Ubuntu 7.10 can't keep wireless up

[fouldragon at aol.com]

>1-you mention that NetworkManager seems to "forget" your WPA key but
>other parts of your description sound more like the router has
>"de-authenticated" you.

It's two seperate problems:

The small one is that sometimes when I open Network Manager, the key is 
missing from the entry box.  This could be the result of me toggling 
roaming mode on and off in a futile attempt to get it to try to 
reauthenticate.

The big one is the deauthentication/connection drop.


> Perhaps the problem is not with ubuntu 7.10
>but with your router.  I am wondering if the dmesg stating RX
>deauthenticated is the result of a msg/handshake with the router.  The
>other side of that coin is that the key should be kept by a keyring
>manager (I forget the name) in ubuntu.

Well, it works, probably, 98% of the time in Vista; the only skip being 
an occasional failure to connect at boot, so I'm assuming the 
hardware's all right.



>2-You made mention of when the connection is bad.  And that makes me
>wonder if you are seeing low signal strength due to distance,
>intervening structure, or interference.  Is it possible to move closer
>to the AP even if just as an experiment?

I am probably, at most, ten metres from the AP straight-line, through a 
standard celing/floor.  The signal strength is five bars under Vista, 
and -42 db under Linux.

I meant by "when the connection is bad", when the connection is dropped.




> You could also have had a
>neighbor start up one of the pre-N wireless networks and they are
>occupying too many channels and thereby interfering with you.  I have
>read that some of them are not nice about this.

I don't see any strong networks listed in the Vista network tool.  
Network Manager barely lists networks at all-- maybe a driver issue, 
but the only way I can find my network is since I KNOW the name.




>  Oh, BTW, on my
>WRT54GL (as one can do on the 1st 4 revs of the 54G), I had flashed in
>the Thibor firmware and turned up the radio power a tad to have a
>reliable wireless connection to the other end of the house (roughly 50
>feet and 3 walls away).

I know there are many lovely things you can do to a 54G, but I don't 
have any interest in breaking an item for which I have no spare. :)

I'm going to try the Ralink-supplied driver package and see if it works 
any better.
________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever.  Check out the new AOL Mail ! - 
http://webmail.aol.com