[clug] Raspberry Pi WLAN issues

[Brians]

I have used several raspberrypi and after reading about a myriad of 
problems caused by bad 5V power supplies, I always make sure the RPI 
power supply is a minimum of 5V, 2A.

Try connecting an externally powered USB hub and if the flaky behavior 
goes away then it was probably the power supply.

I now use an external powered 2A, 7 USB hub from Bunnings (~$30) for my 
demo unit and either of the two USB wifi adapters from Jaycar.

Brian



On 27/05/14 22:43, Jessica Smith wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I work in a college environment, where people are doing interesting things
> with RPis to engage students. We have a fairly typical enterprise-type
> network environment, with all the joys and tears pertaining thereto…
>
> We have an RPi that is giving one of the IT teachers some grief, and I took
> a quick look at it today. He's trying to get it connecting via wifi using a
> USB wifi dongle, and it seems to be… somewhat flaky. Using the wifi
> config util (GUI), sometimes nearby networks are discovered and displayed,
> sometimes not. When attempting to connect to the desired WLAN (802.1x, all
> settings correct), it will appear to connect, then drop. Occasionally, the
> wifi config util seems to lose the WLAN0 interface altogether, and only a
> reboot restores (wlan0 down/up doesn't fix).
>
> I'm thinking flaky adapter, and am arranging to swap out the adapter, but
> it's possible/probable I'm missing something obvious. The RPi is running
> Raspbian.
>
> Does this sound like a flaky adapter to y'all, or is there a known
> flakiness in support for USB wifi adapters in Raspbian that's unknown to
> me? (I don't know what chipset the dongle is running, but can find out.) Is
> it likely an issue with the RPi not having correct datetime set? (I didn't
> check this today but will tomorrow.) If a time problem, how do people
> usually manage this without access to an NTP server until after connecting…?
>
> Any other troubleshooting suggestions much appreciated.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jessica
>