Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT - Yet Again
On Monday, 2 August 2021 12:31:58 BST PeterMerchant wrote: > Is there a program that displays Wifi signal strength? - Yeah - iwconfig! Also, wavemon does the same thing in a pseudo graphical way and updates at intervals. Very useful when testing antenna positioning. -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT - Yet Again
On 02/08/2021 10:04, Terry Coles wrote: On Monday, 2 August 2021 09:57:47 BST PeterMerchant wrote: It is an interesting question. On my PC which has a 4M cable to a wifi dongle hanging in a window, and on the same side of the house as the router, but diagonal far corner. (Downstairs west of house to upstairs east of house) Coo. That's a bit drastic. Have you considered installing a WiFI Extender somewhere between the Router and the PC? As I mention there is a Wifi Extender in the room below, which of course means the signal going through wooden floors. The Wireless printer beside the PC is connected to the Wifi extender. I used to use a powerline adapter for the PC, but the Wifi is faster. Years ago my experiments gave me the best signal in this position, so I have never retested, even though I have a different dongle now. I think(?) that my impression is that a direct connection to the router is faster than via the Wifi extender - More tests needed. I guess that I am working on the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' principle. Peter. Is there a program that displays Wifi signal strength? - Yeah - iwconfig! P. -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT - Yet Again
On Monday, 2 August 2021 09:57:47 BST PeterMerchant wrote: > It is an interesting question. On my PC which has a 4M cable to a wifi > dongle hanging in a window, and on the same side of the house as the > router, but diagonal far corner. (Downstairs west of house to upstairs east > of house) Coo. That's a bit drastic. Have you considered installing a WiFI Extender somewhere between the Router and the PC? -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT - Yet Again
On 02/08/2021 06:51, Terry Coles wrote: On Sunday, 1 August 2021 18:53:22 BST Tim wrote: Has a new Wifi to the area appeared and is swamping music and bells wifi, thus forcing it off line? I'm not aware of anything like that. In any case the five Tiny-TV Pis (which are all further from the Antenna) would also be affected. The site is in a fairly sparsely populated area with a field and cricket ground behind, a few houses either side and the Minster across the road. Could you setup a simple ping script to a router or something similar and i it fails to get a reply then it reboot the PI? I'm looking into doing something like that at the moment. The latest suggestion is to turn off WiFI and then turn it back on again, if the ping response fails. I need to be careful; if the script has an error, I may never get the WiFi back up. That would need someone on site to fix it. It is an interesting question. On my PC which has a 4M cable to a wifi dongle hanging in a window, and on the same side of the house as the router, but diagonal far corner. (Downstairs west of house to upstairs east of house) I get the following: wlx000c4300d317 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"Ashmeads-downstairs" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 78:65:59:4C:0F:45 Bit Rate=21.7 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off Link Quality=25/70 Signal level=-85 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:312 Invalid misc:216 Missed beacon:0 and repeated goes: Tx excessive retries:312 Invalid misc:220 Missed beacon:0 Tx excessive retries:312 Invalid misc:236 Missed beacon:0 The only other difference that I notice in the results is a changing Bit Rate from 19.5 to 52 Mb/s. possibly nothing of interest or help in here, but I do have Wifi freezes occasionally. I'll keep an eye on them in future. Note that the Wifi is connected to the router and not to the TP-Link Wifi extender directly below. Net Analyzer shows TP-Link Extender sig strength -36dBm against Router @ -62dBm and three others at -79, -84, -89 though these values keep fluctuating. I think Tp-link extender and router are on Channel 1 and others on different channels, though as I move the device I now have 8 Wifi signals on different channels. Peter -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT - Yet Again
On Sunday, 1 August 2021 18:53:22 BST Tim wrote: > Has a new Wifi to the area appeared and is swamping music and bells > wifi, thus forcing it off line? I'm not aware of anything like that. In any case the five Tiny-TV Pis (which are all further from the Antenna) would also be affected. The site is in a fairly sparsely populated area with a field and cricket ground behind, a few houses either side and the Minster across the road. > Could you setup a simple ping script to a router or something similar > and i it fails to get a reply then it reboot the PI? I'm looking into doing something like that at the moment. The latest suggestion is to turn off WiFI and then turn it back on again, if the ping response fails. I need to be careful; if the script has an error, I may never get the WiFi back up. That would need someone on site to fix it. -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT - Yet Again
Has a new Wifi to the area appeared and is swamping music and bells wifi, thus forcing it off line? Could you setup a simple ping script to a router or something similar and i it fails to get a reply then it reboot the PI? Does not solve the issue but keep it running Tim H On 01/08/2021 09:33, Terry Coles wrote: On Sunday, 1 August 2021 08:12:03 BST Terry Coles wrote: This system will of course reboot in an hours time. If that restores connectivity, we can probably live with the situation, but I'd really like to know what is going on. Well. The reboot worked and I am now in again. The main mystery now is why history shows that after a Power Cycle the system stays up for 2-3 days, but it stayed up for less than 24 hrs after yesterday's scheduled reboot.. Maybe the wind in the trees that partially screen the WiFi Antenna? possibly, but the gale force winds of a couple of days ago didn't take it down. Any other ideas? -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT - Yet Again
