Wifi Drops Randomly

robertdaleweir · #1 22nd October 2012, 03:39 AM

HI
I have installed F17 on a new Acer Laptop that belongs to my wife. Release 17 (BeefyMiracle) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.5.3-1.fc17.x86_64 GNOME 3.4.2. At what appears to be random times the Wifi connections drops. A reboot brings it back but what could be causing this dropping of the wireless connection? The wifi card is shown from 'lspci' as ----> 03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01). Other computers that I use do not have this issue.
I have searched posts on this forum but nothing solved with similar symptoms. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks...

flyingfsck · #2 22nd October 2012, 04:26 AM

Howdy,

You have a bad WiFi device driver. You can reload the device driver, by using the WiFi enable switch. Turn it it off, wait ten seconds, turn it on again and wait ten seconds, then see whether the network manager applet is restarting the connection, or go and click the connection.

The only solution is to buy a different WiFi adaptor - Intel and Edimax are good. Edimax even shows nice Linux penguins on their packaging.

Doug G · #3 22nd October 2012, 06:39 AM

I have a Toshiba laptop that started with Fedora 11 in 2009, and it also has an Atheros wireless built in. I have upgraded up to Fedora 15, and starting shortly after the F15 upgrade my wifi connection would mysteriously drop very randomly. For 2 years prior I never had any wireless drops, using the same wireless router during this time.

My suspicion is there is some connection to the power manager settings, for me the wireless problem never seemed to occur while I'm on the machine (like now) but I'd have a "Enter network password" sometimes when I've left the machine on and unattended for some period of time. If it's a bad wireless driver it's the one built-in the kernel, I've don't think I ever installed any add-on wireless drivers.

robertdaleweir · #4 23rd October 2012, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingfsck

Howdy,

You have a bad WiFi device driver. You can reload the device driver, by using the WiFi enable switch. Turn it it off, wait ten seconds, turn it on again and wait ten seconds, then see whether the network manager applet is restarting the connection, or go and click the connection.

The only solution is to buy a different WiFi adaptor - Intel and Edimax are good. Edimax even shows nice Linux penguins on their packaging.

Hi flyingfsck
I have a Ralink external Wireless (usb) which I have started using to see if it has similar problems. I have tried the Wifi Enable Switch but I did not wait the 'ten seconds'. I will try that later after I see how the Ralink works
I updated the Kernel to 3.6. and now I am crashing at startup. I will revert to 3.5. and continue with the Wifi tests.
Thank you for your post.

---------- Post added at 01:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 PM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug G

I have a Toshiba laptop that started with Fedora 11 in 2009, and it also has an Atheros wireless built in. I have upgraded up to Fedora 15, and starting shortly after the F15 upgrade my wifi connection would mysteriously drop very randomly. For 2 years prior I never had any wireless drops, using the same wireless router during this time.

My suspicion is there is some connection to the power manager settings, for me the wireless problem never seemed to occur while I'm on the machine (like now) but I'd have a "Enter network password" sometimes when I've left the machine on and unattended for some period of time. If it's a bad wireless driver it's the one built-in the kernel, I've don't think I ever installed any add-on wireless drivers.

Hi Doug G
Thank you for your post. I would investigate the Power Manager Settings if I new what to look for. I have been unable to discover any periodicity, which might give me an indication of whether it is a 'wifi lease' issue. I will continue to test and if I get a worthy answer I will post here.
Cheers...

robertdaleweir · #5 24th October 2012, 01:50 PM

Hi
I tried a Ralink Asus Dongle Wifi Adapter. It seems to act differently but still has issues. The first difference is that an attempt is made every five minutes to seek another connection. It seems to trip the connection off until I cancel the "request to connect" and then it reconnects automatically. This process occurs every five minutes. I turned the Internal Wifi Adapter off using Network Settings.
Does anyone know what Daemon or Service may be causing these disconnects?