wireless signal too weak

Mephisto · 20 Dec 2009, 22:01 #1 2009-12-20 22:01

Hello there,

I'm having problems with my wireless connection, its signal is waaay too weak and loose connection constantly. While wicd tries to reconnect it attempts to obtain an IP address and sometimes it does other times it doesn't.

My wireless card is a PCMCIA SMC2635W and its chipset is ADMTek. I think the current driver for this hardware is adm8211 but I'm wondering if this is the correct one because I can't find out what could be causing such behavior. My newer laptop has no problems with my wireless connection and works perfectly fine with a good signal strength so I know is not a problem of my internet service.

Any suggestions are really appreciated!

rokytnji · posted: 2009-12-20 23:39

Iwon't be here to answer cuz I'll be out of town. Could you post from terminal the output of

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lspci -knn

Wrap code tags around readout.

Also wouldn't hurt to post output of

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inxi -F

also.

Mephisto · posted: 2010-01-03 23:36

Sorry for the late reply, I was out on vacations. Here's my result:

lspci -knn:
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge [8086:7190] (rev 03)
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
Kernel modules: intel-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge [8086:7191] (rev 03)
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:05.0 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA [8086:7110] (rev 02)
00:05.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE [8086:7111] (rev 01)
Kernel driver in use: PIIX_IDE
00:05.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB [8086:7112] (rev 01)
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:05.3 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI [8086:7113] (rev 03)
Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c-piix4
00:07.0 Communication controller [0780]: Agere Systems 56k WinModem [11c1:0441] (rev 01)
00:0b.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support [1179:0617] (rev 20)
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket
00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: ESS Technology ES1978 Maestro 2E [125d:1978] (rev 10)
Kernel driver in use: ES1968 (ESS Maestro)
Kernel modules: radio-maestro, snd-es1968
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Trident Microsystems Cyber 9525 [1023:9525] (rev 49)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: ADMtek ADM8211 802.11b Wireless Interface [1317:8201] (rev 20)
Kernel driver in use: adm8211
Kernel modules: adm8211

inxi -F:
System: Host carim-laptop Kernel 2.6.27-1-mepis-smp i686 (32 bit) Distro antiX-M8 Intifada! 12 February 2009
CPU: Single core Celeron (Coppermine) (UP) cache 128 KB flags (sse) bmips 995.56 clocked at 497.553 MHz
Graphics: Card Trident Microsystems Cyber 9525 X.Org 1.4.2 Res 800x600@60.0hz
Audio: Card ESS ES1978 Maestro 2E driver ES1968 (ESS Maestro) at port fc00
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.17
Network: Card ADMtek ADM8211 802.11b Wireless Interface driver adm8211 at port 1000
Disks: HDD Total Size: 6.5GB (22.6% used) 1: /dev/hda IBM-DARA-206000 6.0GB 2: USB /dev/sda PDU01_512 57G2.0 0.5GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 5.4G used: 1.4G (28%) ID: swap:/dev/hda2 size: 0.16GB
Info: Processes 79 Uptime 1:10 Memory 64.5/185.2MB Client Shell inxi 1.0.1

BTW... happy new year!

rokytnji · posted: 2010-01-05 00:21

Wireless B will not run as strong as your Newer Computer. If you want a stronger reception you might wanna use a PCMCIA Cardbus Belkin F5D 7010 ver. 6 wireless g ( which I use and it works out of the box in AntiX 8.2. Just change wicd preferences to dhclient)

I have a couple Wireless B PCMCIA Cards. And they were pretty weak compared to wireless g.

On the Belkin part number (ver. 6) that is important because ver. 6 comes with a Raylink chipset that has broad Linux support through all the kernels. My Card works in Puppy, AntiX, Ubuntu, Zenwalk, NimbleX, etc....

Probably the easiest route to take with your chipset. Also. You may try opening Wicd. go to Preferences>External Programs. Change it from Auto to dhclient. See if that improves your connection with your ADMtek ADM8211 802.11b Card. The kernel is loading the right driver for your card.

Mephisto · posted: 2010-01-06 04:57

Thanks for your suggestions rokytnji.

I already changed dhcp client to dhclient on wicd but still see no improvement at all. I forgot to mention that when my old laptop had win98 my ADMTek card worked fine with good signal reception.

Before thinking on getting a Belkin card; I would like to know if its possible to use ndiswrapper and use the win98 driver for my wireless card? Do you recommend this? what other options do I have before getting another card?

Thanks!

rokytnji · posted: 2010-01-06 12:34

Ndiswrapper is a viable option. You will need to blacklist the adm211 kernel module so as to avoid conflicts first with the ndiswrapper Windows driver. I have never had to use ndiswrapper. That is probably why it slipped my mind.

to blacklist a driver in the kernel

open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file and add drivername using following syntax:
blacklist driver-name

if no blacklist text file in /etc/modprobe.d you can make a text file named blacklist.

you can refer to my thread below on my blacklist efforts with rt61 wireless module. Good Luck with it. Happy Trails, Rok

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mepislovers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=24252"
linktext was:"http://www.mepislovers.org/forums/showt ... hp?t=24252"
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rokytnji · posted: 2010-01-06 12:40

Forgot to mention. Run

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lsmod

first to get a idea of what kernel modules are being used. (I write them down before I blacklist them)

Then after you blacklist the module/driver. Run lsmod to make sure it was removed from the list. Then do ndiswrapper. Then lsmod again to see ndiswrapper driver to make sure it is installed correctly. Like I said. I never used ndiswrapper. So I aint a expert with it.

