AP performance (again): txpower regulation

[Lev Serebryakov]

Hello, Berislav.
You wrote 8 сентября 2011 г., 13:14:38:

> maybe you deviceљ have interference with other devices in room. try
  No other 2.4Ghz devices -- only PCs without any wireless devices, no BlueTooth devices, nothing. Microwave oven at kitchen, but of course, it is not used at all when I try to debug wireless network :)

> to lower .. turn off other devices if u have in room . what show
> ifconfig wlan0 scan ?? how much is noise level ?? 
  ``ifconfig wlan0 scan'' shows nothing, as wlan0 in hostap mode, and I have only MacOS X and Windows XP clients.
  I've added wlan1:

gateway# ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode monitor
gateway# ifconfig wlan1 scan

  And this kills my WiFi AP, makes signal level (from client side of view) jumps up and down, and results on AP is looks like:

gateway# ifconfig wlan1 scan
SSID/MESH ID    BSSID              CHAN RATE   S:N     INT CAPS
House           54:e6:fc:c2:08:ca    1   54M -71:-96  100 EPS  RSN WPA WME HTCAP ATH WPS
gooodini        00:26:5a:ff:ee:e5    2   54M -87:-96  100 EPS  RSN WPA WME HTCAP ATH
default         00:1f:c6:3c:24:7a    6   54M -80:-96  100 E
                00:1e:58:2d:ea:67    3   54M -94:-96  100 EP   RSN ATH
ZXL             00:19:cb:0a:71:bc   10   54M -96:-96  100 EP   WPA
asus            20:cf:30:88:b5:90    1   54M -91:-96  100 EP   WPA
Vlad            00:19:5b:e1:f1:aa    6   54M -89:-96  100 EPS
interzet at 2      00:26:18:c6:81:98    1   54M -94:-96  100 EP   HTCAP WPS WPA WME
knyagna         00:18:e7:ec:1d:eb    3   54M -144:-96  100 EPS  RSN WPA WME HTCAP ATH WPS

 I notice one thing: in periods, when client was kicked from AP, it shows much stronger signal (sbout -45 dB when -65 is average with associated client).

> i have AR5212 and it work great over 6m inside house (2 walls).
> transfer rate i get is 2.4~3.2MB/s
 My previous card (500mW some strange Australian brand name, buyed on  eBay, AR5212 based) gives me comparable results, yes. But I've fried it at hot summer AND change apartment at almost same time AND upgrade FreeBSD from 7 to 8 on router (I didn't have much time to watch HD movies after relocation, and didn't notice when situation becomes worse -- there was period of time when WiFi bandwidth didn't bother me at all). So, I'm not sure now, is it new card is crap or new apartment has "shielded" inner walls or FreeBSD8 has other power management. I've tried to build old FreeBSD 7 image for router, but failed somehow -- kernel hangs on boot. I'll try more in near future.

-- 
// Black Lion AKA Lev Serebryakov <lev at serebryakov.spb.ru>