[SOLVED] Ipw2100 minipci card drops randomly using WPA and won't connect back.

[AndrzejL]

Hi Folks.

The story is:

I have a laptop. Full specs are available under the link in my signature. Its Dell Latitude C610. Not new but fully working. Great machine. I had old wifi card I dug out from Latitude D600.

The card is:

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ lspci | grep Ethernet
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

My router is:

Linksys Wireless-G ADSL Gateway with SpeedBooster WAG54GS

and its running the latest firmware afaik.

Its set to the B band and to the 11 mbps speed so the older equipment could connect without any probllems.

The machine is running ZenMini 2010.10 with the kernel:

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ uname -a
Linux eleanor.loc 2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Oct 21 22:42:28 CDT 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

The system is fully upgraded (and the issue persisted thorough all the upgrades).

I am using WPA encryption on the router.

It was a fresh installation and every partition including /home was formatted so no leftovers.

I checked md5sum of the iso, burned it with the lowest (10x) speed, checked with Media Check, installed, been upgrading daily.

Checked bios settings - nothing in there seems to make a difference.

Ok - the issue is:

I am connecting to the router / internet and everything works as a charm.

I can ping the router. I can access the websites. I can ssh to and from the machine. All of the sudden / randomly - card drops connection. I can't do anything. Restarting network, restarting laptop, waiting, turning off and on again, (yes I am sure its plugged in LOL!), black magic and voodoo spells, cursing - NOTHING works. But if I access the router via one of my other machines, change tiny detail and save the settings (will cause the quick router reboot) laptop connects to the router immediately without me touching it.

I have 3 other laptops as You can see in my specs and 2 of them are using atheros cards. No problems with those. Solid connection 24/7/365 so I dont think its the router / card issue. I think its the firmware / setting / kernel problem.

Been googling it for 2 or 3 days now. Wpa supplicant conf file seems more then ok - especially that the card WORKS 99% of the time. Can't find anything useful in the logs.

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ dmesg | grep ipw2100
ipw2100: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Driver, git-1.2.2
ipw2100: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2100 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKB] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
ipw2100: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection
ipw2100 0000:02:03.0: firmware: requesting ipw2100-1.3.fw
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:08:74:49:AF:1C  
          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:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2c00

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:04:23:66:AE:90  
          inet addr:192.168.0.103  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4948 errors:564 dropped:564 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:5725 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:651224 (635.9 KiB)  TX bytes:5750472 (5.4 MiB)
          Interrupt:5 Base address:0xe000 Memory:f8ffe000-f8ffefff

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:334 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:334 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:88496 (86.4 KiB)  TX bytes:88496 (86.4 KiB)
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"PCLinuxOS_Forever"  Nickname:"eleanor.loc"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:18:39:A0:DB:3E  
          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   Tx-Power:16 dBm  
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=98/100  Signal level=-48 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:384   Missed beacon:4
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ ping router
PING linksys (192.168.0.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from linksys (192.168.0.2): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=8.49 ms
64 bytes from linksys (192.168.0.2): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2.01 ms
64 bytes from linksys (192.168.0.2): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2.06 ms
64 bytes from linksys (192.168.0.2): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=2.01 ms
64 bytes from linksys (192.168.0.2): icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=1.80 ms
^C
--- linksys ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4638ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.806/3.276/8.490/2.608 ms
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ ping pclinuxos.com
PING pclinuxos.com (199.231.58.82) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 199.231.58.82: icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=259 ms
64 bytes from 199.231.58.82: icmp_seq=2 ttl=49 time=266 ms
64 bytes from 199.231.58.82: icmp_seq=3 ttl=49 time=266 ms
64 bytes from 199.231.58.82: icmp_seq=4 ttl=49 time=286 ms
64 bytes from 199.231.58.82: icmp_seq=5 ttl=49 time=266 ms
64 bytes from 199.231.58.82: icmp_seq=6 ttl=49 time=267 ms
^C
--- pclinuxos.com ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 received, 0% packet loss, time 6419ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 259.928/268.912/286.463/8.253 ms
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ arp
Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask            Iface
serwer                   ether   00:0f:b5:fb:0c:16   C                     eth1
linksys                  ether   00:18:39:a0:db:3d   C                     eth1
acer                     ether   00:1e:52:7a:46:5d   C                     eth1
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

Nothing really meaningful in the logs afaik.

