On Sun, 17 May 2009 22:16:27 -0600, Chuck McKinnis wrote:
>Carl Gehr wrote:
>> 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!
>>
>
>I am currently the technical coordinator for the AARP TaxAide program in
>the Albuquerque area. During the last tax season, we had about 15 sites
>with Linksys routers and had problems in at least 1/3 of the sites, all
>with WinXP networks. Needless to say, I am not a big Linksys fan.
>
>Are you sure that the router has the latest Linksys firmware? That was
>an issue in a couple of the failing sites.
Yes, it's the latest firmware. If anything, I almost suspect the
latest firmware that I installed several months before this started.
The 'problem' is that this disconnect behavior did not start immeiately
after the upgrade.
Also, as I mentioned, the problem occurs when I am in other locations
where the router and the rest of the local network is completely
different.
>Have you tried powering the router off and on? In some of my failures,
>that did the trick.
Yes, I do this occasionally. Very rarely does it help.
>Have you looked to see if DD-WRT has firmware for your router model?
>http://www.dd-wrt.com/ On some models, the DD-WRT firmware is far
>superior to the Linksys firmware.
I've not investigated DD-WRT. But, again, I'm hesitant to suspect the
router.
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