[gentoo-user] Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[gentoo-user] Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Grant]

I'm having trouble with one of my systems not being able to reliably
connect to my Gentoo router wirelessly.

I have a Netgear WG311T in the router and also the desktop that is
having trouble.  I have a Netgear WG511T in my laptop.  They all use
the madwifi driver.  The laptop connects perfectly every time, and the
desktop used to connect perfectly but has slowly become less and less
reliable until now it rarely connects.  The laptop and desktop are
both about 12 feet from the router.  I'm in an apartment, but it
doesn't seem like interference could be the problem since the laptop
connects perfectly every time.

Can anyone recommend anything to check in software?  Does this sound
like a hardware problem?

- Grant
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

[gentoo-user] Re: Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Grant]

> I'm having trouble with one of my systems not being able to reliably
> connect to my Gentoo router wirelessly.
>
> I have a Netgear WG311T in the router and also the desktop that is
> having trouble.  I have a Netgear WG511T in my laptop.  They all use
> the madwifi driver.  The laptop connects perfectly every time, and the
> desktop used to connect perfectly but has slowly become less and less
> reliable until now it rarely connects.  The laptop and desktop are
> both about 12 feet from the router.  I'm in an apartment, but it
> doesn't seem like interference could be the problem since the laptop
> connects perfectly every time.
>
> Can anyone recommend anything to check in software?  Does this sound
> like a hardware problem?

Sorry to reply to myself, but I forgot to mention that pinging the
router (192.168.0.1) from the desktop returns:

>From 192.168.1.2 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable

192.168.1.2 is the router's address on the WAN.  If the desktop can't
communicate with the router, how would it know the router's WAN
address?

- Grant
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Jamie]

>> I'm having trouble with one of my systems not being able to reliably
>> connect to my Gentoo router wirelessly.
>>
>> I have a Netgear WG311T in the router and also the desktop that is
>> having trouble.  I have a Netgear WG511T in my laptop.  They all use
>> the madwifi driver.  The laptop connects perfectly every time, and the
>> desktop used to connect perfectly but has slowly become less and less
>> reliable until now it rarely connects.  The laptop and desktop are
>> both about 12 feet from the router.  I'm in an apartment, but it
>> doesn't seem like interference could be the problem since the laptop
>> connects perfectly every time.
>>
>> Can anyone recommend anything to check in software?  Does this sound
>> like a hardware problem?
>
> Sorry to reply to myself, but I forgot to mention that pinging the
> router (192.168.0.1) from the desktop returns:
>
> From 192.168.1.2 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
>
> 192.168.1.2 is the router's address on the WAN.  If the desktop can't
> communicate with the router, how would it know the router's WAN
> address?
>

What WAN Address? I cannot see any address other than one of the reserved
class C's. I would suggest that either the PC you are pinging from
("desktop") does not have an address in the same range as the router, or
the default gateway is incorrect on the "desktop". Another possibility is
a an IP conflict but this is less likely.
Can you possibly post the IP configuration (ifconfig) from the "desktop"
machine so that we can see how the interface is set up.


-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Grant]

> >> I'm having trouble with one of my systems not being able to reliably
> >> connect to my Gentoo router wirelessly.
> >>
> >> I have a Netgear WG311T in the router and also the desktop that is
> >> having trouble.  I have a Netgear WG511T in my laptop.  They all use
> >> the madwifi driver.  The laptop connects perfectly every time, and the
> >> desktop used to connect perfectly but has slowly become less and less
> >> reliable until now it rarely connects.  The laptop and desktop are
> >> both about 12 feet from the router.  I'm in an apartment, but it
> >> doesn't seem like interference could be the problem since the laptop
> >> connects perfectly every time.
> >>
> >> Can anyone recommend anything to check in software?  Does this sound
> >> like a hardware problem?
> >
> > Sorry to reply to myself, but I forgot to mention that pinging the
> > router (192.168.0.1) from the desktop returns:
> >
> > From 192.168.1.2 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
> >
> > 192.168.1.2 is the router's address on the WAN.  If the desktop can't
> > communicate with the router, how would it know the router's WAN
> > address?
> >
>
> What WAN Address? I cannot see any address other than one of the reserved
> class C's. I would suggest that either the PC you are pinging from
> ("desktop") does not have an address in the same range as the router, or
> the default gateway is incorrect on the "desktop". Another possibility is
> a an IP conflict but this is less likely.
> Can you possibly post the IP configuration (ifconfig) from the "desktop"
> machine so that we can see how the interface is set up.

After rebooting the desktop, all I get from ping attempts is:

connect: Network is unreachable

so I guess it won't connect at all now.  I don't think ifconfig would
be useful now, but let me know if I'm wrong or if you have any other
ideas.

- Grant
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Jamie]

<snip>
>> >
>>
>> What WAN Address? I cannot see any address other than one of the
>> reserved
>> class C's. I would suggest that either the PC you are pinging from
>> ("desktop") does not have an address in the same range as the router, or
>> the default gateway is incorrect on the "desktop". Another possibility
>> is
>> a an IP conflict but this is less likely.
>> Can you possibly post the IP configuration (ifconfig) from the "desktop"
>> machine so that we can see how the interface is set up.
>
> After rebooting the desktop, all I get from ping attempts is:
>
> connect: Network is unreachable
>
> so I guess it won't connect at all now.  I don't think ifconfig would
> be useful now, but let me know if I'm wrong or if you have any other
> ideas.