No matter if I change to WPA aes or the tkip or to any of the WPA2 modes...

I know other people have issues with this module as well. Speed problems to be exact.

My questions are:

How to troubleshoot the card better?
Do You have similar issue with this card?
Do You know anyone who has / had similar issues with this card?
Did You solved similar issues with this card? How?
Maybe there is a router setting I could change that could solve this?
Do You know of such setting that (if set wrong) can cause stability issues with older cards?
Any other useful tip for this card?

If I will think of anything else that could be useful I will add it in next posts.

The results of the commands are with the network working 100%. I will also post a results of those commands when then network fails again.

Thanks in advance for trying to help. Don't hesitate to ask any additional questions.

Regards.

Andy

[AndrzejL]

Additionally:

I was running mac filter on the router but disabled it 2 days ago to check will that change something - it does not. Its off and issue persists.

I am using a passphrase generated by this site

and it looks something like this:

[/xvY^]Ad7(]$3SPb7{0L%\R@IzyT=ArrOJUedRbYUf>7h#IkwV5U8uFn-Fuw`{

 or this:

TV)bp]3ua~#0V0wn%7BjvVD>o/;1@@(8``mtt0,Wp(P?P`hR#o>hBP~C{{9(0mT

Could a complicated / long phrase like this cause this sort of issue?

Andy

[AndrzejL]

More info. Commands with the card not working.

It took about 24 hours this time for a connection to drop.

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ lspci | grep Ethernet
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ dmesg | grep ipw2100
ipw2100: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Driver, git-1.2.2
ipw2100: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2100 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKB] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
ipw2100: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection
ipw2100 0000:02:03.0: firmware: requesting ipw2100-1.3.fw
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:08:74:49:AF:1C  
          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:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2c00

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:04:23:66:AE:90  
          inet addr:192.168.0.103  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:21271 errors:5259 dropped:5259 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:11935 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:13760281 (13.1 MiB)  TX bytes:6277111 (5.9 MiB)
          Interrupt:5 Base address:0xe000 Memory:f8ffe000-f8ffefff

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:474 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:474 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:102362 (99.9 KiB)  TX bytes:102362 (99.9 KiB)
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"PCLinuxOS_Forever"  Nickname:"eleanor.loc"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:18:39:A0:DB:3E  
          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   Tx-Power:16 dBm  
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-50 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:3398   Missed beacon:0
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ ping router
PING linksys (192.168.0.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.0.103 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.103 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.103 icmp_seq=4 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.103 icmp_seq=6 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.103 icmp_seq=7 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.103 icmp_seq=8 Destination Host Unreachable
^C
--- linksys ping statistics ---
9 packets transmitted, 0 received, +6 errors, 100% packet loss, time 17013ms
pipe 3
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ ping pclinuxos.com
ping: unknown host pclinuxos.com
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$ arp
Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask            Iface
serwer                           (incomplete)                              eth1
[andrzejl@eleanor ~]$

Please ask for more details if needed.

Andy

[AndrzejL]

Ok - additional info.

A) Disabled SES Function
B) Disabled Afterburner

Nothing helps so far.

Andy

[AndrzejL]

All the settings are back to the way they were but one.

I changed the channel from 11 to 1 (B Band) which changed the connection frequency as well... Card stayed tuned for over 2 days now. I suppose I might add that few days ago there was an upgrade of many packages which could make the difference as well. Don't know. Will mark it as solved for the time being but will keep an eye on it...

I might add that the upgrade caused some problems for my 06:05.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) card. Had to change module from ath9k to ath_pci and all was sweet again.

Thank You for all the suggestions and help...

Andy