Pardon the long post, but I'm trying to provide all I know to minimize
the need for follow up questions.
I have been experiencing an on-going problem for several months where
the connection between my TPad T60, eCS 2.0 RC2 + updates, Widget
xWLan,... and my Linksys AP unexpectedly just drops. The exact problem
has several manifestations:
* The LED indicator that the radio is ON will begin blinking, usually
starting with a slow blink, gradually increasing until the widget
eventually shows that it is no longer connected, but "Searching
for a connection with the current profile." At this point, I can
often move the 'radio switch' under the lower-left of the KB OFF/ON
and the connection will be re-established.
* OTOH, if I miss the blinking and it goes on too long, the blinking
stops; the LED light is OFF; the 'Searching...' continues, but there
is no way to get the connection back without a re-boot. The
physical
switch OFF/ON does nothing.
* Sometimes, though, rather than blinking, the LED light is on solid;
the xWLan is 'Searching...'; but again, the physical switch does
nothing; and a re-boot is required to recover the connection.
In the first case, where a recovery is possible, the system will just
continue to run as usual. In the latter two cases, most of the time
the system will continue to do anything except a function that requires
the network connection. Less often, with the latter two cases, eCenter
may become inoperative [e.g., the CPU Pulse stops working] and attempts
to use eCenter to open a new application from a drawer, to restore
focus to a window or just to re-boot, may end up locking the whole
system. The only 'recovery' in this case is to Power OFF/ON the whole
system.
Five other pertinent points:
* When the connection is lost, looking at the lights on the front
of the Router/AP, shows the 'Wireless' light as ON. This says
to me that the AP is active. Also, this AP is cable connected to
my primary router that actually has the connection to the Internet.
PINGs from a PC that is directly connected to that primary router
gets responses from the WiFi Router/AP. Recycling the power on the
AP does not help with this problem.
* If I move the TPad to a docking station that has a wired connection
to the primary router, I can switch to the wired connection and
continue operating. BUT, an attempt to switch back to the Wireless
link does not see the AP.
* Thinking the above was a hardware problem, and since the TPad is
still under warranty, the WiFi card and the system board have both
been replaced. No change in behavior with the new hardware.
* I have also booted to a USB Flash install of Linux. While that
system also experiences the 'flashing LED' for the WiFi radio,
I have never experienced a case of the connection completely
dropping
such that it requires a re-boot to get back on-line.
* I have used this TPad at other locations that have WiFi APs. I
have seen the same eCS behavior - flashing LED and lost connections
-
at those sites also.
I can only conclude, therefore, that it is something with:
a) eCS or one of its components.
b) xWLan losing its way and not being able to see the AP.
The questions are:
1) Why is this happening?
2) Is there some documentation that I can provide to a network
guru that will help answer #1? I obviously have no clue!
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