The output of ifconfig would certainly be useful but it sounds to me like
the configuration of eth0 has been changed somehow.
Perhaps you could post the output of ifconfig, and the contents of
/etc/conf.d/net as this should list the configuration of all of the
network adapters (just in case eth0 is not the interface that you are
using).

Hopefully this information will allow someone on the list to help you
diagnose your problem.

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Grant]

> >> What WAN Address? I cannot see any address other than one of the
> >> reserved
> >> class C's. I would suggest that either the PC you are pinging from
> >> ("desktop") does not have an address in the same range as the router, or
> >> the default gateway is incorrect on the "desktop". Another possibility
> >> is
> >> a an IP conflict but this is less likely.
> >> Can you possibly post the IP configuration (ifconfig) from the "desktop"
> >> machine so that we can see how the interface is set up.
> >
> > After rebooting the desktop, all I get from ping attempts is:
> >
> > connect: Network is unreachable
> >
> > so I guess it won't connect at all now.  I don't think ifconfig would
> > be useful now, but let me know if I'm wrong or if you have any other
> > ideas.
>
> The output of ifconfig would certainly be useful but it sounds to me like
> the configuration of eth0 has been changed somehow.
> Perhaps you could post the output of ifconfig, and the contents of
> /etc/conf.d/net as this should list the configuration of all of the
> network adapters (just in case eth0 is not the interface that you are
> using).
>
> Hopefully this information will allow someone on the list to help you
> diagnose your problem.

I'm connected directly to the DSL modem/router via eth0 right now.
This is not normal and I'm only connected like this so I can get
online to write this message.  I'm usually trying to connect via ath0
to the Gentoo router which is then connected to the modem/router.
Here is my current ifconfig:

ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0F:B5:86:C0:E1
          inet6 addr: fe80::20f:b5ff:fe86:c0e1/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:17:76:37:82
          inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::216:17ff:fe76:3782/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:967 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:868 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:743136 (725.7 Kb)  TX bytes:243477 (237.7 Kb)
          Interrupt:169 Base address:0xd800

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wifi0     Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr
00-0F-B5-86-C0-E1-80-79-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 -00
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:7782 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:3492
          TX packets:1561 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
          RX bytes:742503 (725.1 Kb)  TX bytes:71806 (70.1 Kb)
          Interrupt:161 Memory:ffffc20000100000-ffffc20000110000

and /etc/conf.d./net :

modules_ath0=( "wpa_supplicant" )
wpa_supplicant_ath0=( "-Dmadwifi" )
config_ath0=( "192.168.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255" )
routes_ath0=( "default via 192.168.0.1" )
essid_ath0=( "network2" )

although I currently have a couple eth0 lines so I can connect to the
modem/router.  They aren't usually there.

I must admit I don't know what the broadcast and netmask are and they
are set the same for the Gentoo router and the laptop that connects to
it.

Please let me know if you have any idea what the problem might be, or
where I should look for the problem.

- Grant
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Grant]

> > >> What WAN Address? I cannot see any address other than one of the
> > >> reserved
> > >> class C's. I would suggest that either the PC you are pinging from
> > >> ("desktop") does not have an address in the same range as the router, or
> > >> the default gateway is incorrect on the "desktop". Another possibility
> > >> is
> > >> a an IP conflict but this is less likely.
> > >> Can you possibly post the IP configuration (ifconfig) from the "desktop"
> > >> machine so that we can see how the interface is set up.
> > >
> > > After rebooting the desktop, all I get from ping attempts is:
> > >
> > > connect: Network is unreachable
> > >
> > > so I guess it won't connect at all now.  I don't think ifconfig would
> > > be useful now, but let me know if I'm wrong or if you have any other
> > > ideas.
> >
> > The output of ifconfig would certainly be useful but it sounds to me like
> > the configuration of eth0 has been changed somehow.
> > Perhaps you could post the output of ifconfig, and the contents of
> > /etc/conf.d/net as this should list the configuration of all of the
> > network adapters (just in case eth0 is not the interface that you are
> > using).
> >
> > Hopefully this information will allow someone on the list to help you
> > diagnose your problem.
>
> I'm connected directly to the DSL modem/router via eth0 right now.
> This is not normal and I'm only connected like this so I can get
> online to write this message.  I'm usually trying to connect via ath0
> to the Gentoo router which is then connected to the modem/router.
> Here is my current ifconfig:
>
> ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0F:B5:86:C0:E1
>           inet6 addr: fe80::20f:b5ff:fe86:c0e1/64 Scope:Link
>           UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
>           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
>
> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:17:76:37:82
>           inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
>           inet6 addr: fe80::216:17ff:fe76:3782/64 Scope:Link
>           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>           RX packets:967 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>           TX packets:868 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
>           RX bytes:743136 (725.7 Kb)  TX bytes:243477 (237.7 Kb)
>           Interrupt:169 Base address:0xd800
>
> lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
>           inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
>           inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
>           UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
>           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
>           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
>
> wifi0     Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr
> 00-0F-B5-86-C0-E1-80-79-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 -00
>           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>           RX packets:7782 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:3492
>           TX packets:1561 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
>           RX bytes:742503 (725.1 Kb)  TX bytes:71806 (70.1 Kb)
>           Interrupt:161 Memory:ffffc20000100000-ffffc20000110000
>
> and /etc/conf.d./net :
>
> modules_ath0=( "wpa_supplicant" )
> wpa_supplicant_ath0=( "-Dmadwifi" )
> config_ath0=( "192.168.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255" )
> routes_ath0=( "default via 192.168.0.1" )
> essid_ath0=( "network2" )
>
> although I currently have a couple eth0 lines so I can connect to the
> modem/router.  They aren't usually there.
>
> I must admit I don't know what the broadcast and netmask are and they
> are set the same for the Gentoo router and the laptop that connects to
> it.
>
> Please let me know if you have any idea what the problem might be, or
> where I should look for the problem.
>
> - Grant

