Wpi keep disconnecting

[David Booth]

On Thursday 18 September 2008, you wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 3:57 AM, David Booth 
<davidb at boothscientific.com>wrote:
> > On Thursday 18 September 2008, Johann Hugo wrote:
> > > On Thursday 18 September 2008, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > > > > From: David Booth <davidb at boothscientific.com>
> > > > > Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:13:42 -0500
> > > > > Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> > > > >
> > > > > On Thursday 18 September 2008, Mark Kirkwood wrote:
> > > > > > I would seriously doubt this is a router problem - I see
> > > > > > the same thing with an Asus laptop using wpi driver + WPA
> > > > > > encryption. In my case disabling the encryption was a
> > > > > > workaround (a very poor one I know). This appears to be a
> > > > > > Freebsd issue AFAIK, as for instance under Ubuntu I can
> > > > > > have WPA enabled with such disconnection occurring.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > regards
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Mark
> > > > >
> > > > > I have a similar experience with wpi in a dell laptop
> > > > > running 7 stable i386.  Without encryption, the connection
> > > > > will stay up without fail. If I enable WPA, it disconnects
> > > > > at seeming random intervals that are shortened by doing
> > > > > large file transfers. Sometimes it will go for a full day
> > > > > without disconnecting; however,  if I do a file ftp of a
> > > > > few hundred megs, it may disconnect after a just a few
> > > > > minutes.  I do not think that it is a hardware problem in
> > > > > either the card or the router as when I boot the laptop
> > > > > into windows and use the same router and same WPA settings,
> > > > > the connection remains rock solid even with successive
> > > > > large file transfers.
> > > >
> > > > This is a bit of a shot in the dark, but I happen to be on a
> > > > WPA connection today and I hit this one or something very
> > > > similar. Since I am on an Atheros, it may be different, but I
> > > > made the problem "go awa" with 'ifconfig ath0 -bgscan'.
> > > > bgscan should not interfere in any way with normal operation,
> > > > but I have seen issues from it for some time and al most
> > > > always turn off bgscan as the first attempt to "fix" mystery
> > > > disconnects.
> > >
> > > I've got a Dell 1720 with a wpi wireless adapter in it. It was
> > > also droping the connection very often, until I added -bgscan
> > > to my ifconfig line. Now it stays connected all the time.
> > > except if my AP reboots then it does not want to reconnect
> > > automatically.
> >
> > I gave it a try and that did not do the trick.  It died less than
> > two minutes into an ftp session with less than 300 MB
> > transferred. After restarting, it died in less than a minute.  
> > The only logged error messages for the interface are the usual
> > messages about Timeout resetting TX ring 3 or 4.
> >
> > > _______________________________________________
>
> have you tried updating to 7-stable?
>
> I have a dell laptop (inspiron 9400) with a wpi based adapter
> connected to a router (Linksys WRT54G f/w rev 7) over WPA. I
> normally have no problems with disconnections (w/ 7-stable, not
> 7.0-release), even with multiple long downloads using parallel
> connections (upto 10 per file). It works fine without any
> disconnections or problems until I run the Deluge bittorrent
> client. Once this start running, after a few minutes, all
> connections except Deluge stop (Deluge still runs fine). I cannot
> even ping the router. If I stop Deluge, other connections start
> working after a few minutes.
>
> Not sure if this is related, but I do have a problem when freebsd
> starts up. For some reason, the ip address and the route do not get
> setup when it boots up, although I can see the config scripts
> running. After I login, I neet to run /etc/netstart again before
> the ip address gets assigned. it gives a message 'invalid authmode'
> in both cases

I have the same hardware you do (inspiron 9400, intel 3945) running 
7-stable (really 7.1 pre-release at this point) .  I have no problem 
at startup connecting to a linksys wrv200 using wpa-psk using 
wpa_supplicant, but I get the seemingly random disconnects.  When I 
get the disconnect, ifconfig looks good except that the status shows 
not associated.  Executing /etc/rc.d/netif restart will usually get a 
reconnect on the first try.  It seems to be a wpa issue as using WEP 
on the same hardware results in a stable connection.

On another note, can you get your notebook to suspend (S3)?