[SOLVED] Unstable connection wireless N with Linux Mint 13

Questions about Wi-Fi and other network devices, file sharing, firewalls, connection sharing etc
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
Geof3010

[SOLVED] Unstable connection wireless N with Linux Mint 13

Post by Geof3010 »

Hi everybody,

Fist of all I want to say that I am a total newbie and that I have very few technical knowledge on Linux. So please forgive me if I say incorrect things or lack obvious concepts.

2 weeks ago I installed Linux Mint 13 Maya XFCE 4 as a dual boot with windows 7. I basically fell in love with this OS: everything was quite simply going twice as fast as Windows, especially everything internet-related.

4 days ago my 6 years-old router died so I went to buy a new one and got a linksys e1500 router. Obviously my old router was B/G and the new one is B/G/N. I installed and set up the new router: everything was pretty quick and straight forward.

I had no troubles setting up the WiFI connection between my linux computer and the new router but I noticed that my wireless connection would fail systematically after few minutes. So I started to investigate: I will try to detail all the facts:

1) when the failure occurs, the browser fails to load the internet pages.. If I disconnect from my home network and reconnect again, then I get internet back for another few minutes..
2) I realized it was strictly a linux mint problem since while my WIFI connection was not working on my linux computer, my laptop (running windows) and tablet had perfect WIFI connections..
3) When I booted the computer with windows 7, I had absolutely no issues of instability for the wireless connection. That way I knew it was not a problem between my WIFI adapter PCI card and the new router.
4) I then started to suspect of the WIFI N, just because my old router was B/G and that I had no issues with linux before. I changed the Wireless configuration to B/G mode and the instability problems went away immediately !!!

So I understand that the problems resides in the WIFI N connection: that is pretty annoying since I would love obviously to be able to enjoy a faster connection with WIFI N.

I would be very thankful if any of you could give me a hand with this problem !!!

I read that I should publish the following details:

Code: Select all

-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
  -- Ralink corp. RT2800 802.11n PCI
      ==> PCI ID = 1814:0601
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"ManuVeroBsAs"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 20:AA:4B:C1:18:FA   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=38/70  Signal level=-72 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:36  Invalid misc:156   Missed beacon:0

eth0      no wireless extensions.

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 6c:f0:49:84:e7:a4  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:44 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:766 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:766 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:22338 (22.3 KB)  TX bytes:22338 (22.3 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1f:1f:4f:02:80  
          inet addr:192.168.1.117  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21f:1fff:fe4f:280/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:245570 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:381449 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:170943696 (170.9 MB)  TX bytes:241470743 (241.4 MB)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service smbd reload

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the reload(8) utility, e.g. reload smbd
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
Server:		8.8.8.8
Address:	8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:	google.com
Address: 173.194.74.101
Name:	google.com
Address: 173.194.74.138
Name:	google.com
Address: 173.194.74.139
Name:	google.com
Address: 173.194.74.113
Name:	google.com
Address: 173.194.74.102
Name:	google.com
Address: 173.194.74.100
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Top
remoulder
Level 17
Level 17
Posts: 7621
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 1:14 pm

Re: Unstable connection wireless N with Linux Mint 13

Post by remoulder »

As a test try doing in a terminal

Code: Select all

sudo rmmod -f rt2800pci
sudo modprobe rt2800pci nohwcrypt=Y
If there's any difference you can make it permanent with

Code: Select all

echo "options rt2800pci nohwcrypt=Y" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rt2800pci.conf
[Edit] your original post and add [SOLVED] once your question is resolved.

“The people are my God” stressing the factor determining man’s destiny lies within man not in anything outside man, and thereby defining man as the dominator and remoulder of the world.
Top
Geof3010

Re: Unstable connection wireless N with Linux Mint 13

Post by Geof3010 »

Remoulder: I tried your test but still had the instability issue with WIFI N.

Thanks anyway !!
Top
Geof3010

Re: Unstable connection wireless N with Linux Mint 13

Post by Geof3010 »

Hi everybody:

I solved the instability problem I was having with WIFI N. The problem was with the driver of my wireless Ralink card and the RT2800 module of linux. This fix also greatly improved my wireless link quality (from less than 50% to close to 100% all the time)

I actually found the solution on another forum: I just followed the instructions and it worked like a charm. Please follow the link below if you experience the same kind of issues:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1958059

Cheers..
Top
pjcamp

Re: [SOLVED] Unstable connection wireless N with Linux Mint

Post by pjcamp »

Compiling and installing the 2860 driver seems to be the right answer. My wireless connection was going half way down every 5 minutes or so. By that I mean that it claimed to be still connected but was unable to do DNS lookups until I disconnected and reconnected.

Just a couple of minor notes. Where the linked instructions say "download RA2860" they mean "download RT2860." Also, once you have done that, you'll have a file that claims to be bzip compressed (extension .bz2). It isn't. It is gzip compressed and misnamed. You'll need to change the extension from .bz2 to .gz, then decompress it using gzip, and then untar it.
Top
Locked

Return to “Networking”