I switched the identical wireless cards between the router and the
non-connecting desktop and the functionality is the same so it must
not be a hardware problem.

- Grant
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Wireless trouble, bad hardware?

[Grant]

> > > >> What WAN Address? I cannot see any address other than one of the
> > > >> reserved
> > > >> class C's. I would suggest that either the PC you are pinging from
> > > >> ("desktop") does not have an address in the same range as the router, or
> > > >> the default gateway is incorrect on the "desktop". Another possibility
> > > >> is
> > > >> a an IP conflict but this is less likely.
> > > >> Can you possibly post the IP configuration (ifconfig) from the "desktop"
> > > >> machine so that we can see how the interface is set up.
> > > >
> > > > After rebooting the desktop, all I get from ping attempts is:
> > > >
> > > > connect: Network is unreachable
> > > >
> > > > so I guess it won't connect at all now.  I don't think ifconfig would
> > > > be useful now, but let me know if I'm wrong or if you have any other
> > > > ideas.
> > >
> > > The output of ifconfig would certainly be useful but it sounds to me like
> > > the configuration of eth0 has been changed somehow.
> > > Perhaps you could post the output of ifconfig, and the contents of
> > > /etc/conf.d/net as this should list the configuration of all of the
> > > network adapters (just in case eth0 is not the interface that you are
> > > using).
> > >
> > > Hopefully this information will allow someone on the list to help you
> > > diagnose your problem.
> >
> > I'm connected directly to the DSL modem/router via eth0 right now.
> > This is not normal and I'm only connected like this so I can get
> > online to write this message.  I'm usually trying to connect via ath0
> > to the Gentoo router which is then connected to the modem/router.
> > Here is my current ifconfig:
> >
> > ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0F:B5:86:C0:E1
> >           inet6 addr: fe80::20f:b5ff:fe86:c0e1/64 Scope:Link
> >           UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
> >           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> >           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> >           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
> >           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
> >
> > eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:17:76:37:82
> >           inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
> >           inet6 addr: fe80::216:17ff:fe76:3782/64 Scope:Link
> >           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
> >           RX packets:967 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> >           TX packets:868 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> >           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> >           RX bytes:743136 (725.7 Kb)  TX bytes:243477 (237.7 Kb)
> >           Interrupt:169 Base address:0xd800
> >
> > lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
> >           inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
> >           inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
> >           UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
> >           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> >           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> >           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
> >           RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
> >
> > wifi0     Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr
> > 00-0F-B5-86-C0-E1-80-79-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 -00
> >           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
> >           RX packets:7782 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:3492
> >           TX packets:1561 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> >           collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
> >           RX bytes:742503 (725.1 Kb)  TX bytes:71806 (70.1 Kb)
> >           Interrupt:161 Memory:ffffc20000100000-ffffc20000110000
> >
> > and /etc/conf.d./net :
> >
> > modules_ath0=( "wpa_supplicant" )
> > wpa_supplicant_ath0=( "-Dmadwifi" )
> > config_ath0=( "192.168.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255" )
> > routes_ath0=( "default via 192.168.0.1" )
> > essid_ath0=( "network2" )
> >
> > although I currently have a couple eth0 lines so I can connect to the
> > modem/router.  They aren't usually there.
> >
> > I must admit I don't know what the broadcast and netmask are and they
> > are set the same for the Gentoo router and the laptop that connects to
> > it.
> >
> > Please let me know if you have any idea what the problem might be, or
> > where I should look for the problem.
> >
> > - Grant
>
> I switched the identical wireless cards between the router and the
> non-connecting desktop and the functionality is the same so it must
> not be a hardware problem.
>
> - Grant

SOLVED.

The root of the problem was that wpa_supplicant.conf moved from
/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.
My laptop that was connecting to the network didn't have
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf at all so the program must
have used /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf instead.  The desktop that wasn't
connecting to the network had an example file in
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf so it wasn't reverting to the
old config location.  Nasty.

- Grant
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list