Intermittent Internet connection drops
Hi to all,
Here's my story: I'm running Debian Sid (Unstable), with a custom 2.6.5 Kernel on a Sony Vaio Laptop PCG-K13Q. I connect to Internet through a wireless Netgear routeur using either the integrated Atheros wifi card or my PCMCIA Netgear MA401 wireless card. I prefer to use the Netgear card because it gives me a far stronger signal everywhere in the house. The problem is that I experience some intermittent Internet connection drops or big slowdowns with the Netgear card. It may be when I start the computer or at any time when I'm browsing on the Net. My wife, who also have a Netgear card on his Windoze Me laptop, doesn't have this problem, so I guess that this is not a ISP/router problem. When the problem occurs, I can still access the wireless router internal html configuration wizard without problems. So this does not seem to be a problem with the wireless connection between the laptop and the router. After some search, I thought that it could be a MTU related problem, so I tried various MTU settings, without success... I now suspect that it may be a DHCP or a DNS related problem, but I don't know how to handle this... Someone has an idea of what could be the problem? Thanks for your help. -- Here's the content of my /etc/pcmcia/network.opts file, by which the connection with the Netgear card is configured: # Network adapter configuration # # The address format is "scheme,socket,instance,hwaddr". # # Note: the "network address" here is NOT the same as the IP address. # See the Networking HOWTO. In short, the network address is the IP # address masked by the netmask. # case "$ADDRESS" in *,*,*,*) INFO="Sample private network setup" # Transceiver selection, for some cards -- see 'man ifport' IF_PORT="" # Use BOOTP (via /sbin/bootpc, or /sbin/pump)? [y/n] #BOOTP="y" # Use DHCP (via /sbin/dhcpcd, /sbin/dhclient, or /sbin/pump)? [y/n] DHCP="y" #PUMP="y" # If you need to explicitly specify a hostname for DHCP requests #DHCP_HOSTNAME="" # Use PPP over Ethernet (via the pppoe package)? [y/n] PPPOE="n" # Use WHEREAMI (via the whereami package)? [y/n] WHEREAMI="n" # Host's IP address, netmask, network address, broadcast address #IPADDR="" #NETMASK="255.255.255.0" #NETWORK="10.0.1.0" #BROADCAST="10.0.1.255" # Gateway address for static routing #GATEWAY="10.0.1.1" # Things to add to /etc/resolv.conf for this interface DOMAIN="" SEARCH="" # The nameserver IP addresses specified here complement the # nameservers already defined in /etc/resolv.conf. These nameservers # will be added to /etc/resolv.conf automatically when the PCMCIA # network connection is established and removed from this file when # the connection is broken. DNS_1="" DNS_2="" DNS_3="" # NFS mounts, should be listed in /etc/fstab MOUNTS="" # If you need to override the interface's MTU... MTU="" #MTU="1468" # For IPX interfaces, the frame type and network number IPX_FRAME="" IPX_NETNUM="" # Run ipmasq? [y/n] (see the Debian ipmasq package) IPMASQ="n" # Extra stuff to do after setting up the interface start_fn () { return; } # Extra stuff to do before shutting down the interface stop_fn () { return; } # Card eject policy options NO_CHECK=n NO_FUSER=n ;; esac # This tries to use Debian's network setup in /etc/network/interfaces # if no settings are given higher up in this file. You can delete it # if that isn't desired. # #is_true $DHCLIENT || \ #is_true $PUMP || is_true $BOOTP || is_true $DHCP || \ #[ -x /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug ] || \ #if [ -z "$IPADDR" -a -f /etc/network/interfaces ] ; then # INFO="Debian network setup" # start_fn () { # log /sbin/ifup $1 # } # stop_fn () { # log /sbin/ifdown $1 # } #fi |
Well, it seems that there is something happening with the "Tx packets". Here's the output of "ifconfig eth2" when the connection is in the intermittent slowdown mode describe in my previous post :
ifconfig eth2 eth2 Lien encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:09:5B:25:F4:B5 inet adr:192.168.0.3 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Masque:25 5.255.255.0 adr inet6: fe80::209:5bff:fe25:f4b5/64 Scope:Lien UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:5348 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame: 0 TX packets:5485 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrie r:0 collisions:0 lg file transmission:1000 RX bytes:3890601 (3.7 MiB) TX bytes:1112274 (1.0 Mi B) Interruption:3 Adresse de base:0x100 What's the meaning of "... TX packets:5485 errors:2..."? Any idea someone? Thanks. |
Solution
Ok, after a long fight, here's what I found: the problem was with my Netgear MR814 router. The solution: downgrade (yes, you read downgrade!) the firmware from 4.14 RC4 to 4.13 version.
Everything's working fine since 2 weeks now. |
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