[ath9k-devel] AR9285: Possible intermittent connection drop-outs

["Torquil Macdonald Sørensen" <torquil@gmail.com>]

On 19/08/10 03:22, Adrian Chadd wrote:
> So there's plenty of things you can vary given the current setup to
> try and eliminate things.
>
> * Can you buy one of those dlink units for testing? (ie, so your
> testing doesn't interfere with others)
> * Is it 11a, 11b, 11bg, 11n? 2.4 or 5ghz? It may be linked to the
> underlying media you're using
> * The OP is using WPA2. It may be related to crypto key management
> * It may be related to other people using the unit, and/or spectrum
> * It may be related to the channel you're using (eg, the AR5416 I have
> here goes into a "stuck beacon" loop in hostap mode if I run it on
> channel 11, but channels 1 and 6 are fine.)
> * It may be occuring when the unit/client changes channel (if you're
> roaming about, and/or the AP dynamically changes channel.)
>
> Some of these overlap (eg if you change channel, you are changing how
> the radio is setup but you're also changing how your AP behaves and
> possibly changing the RF environment - what other clients/APs/RF noise
> are on those channels.) So make up a diagram of the above, figure out
> what internal/external factors you think can contribute, and then look
> at varying one at a time.
>
> As a developer (and as one who has debugged a few of these wireless
> issues lately!) the worst thing you can be told is "it doesn't work
> right." It may take some time, but narrowing down a specific,
> controllable instance showing the deviation in behaviour is going to
> help the ath9k developers get a potential clue where to look and what
> debugging to turn on.
>
> 2c,
>
> Adrian

Thanks Adrian! This is very useful information, I'll make sure to study it in 
detail. It is 2.432GHz. I have chosen "11b/g" on the router, intensionally 
disabling 11n since there are other bottlenecks in the system. I'm pretty sure 
that I'm using 11g.

I don't seem to have experienced the problem (at least not as noticeable) in the 
last couple of days. Lately I have started to compile my own kernels, and in the 
process turned off a lot of unecessary kernel compile options.

Btw, I know that there are no kernel log messages when the problems occurs. 
That's partly why i have been compiling my own kernels, in order to activate the 
ath9k debugging.

Torquil