Story aabout wi weird errors

[Jesse Guardiani]

Neil Camara wrote:

> Hey guys,
> 
> Finally, my connection is super stable now. I think I was able to nail
> down the culprit. The issues I am talking about here is when the wi
> interface gets flooded like when we are doing an ftp to the same host that
> has the wi interface card. I noticed that when I downloaded a 4mb mp3
> files. I lost my connection in Windows XP running WSFTP_LE in just 2% :(
> 
> Here is the chronological order. Btw, same test using wsftp and same
> files.
> 
> 1. Previously, Primary 1.0.7 S 1.3.6, there were seek timeout issues
> 2. I upgraded it to 1.5.6 and the S that came with it, much more errors
> such as Busy won't clear bit. This is annoying since you can't do anything
> in your console. You will be only able to gain control once you start
> seeing unable to fill buffer on NIC 1546 bytes. Something like this.
> 3. Downgraded to 1.4.9 and was hoping that it will be stable. Same
> behavior as in number 2.
> 
> These testings are done with the patch I found which was DELAY(1). This
> didn't help too.
> 
> I actually almost gave up.
> 
> Anyways, I also read somewhere about WEP issues. I modified my wifi.sh
> script to disable wep (wicontrol -e 0). I also modified my Windows XP's
> config wherein WEP was unchecked. So I got connectivity. Executed 12
> windows of cmd.exe running simple ping. While ping where running, I also
> tested wsftp client. I REALLY CAN'T BELIEVE IT. It's working properly and
> it's not dropping my connection. Now, you will ask me, what about your
> security?! I did create a IPSec Policy using MMC in Windows XP, then I
> also created spdadd IPSec policy in FreeBSD plus, I installed racoon so
> that it can automatically exchange keys. I'm very happy now!!!

Wow. You've been busy. :) Glad you got it working. For what it's worth,
what WAS your component ID?

I'm running this:

wi0: <Intersil Prism2.5> mem 0xf0000000-0xf0000fff irq 9 at device 2.0 on pci2
wi0: 802.11 address: 00:20:e0:8a:90:61
wi0: using RF:PRISM2.5 MAC:ISL3874A(Mini-PCI)
wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary (1.1.1), Station (1.7.4)
wi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps

And it's very stable even with 104 (128) bit WEP encryption in infrastructure
mode (haven't tried hostAP or ad-hoc). I think I'll probably continue running
WEP once I get my IPSec stuff setup. Nothing like multiple layers to deter
intruders.


> I can say that there is a buffer code issue in WEP module. I wish I know
> how to low level code. But, anyways, this is my 2 cents.

Well, if you were experiencing that in Windows XP too, then I'd say it's a
firmware issue.

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
http://www.wingnet.net