Mephisto · posted: 2010-01-07 04:21

Rok,

I'm now using ndiswrapper and signal reception is a whole lot better; however I'm still not able to get an IP address. Just once in a while I get an IP address and then I'm able to surf the web.

If I type iwconfig I get:
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"MY_NETWORK" Nickname:"default"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:18:49:42:84:3F
Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power:28 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-10 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

As you can see, the link quality is"great" but one thing that caught my attention is the noise level, -96dBm is too high I think. I'm not sure if this is the root cause of why most of the time I don't have an IP. Any suggestion on this?

rokytnji · posted: 2010-01-07 06:15

Mephisto, I wish I knew enough about wireless to answer that question.

I have been fighting Alsa and Skype these last few days but I got my mic working in AntiX 8.2 on my Asus 900 with alsa 1.0.17

Not knowing how the Windows (is it .inf ndiswrapper asks for to install the driver?) driver is set up. I am like a babe in the woods with ndiswrapper and Windows drivers.

You seem to go from one opposite extreme to the other. Either the signal is weak. or the
db is to high. I might pm dolphin oracle if he hasn't looked at this thread to see what he has to say.

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2010-01-07 12:00

mephisto,

I don't have any experience with ndiswrapper or that particular card, but I see you're using a win98 driver. The ndis wiki seems specific on xp drivers (not even vista). You might try a winxp driver with ndiswrapper, or at least a newer driver. Your card is on the wiki list for known working cards with ndiswrapper.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=SMC_2635W_v1"
linktext was:"http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/n ... C_2635W_v1"
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" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

The driver link they post doesn't seem to work, but hopefully you'll be able to find it here.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?event=downloads.doSearchCriteria&localeCode=EN_USA&productCategory=5&modelNumber=427&partNumber=0&downloadType=1&knowsPartNumber=false"
linktext was:"http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?event=down ... mber=false"
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" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

oldhoghead · posted: 2010-01-07 14:33

mephisto,

Just wanted to chime in here, I have wireless at home, and comparing my noise level to yours, I have -92dbm and also have excellent link quality, however I have no problem connnecting, you may want to try as rokytnji mentioned trying each option in wicd-->Preferences--> External Programs and compare connection quality with each (Auto, dhcpcd, dhclient. (btw, If I try to connect with either Auto, or dhcpcd, It shows that I'm connected, but when I try to go to the web, I get the 404 error page, whereas dhclient connects and works.)

Also, if you disconnect either using wicd, or ceni and go through the process of reconnecting they each run the command iwlist scan and those results are shown as all available wireless essid's available around you, or you can disconnect and as root in terminal run iwlist scan and you will be able to see the same info, what you need to look at is what channel each of those other essid's are using, I have found that most people use the default channel on their routers, looking at your essid and the channel your using.

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wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"MY_NETWORK" Nickname:"default"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:18:49:42:84:3F

You are using channel 6 (2.437)which is one of the three non-overlapping channels, so try either channel 1 or 11 if the following applies.

It could be that interference may be causing disconnections. If you do find too many essid's on your channel, then you need to go into your router's setup page and change to a different channel, to see if it improves connectivity.

Also as rokytnji mentioned, wireless b is much older and weaker, it would certainly help your ul and dl speeds to upgrade to a wireless g or n router if that is an option for you.

edit: as Dolphin_Oracle states below also keep in mind that wireless b is subject to interference from microwave ovens, cordless phones, baby monitors and Bluetooth Devices.

cheers,
oldhoghead

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2010-01-07 14:51

ohh makes a good point about channels. the default on linksys routers is 6. I changed mine sometime ago to avoid interference with my cordless phone (at the time, operated in this same"junk" frequency range as WIFI - everytime the phone ringed, I got kicked off my net connection).

Mephisto · posted: 2010-01-11 05:46

Hi guys,

I changed the router default channel to 11 and still was not able to get a connection; then I started playing with Mepis network manager settings and rebooted my machine and then I got no more signals to connect. I did many changes trying to get any signal to read without success.

I ended reinstalling Antix and I used native linux driver (adm8211) with the same behavior as in the beginning of this post (I did that to verify that my wireless card was still"working"). I reinstalled the windows driver (which is/was used in Win98 and WinXP) but still was not able to get no signal anymore.

This is the output of dmesg:

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ndiswrapper version 1.53 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=yes)
ndiswrapper: driver net2635w (SMC Networks Inc.,09/07/2003, 1.80.907.2003) loaded
ndiswrapper 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
ndiswrapper 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ndiswrapper 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
ndiswrapper (NdisMAllocateMapRegisters:971): Windows driver net2635w requesting too many (1200) map registers
ndiswrapper: using IRQ 11
wlan0: ethernet device 00:04:e2:86:be:91 using serialized NDIS driver: net2635w, version: 0x10050, NDIS version: 0x500, vendor: 'SMC2635W 11Mbps Wireless Cardbus Adapter', 1317:8201.5.conf
ndiswrapper (set_ndis_auth_mode:626): setting auth mode to 3 failed (00000001)
wlan0: encryption modes supported: none
usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
fuse init (API version 7.9)
NET: Registered protocol family 10
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

Any suggestions are very welcome!