[clug] Flaky wireless

[Ben Nizette]

On Mon, 2009-11-16 at 12:17 +1100, Adam Baxter wrote:
> My logs are getting filled with the following:
> [  145.764062] wlan0: deauthenticated (Reason: 7)
> [  147.780276] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1b:xx:xx:xx:xx try 1
> [  147.782821] wlan0 direct probe responded
> [  147.782843] wlan0: authenticate with AP
> [  147.785784] wlan0: authenticated
> [  147.785800] wlan0: associate with AP
> [  147.788354] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from  (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
> [  147.788372] wlan0: associated
> 
> 
> And then I lose the connection to/from my box for 5 minutes (strangely
> enough it's the FitPC...)
> 
> I can't find any solid info on what "Reason 7" is. I'm wondering whether
> it's my access point playing up as my Macbook occasionally used to lose the
> connection for a similar amount of time (and it couldn't see the AP)
> 
> I've tested both with the internal card (rt3090 driver) and an external USB
> stick (rt2x00). Both are similarly flaky.
> Any ideas?

My reflex here is to grep through kernel source but the only rt3090
driver upstream is an experimental thing which doesn't include the same
error strings :-(

Authentication is done at the driver level and the fact that it happens
with different devices (and different drivers) indicates to me that it
is indeed an AP problem.  Deauthentication happens automatically after 1
second of inactivity and ISTR it's up to the AP to keep pinging the
world with suitable activity to keep it's clients interested; my guess
is that you AP don't know what time it is

	--Ben.