WLAN on Ubuntu (or the 17th time is the charm...)

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Feisty Fawn on a Dell Latitude D600

Wireless works, but never consistently

Any or all of the following can happen when I'm trying to connect:

• It takes several times to make a connection to my router
  A restart helps sometimes
  A hibernate/wake sometimes helps
  Keychain manager sometimes asks for a password, sometimes not
  The network icon reads "You are connected to the wired network" when I am not
  When I explicitly choose the wireless access point from the dropdown list, I frequently am connected to my neighbor's access point instead
  Proximity to my router does not seem to matter as I can be in the same room as my router and it still won't connect

It's getting to be a bit annoying. Has anyone had wireless woes like this?

Thanks,
JJJ

[redhead]

seems like two drivers compeeting on controling the interface, it would help a wee bit if you told us what WIFI brand you're using, and the output of 'lspci', 'lspci -vv and 'lsmod'

Perhaps some information on what type of WIFI it is, ie:

• hidden SSID
• encryption method
• your neighbours encryption (on/off)
• signal strength of your AP vs. your neighbours strength
• etc.. What you can come up with that would help troubleshoot

[JoeyJoeJoe]

SSID is not hidden
WPA pre-shared key encrypted (TKIP and AES)
Neighbor's encryption is off entirely
my AP signal strength is consistently better than my neighbor's

[JoeyJoeJoe]

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5702X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02)
02:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller (rev 20)
02:01.1 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller (rev 20)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

[JoeyJoeJoe]

lspci -vv
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Region 0: Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
Memory behind bridge: fc000000-fdffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e8000000-efffffff
Secondary status: 66MHz+ FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at bf80 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at bf40 [size=32]

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at bf20 [size=32]

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Latitude D600
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at f4fffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR+
Latency: 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=0a, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: f6000000-fbffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 30000000-37ffffff
Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
Region 1: I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
Region 2: I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
Region 3: I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
Region 4: I/O ports at bfa0 [size=16]
Region 5: Memory at 38000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 011d
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 5
Region 0: I/O ports at b800 [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at bc40 [size=64]
Region 2: Memory at f4fff800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Region 3: Memory at f4fff400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
Subsystem: Conexant Unknown device 5422
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 5
Region 0: I/O ports at b400 [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at b080 [size=128]
Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 011d
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop+ ParErr- Stepping+ SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Region 1: I/O ports at c000 [size=256]
Region 2: Memory at fcff0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at fc000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5702X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 8126
Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (16000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at faff0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

02:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller (rev 20)
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 011d
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 168
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=02, secondary=03, subordinate=06, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 30000000-33fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 3c000000-3ffff000
I/O window 0: 0000d000-0000d0ff
I/O window 1: 0000d400-0000d4ff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- ISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset- 16bInt+ PostWrite+
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

02:01.1 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller (rev 20)
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 011d
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 168
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at f6001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=02, secondary=07, subordinate=0a, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 34000000-37fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 40000000-43fff000
I/O window 0: 0000d800-0000d8ff
I/O window 1: 0000dc00-0000dcff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- ISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset- 16bInt+ PostWrite+
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell TrueMobile 1300 WLAN Mini-PCI Card
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 5
Region 0: Memory at fafee000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

[JoeyJoeJoe]

lsmod
Module Size Used by
battery 10756 0
ac 6020 0
thermal 14856 0
processor 31048 1 thermal
fan 5636 0
button 8720 0
tg3 109700 0
ndiswrapper 194608 0
bcm43xx 126824 0
ieee80211softmac 31360 1 bcm43xx
ieee80211 34760 2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac
ieee80211_crypt 7040 1 ieee80211
ipv6 268960 8
binfmt_misc 12680 1
rfcomm 40856 0
l2cap 25856 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 55908 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ppdev 10116 0
radeon 124576 2
drm 81044 3 radeon
speedstep_centrino 9920 0
cpufreq_userspace 5408 0
cpufreq_stats 7360 0
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
cpufreq_ondemand 9228 1
freq_table 5792 3 speedstep_centrino,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_conservative 8200 0
tc1100_wmi 8068 0
pcc_acpi 13184 0
dev_acpi 12292 0
sony_acpi 6284 0
video 16388 0
sbs 15652 0
i2c_ec 6016 1 sbs
i2c_core 22656 1 i2c_ec
dock 10268 0
container 5248 0
asus_acpi 17308 0
backlight 7040 1 asus_acpi
lp 12452 0
joydev 10816 0
pcmcia 39212 0
snd_intel8x0 34332 1
snd_ac97_codec 98464 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus 3200 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 44544 0
snd_mixer_oss 17408 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 79876 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 4740 0
snd_seq_oss 32896 0
snd_seq_midi 9600 0
snd_rawmidi 25472 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8448 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 52592 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_timer 23684 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9100 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
parport_pc 36388 1
parport 36936 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
serio_raw 7940 0
yenta_socket 27532 4
pcspkr 4224 0
snd 54020 12 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_ oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_ti mer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 8672 1 snd
psmouse 38920 0
rsrc_nonstatic 14080 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 40852 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
snd_page_alloc 10888 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
intel_agp 25244 1
agpgart 35400 2 drm,intel_agp
af_packet 23816 4
iTCO_wdt 11812 0
iTCO_vendor_support 4868 1 iTCO_wdt
shpchp 34324 0
pci_hotplug 32576 1 shpchp
tsdev 8768 0
evdev 11008 4
ext3 133128 1
jbd 59816 1 ext3
mbcache 9604 1 ext3
sg 36252 0
sr_mod 17060 0
cdrom 37664 1 sr_mod
sd_mod 23428 3
ata_piix 15492 2
ata_generic 9092 0
libata 125720 2 ata_piix,ata_generic
scsi_mod 142348 4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
generic 5124 0 [permanent]
ehci_hcd 34188 0
uhci_hcd 25360 0
usbcore 134280 4 ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
fbcon 42656 0
tileblit 3584 1 fbcon
font 9216 1 fbcon
bitblit 6912 1 fbcon
softcursor 3200 1 bitblit
vesafb 9220 0
capability 5896 0
commoncap 8192 1 capability

[redhead]

I belive it has something todo with your network manager is screwing something up, either by chosing the easiest connection point or by chosing what has the most Transmission power.

Perhaps you want to try a manualy lock it to your own AP, by using the WPA Configuration on Fiesty manual, that way your machine should pick your AP allways.

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I belive it has something todo with your network manager is screwing something up, either by chosing the easiest connection point or by chosing what has the most Transmission power.

Thanks. Maybe I should just crank up the transmission power on my router (I'm running dd-wrt on my Linksys)?

[zonofabee]

Did you ever consider eliminating the problem by simply changing the channel frequency that you operate on? If he's on channel 6, then go to channel 11. That should block out you're receiving your neighbor's signal, and knock out that noise that you are picking up.

Cheers!