On Sunday, 1 August 2021 08:12:03 BST Terry Coles wrote: > This system will of course reboot in an hours time. If that restores > connectivity, we can probably live with the situation, but I'd really like > to know what is going on. Well. The reboot worked and I am now in again. The main mystery now is why history shows that after a Power Cycle the system stays up for 2-3 days, but it stayed up for less than 24 hrs after yesterday's scheduled reboot.. Maybe the wind in the trees that partially screen the WiFi Antenna? possibly, but the gale force winds of a couple of days ago didn't take it down. Any other ideas? -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT
On Thursday, 24 June 2021 13:19:50 BST Terry Coles wrote: > On Thursday, 24 June 2021 10:49:42 BST Terry Coles wrote: > > Any thoughts on what I could do to diagnose this problem? > > Someone on the Raspberry Pi Forums has resurrected the WMM Power suggestion. > Apparently this has been known to cause problems in the past. The thing is > that the suggestion is to turn off power saving, but I'm not sure how to do > this. I know that the Windows Driver has support for the control, but I > have no idea whether the Linux Kernel driver supports it. > > How would I find out? The proper way to do this is apparently to use iwconfig. Send the command: pi@minster-music:~ $ sudo iwconfig wlan0 wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"WMT-Guest" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: C4:E9:84:26:E7:00 Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:on Link Quality=32/70 Signal level=-78 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:8948 Missed beacon:0 As you can see Power Management is marked as on. Then use sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off: pi@minster-music:~ $ sudo iwconfig wlan0 wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"WMT-Guest" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: C4:E9:84:26:E7:00 Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality=32/70 Signal level=-78 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:9014 Missed beacon:0 -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-07-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT
On 24/06/2021 14:14, PeterMerchant wrote:
On 24/06/2021 13:19, Terry Coles wrote:
On Thursday, 24 June 2021 10:49:42 BST Terry Coles wrote:
Any thoughts on what I could do to diagnose this problem?
Someone on the Raspberry Pi Forums has resurrected the WMM Power suggestion.
Apparently this has been known to cause problems in the past. The thing is
that the suggestion is to turn off power saving, but I'm not sure how to do
this. I know that the Windows Driver has support for the control, but I have
no idea whether the Linux Kernel driver supports it.
How would I find out?
Have found this:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=138731
But don't know if it is still relevant in current wifi configs.
Peter
In my current setup the Wifi config is in
rootfs/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf which you need root privileges
to edit.
That file looks like in my config:
peterm@peterm-MBB-34204H:/media/peterm/rootfs/etc/wpa_supplicant$ sudo cat
wpa_supplicant.conf
[sudo] password for peterm:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=GB
network={
ssid="bmth-wireless"
psk="my-key"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
--
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Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT
On Thursday, 24 June 2021 14:14:10 BST PeterMerchant wrote: > Have found this: > > https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=138731 > > But don't know if it is still relevant in current wifi configs. That look promising. I'll check it out the next time I get access to the Pi. Thanks. -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-07-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT
On 24/06/2021 13:19, Terry Coles wrote: On Thursday, 24 June 2021 10:49:42 BST Terry Coles wrote: Any thoughts on what I could do to diagnose this problem? Someone on the Raspberry Pi Forums has resurrected the WMM Power suggestion. Apparently this has been known to cause problems in the past. The thing is that the suggestion is to turn off power saving, but I'm not sure how to do this. I know that the Windows Driver has support for the control, but I have no idea whether the Linux Kernel driver supports it. How would I find out? Have found this: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=138731 But don't know if it is still relevant in current wifi configs. Peter -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-07-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] WiFi Still Dropping Out at WMT
On Thursday, 24 June 2021 10:49:42 BST Terry Coles wrote: > Any thoughts on what I could do to diagnose this problem? Someone on the Raspberry Pi Forums has resurrected the WMM Power suggestion. Apparently this has been known to cause problems in the past. The thing is that the suggestion is to turn off power saving, but I'm not sure how to do this. I know that the Windows Driver has support for the control, but I have no idea whether the Linux Kernel driver supports it. How would I find out? -- Terry Coles -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-07-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
