY skills are on a par with my hardware skills).

Looking at the log at around Jun 6 20:239:29 shows something weird going on with DHCP.  What is supposed to happen is this:

1. Client needing IP address sends a DHCPDISCOVER to the broadcast

address.

2. One or more DHCP servers send DHCPOFFERs.

3. Client picks one offer and sends back a DHCPREQUEST to take up the

offer.

I wondered how this happened. It used to be that my router did the DHCP offering, and is also the gateway, but I set the server up recently running dnsmasq, setting the config to state that the router was still the gateway, and everything seemed to 'just know'.

4. Server sends a DHCPACK confirming the lease.

In the above your machine would be the client.  The log only shows outgoing packets but one would assume a DHCPOFFER must have been received for the DHCPREQUEST to be sent.

There was nothing in the logs for the DHCP server, no acknowledgement of the existence of the client at all.

I wonder if the client is associating to your router as its access point or whether there is another one nearby with the same SSID.  You could try changing the SSID of your router to something less generic and see if that fixes the problem.  You could also try rebooting your wireless access point as it may have simply become confused.

OK, I will try that, although i have no neighbours and live in the middle of a field!

I've draped a cable untidily through the house for now, but would still like to resolve this issue if i can, just so I'm not defeated by it.

Thanks, Steve.

Jenny