Wireless connection time out with ndiswrapper

[tcaptain]

Hi all,

I've just reinstalled Gentoo after a hiatus and I'm having a weird problem with my wireless connection that I'm at a complete loss to explain, diagnose or fix.

I have a laptop and I use a D-Link DWL-650+ (I know...) and set up Ndiswrapper according to the How-to in the Tips & tricks forum (and I'm reviewing to see if there' s anything I missed). I use the WinXP drivers as listed in the link of supported cards on the sourceforge site.

I emerged ndiswrapper and I use the dev sources (2.6.10-r5)

I started it thus:

>modprobe ndiswrapper

And this gives me the message in /var/log/everything/current:

[kernel] wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:80:c8:12:bb:a1 using driver airplus

so far so good.

I didn't change any config files or anything so I get it going manually:

iwconfig wlan0 essid captain

(there's no WEP enabled yet)

doing iwconfig gives me the details and shows the ESSID to be correct with a good connection.

Then I do:

dhcpcd wlan0

and this gives me an IP. And I surf away.....


Here's the problem....after about 2 mins of surfing, connection times out. iwconfig wlan0 shows me my card, with no connection, no essid set, nothing. Trying 'iwconfig wlan0 essid captain' right away does NOTHING....neither does 'dhcpcd wlan0'. However, if I wait about 2 mins and try those commands again, I will get a connection again (sometimes I have to retry a few times, getting a dhcpcd timeout in the logs) but again it only lasts a couple of minutes.
I've been checking what logs I can think of but I'm seeing nothing when the connection is dropped except a few lines of messages for gconf in /var/log/everything/current

At first I thought it was interference or something but in WinXP I have no problems and I tested this right next to the AP without seeing any difference.

Any ideas? This is very frustrating...everything else works great but wireless is a killer as its impossible for me to have a network cable all over the house (already I'm getting chewed out for dragging the 50ft one around while setting up).

[xo0]

This may be strange, but which -router- are you using? also, which version of ndiswrapper?

I have the exact same card and a while ago had a similar problem, which I think is caused by the driver defaulting to long preambles. Forcing short preambles on the router seemed to fix my problem.

[tcaptain]

The router is a linksys...I don't remember the exact model off hand (I'm at work so I can't check and test).

But I WILL try it ASAP Will this affect anything else? For example, my WIFE'S laptop? She gets mighty moody when I screw up her wireless to fix mine (she's already not liking linux much these days so I must tread lightly lol).

I'm using ndiswrapper 0.12-r3 (its what emerged) and I'm using the drivers from the D-Link site (which is what the ndwrapper page on sf linked to).

[xo0]

In my experience I don't think the preamble switch affected any other computers, though I can't guarantee it If the above does not work, try using the Win2K drivers, and let me know how that goes.

Good luck.

[tcaptain]

Thank you for the suggestion Xo0, I tried.... still no joy.

O.K. finally got to run some tests last night and wireless is STILL a bust.

1 - tried switching the linksys router to short preamble. This caused no problems in WinXP for my laptop, but my wife's laptop was suddenly unable to connect...I still can't figure out why. However, I took the time to test my card in linux before deciding which way to go and in linux I could not even connect for the few mins I used to before. So short preamble did not help. I switched it back eventually.

2 - tried the Win2K drivers from the dlink site. Same results as before with the winXP drivers. (Note: I tried them on "short preamble" too...same results)


I noted a few things:

- with the Win2K driver, the card when popped in has all the correct settings initally (with the WinXP all stays blank until I issue the iwconfig command...even though I added my settings in a file in /etc somewhere)

- when I CAN connect and dhcpcd wlan0 actually returns an address. iwconfig wlan0 shows correct essid and MAC values (as expected) and 'iwlist wlan0 scan" shows both my AP and the APs of my neighbors (with mine having the greater link quality).

- when I LOSE the connection, iwconfig wlan0 will sometimes show the essid but the WRONG Mac address (an address I am NOT familiar with) or it will show the essid but a zeroed out Mac address...or it will show blanks and a zeroed out mac address.

- again, waiting a few mins, issuing the iwconfig command will reconnect the card and allow dhcpcd wlan0 to get an address again for a few mins. (simply reconnecting does NOT work...I have to re-issue the dhcpcd command...sometimes having to delete a .pid file in /var/run I think). This happens right next to the router so its not a matter of interference (and I have no problems in WinXP)


What else should I check? I'm completely at a loss here and I've been googling for the past week. This is insanely frustrating as my previous gentoo install DID work without a problem last summer...I'm very much kicking myself for wiping it.

[xo0]

Yikes. My first recommendation now is to try a different version of ndiswrapper (I had emerged 0.10 a while ago and had no problems, and it seems like I'm getting disconnects if I upgrade to 0.12). Outside of that I am at a loss too.

[tcaptain]

Thanks

Before I do tho, I'm going to try the drivers at acx100.sourceforge.net since they claim to support the card natively. I've had a bit of time at lunch (at work right now) to compile and set it up and it seems to detect my card and set it up properly, whether or not it connects and keeps a connection will have to wait til I get home (fingers are crossed).


If that doesn't work I'm going to tinker with a different version of the ndiswrapper and/or the linuxant driver wrapper I keep hearing about.

I'll keep the thread posted...and before I forget, I really appreciate your help and suggestions. I can only hope I find a solution so that perhaps someone else with the same problem can use it too.

[xo0]

Glad to attempt to help :p
Sorry I coudn't come up with a better solution, though.

Good luck.

[tcaptain]

Well I've done more testing and I'm posting here in the hope that someone has ideas...


Tried the acx100 drivers and I get the same result. They detect the card, the card comes up, dhcp works and I get on the net...yet after a minute (and I mean around 60 seconds...never more than 2 mins) the connection completely drops.

The weird thing is that when all is working for that minute-minute and a half, I can do anything normally. 'iwlist wlan0 scan' returns the nearby APs (tested in a couple of locations) not just the one I want, 'iwconfig' sets up the card properly (ESSID, channel) first try. When it goes out...nothing works, 'iwlist scan' returns no results, iwconfig has NO effect, the card shows every setting blank or default. If I wait 2 mins, it comes back...

I thought maybe the power settings since its a laptop or something with pcmcia but I haven't found anything and the card IS accessible during the downtime...it just acts like there's no AP around. I know there's nothing wrong with the AP because I've tried a couple and always right next to it and in WinXP (as well as using other laptops) it gives zero problems.

Any suggestions? It wouldn't be so frustrating if I could not get the card working at all...but it DOES work...ARGH. This is a real show stopper for me unfortunately....as almost everything I do is on the network.

I don't even know what else to check.

[tcaptain]

same symptoms using the linuxant drivers.