I want to begin by saying that my wireless network works almost perfectly. There is one problem I have left. I need some insight from someone who has experienced this problem, and has cured it.

When either of my laptops sit for fifteen minutes without any data flow through the wireless network, said network stops operating. I am fairly sure it's a question of the wireless adapter going into some sort of sleep mode. The problem is, once it goes to sleep, it's more like it goes into a coma. The only thing that I have found that will bring it out of this state is to reboot the system. That can be highly inconvenient when I am in the middle of writing an essay or article.

About the only way I can keep this problem from rearing its ugly head is to log into an internet radio site. That keeps a constant flow of packets, which keeps the wireless network from going into a coma. While it's a workable solution since I have a few internet radio sites I visit, keeping the data flowing tends to slow down other things going across the network. I'd much prefer a more Windoze-like operation from my wireless network under Linux.

Blessed be!
Pappy

Hello

You might try this: http://linux.die.net/man/8/iwconfig (see the "power" parameter).

Bye

Koen Plessers

...I'll check that out and let you know if it gets me to a place where my wireless network doesn't crap out at incredibly inconvenient times.

Blessed be!
Pappy

The suggestion of looking at iwconfig was definitely the key to this problem. What I did was simply generate a script that invokes iwconfig and sets certain parameters, such as power mode, and encryption key. It's a down and dirty little script that I also set up to be called while working in KDE.

I have tested it on both of my laptops and it works quickly. It brings the wireless network back up in very short order. I am going to keep testing it to make sure it's not just a fluke. Once it passes that muster, I'd be more than happy to set it up and make it available for others who have the same problem.

I think I am going to work on the documentation as soon as I finish this posting.

Blessed be!
Pappy

The testing has been completed. The icon is done. The documentation is done. It has been turned into a .tar.zg archive, and it has been uploaded to the Linux page of my website. Go to my website and click where it says The Linux Project. Then just look for the pink arrows pointing the way to wl_restore 0.01, the script I wrote that accomplishes my goal of restoring a wireless network connection under Linux when the adapter goes to sleep, or goes comatose, depending on how you look at it.

It's not a compiled program, and it's probably not the most well written script, either. However, it has proved to be one hundred percent effective in bringing a brain-dead wireless adapter back to full functionality. Ironically enough, I had to click that icon right before I logged into this site. And I am relatively sure that if the connection croaks again, I'll be able to pop it back up again.

I offer this script in the spirit of Linux and the GNU project, free to whoever needs to use it. I hope everyone finds it as useful and helpful as I have in the past few days of scrutiny. All I ask in return is you let me know if it helped you out.

Some quick notes:
1) The package includes the customizable script, read me and install instructions, a sample text file, and a custom icon for use under X-Windows. As a matter of fact, that little icon is right next to the KDE Start button on my machines.
2) While the script was written under Slackware, I see no reason to think it wouldn't work for other distributions.
3) It depends completely upon the Linux package wireless-tools. Some distributions come with it already on your install disk. If yours doesn't, you can get to the wireless-tools project page by following this link.

Blessed be!
Pappy