wifi-connection getting dropped ...

[Ian Smith]

On Sat, 19 May 2007, Kiffin Gish wrote:

 > > From: Dr. Gary E. RAFE [mailto:drgerlists at gmail.com] 
 > > Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 3:50 PM

 > > Kiffin Gish <kiffin.gish at planet.nl> wrote:
 > > !Since upgrading to FreeBSD 6.2 and installing another 
 > > wireless adsl !router, I've been having problems with my 
 > > wifi-connection getting !dropped regularly, for example when 
 > > idle for a given amount of time. ! !Here are my settings: ! 
 > > !# ifconfig wi0
 > > !wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 > > !        inet 192.168.1.102 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
 > > !        ether 00:02:2d:a5:1b:07
 > > !        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/11Mbps)
 > > !        status: associated
 > > !        ssid SpeedTouchABF160 channel 1 bssid 00:14:7f:8a:74:e3
 > > !        stationname "FreeBSD WaveLAN/IEEE node"
 > > !        authmode OPEN privacy MIXED deftxkey 1 wepkey 
 > > 1:40-bit txpowmax
 > > !100
 > > !        bmiss 7 bintval 100
 > > !
 > > !Any ideas what is going wrong and how it can be fixed?
 > > 
 > > What is the *specific* sympton you see here ?
 > 
 > When the connection breaks, ifconfig gives same results as above except that
 > the inet line is completely missing!

It's not clear whether the connection is 'dropped' at all if it still
says 'associated' - does it always still report being associated when
this occurs?

Does anything in /var/log/messages indicate interface wi0 being brought
DOWN and UP when this happens?  Are you running any scripts or programs
that might do any other configuration of wi0?

Is 192.168.1.102 a static address, or assigned to you by DHCP?

You've given us few clues about your setup, it's unclear whether you
control the access point you're connecting to (regarding what people
have suggested about choosing another channel than 1)

What do 'grep wi0 /etc/rc.conf' and 'dmesg | grep wi0' have to say?

 > > We reported back in February the problem of
 > > the second line of your "ifconfig wi0" command output
 > > (i.e., "inet 192.168.1.102 netmask 0xfffff...")
 > > simply disappearing after some random amount of idle time.
 > > 
 > > The wi0 device, however, stays "associated" with the AP,
 > > but the netork doesn't work anymore.
 > > 
 > > This also with FBSD 6.2-R.
 > > --
 > > Dr Gary E RAFE: drgerlists at gmail dot com

Sounds similar on the face of it .. was that resolved, Gary? 

Cheers, Ian